TDP’s ‘sympathy’, NDA-approved
Anonymous sympathy for students, on-record defence of the BJP-led Centre. TDP wants credit both ways — without saying it out loud.
The party’s public position remains on the calendar.
The Telugu Desam Party is trying a neat trick on the NEET protests: feel the students’ pain in private, defend the BJP-led Centre in public, and call it alliance discipline. That is not Telangana’s idea of accountability; it is how you keep Delhi happy and hope the youth forget. According to a report quoting an unnamed TDP leader, the party — “including Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu” — is sympathetic to the protesters because “these are the youth of the country”, and they “should not be treated as a law-and-order issue”. The same leader explained the silence: “We respect the alliance,” and no NDA meeting had been held yet. Another unnamed TDP leader undercut even that line: “We have not had this discussion.” So the sympathy is private, the position is undeclared, and the credit goes to the NDA calendar.
The clearest TDP voice on the record goes the other way. Bapatla MP Krishna Prasad Tenneti said the protests were on the streets because “some people don’t want certain Bills to be taken up in Parliament”, praised the Union government’s “course-correction” and re-exam, and said it needed to be seen who “infiltrated the youth protest.” That is not student-first; that is BJP-first with a conspiracy garnish. Telangana students do not need Andhra’s TDP playing hall monitor for the BJP-led Centre — they need parties that pick a side in daylight. The TDP has not bothered to.