Centre’s divide and rue policy
Dec. 10: The Congress, stirred to a panic by resignations of Andhra Pradesh MLAs and an MP in Delhi, seems to have decided to keep its decision on a separate state of Telangana on hold at a meeting of senior party leaders with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi late on Thursday evening.
The Centre’s move has stirred Congress MPs and legislators from the rest of Andhra Pradesh to near revolt. Indications of this simmering anger were evident in the resignation of a sitting Lok Sabha member (yet to be accepted by the Speaker) and threats of resignation from half a dozen MPs.
With the political backlash from other regions of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra Pradesh intensifying, the Congress reviewed its announcement of late Wednesday night to kickstart the process of forming a separate state.
The meeting, at Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s 10, Janpath residence, lasted about 20 minutes and was attended by Union ministers, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Mr P. Chidambaram, Mr A.K Antony, Mr M. Veerappa Moily and Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel. Highly placed sources said the party had decided to put the issue on the backburner until a consensus was formed in AP. “If the state Assembly cannot pass a resolution, how can we move forward on the issue,” a senior Congress leader said.
Pressure had come in from its own Congress MPs with Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal resigning and many others meeting the Congress president to persuade the Centre not to go ahead. The leaders said the issues of Hyderabad as the state capital of Telangana and water sharing would emerge as the contentious issues.
The Congress, it appears, does not want to precipitate the political crisis and will wait for the state government’s report before going for further action.
This is the first political crisis faced by UPA II after returning to power at the Centre in May this year, but it has handled this in a panicked way. A senior minister compared this with the Kandahar plane hijack episode during the tenure of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
The Union government remained silent for nearly 10 days on Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s fast; it acted only at the last minute, after the BJP provoked others to appeal and support Mr Rao in the Lok Sabha the other day.
“We have sharp political brains like Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh, but nobody seems to have been consulted on this issue,” said CWC sources. Mr Mukherjee was said to have been informed about the decision late Wednesday night. Congress managers are unable to explain why the Union government wanted to make K. Chandrashekhar Rao the “Father of Telangana”.
“If we are really convinced about carving out a separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, then we should go ahead and evolve a consensus. But the Centre’s move has made KCR a hero. He set the agenda and the Centre is following it,” party insiders felt.
According to them, the agitation on the Telangana issue gained momentum only after a section of the Congress “actively” helped the TRS and Naxalites. They brought students into the agitation and provoked state government employees.
But the Centre and the high command were completely unaware of their designs, party insiders said. “If the late Y.S Rajasekhar Reddy could check the TRS on the Telangana state issue in Telangana region itself, why cannot the new leadership,” they asked .
Congress managers are now employing diversionary tactics and passing the buck on to the Telugu Desam Party and others. “They will be fully exposed because they are changing their stand on Telangana,” they said.
Well placed sources in the Congress said a new state would not be created so early. Besides, the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, too, is sharply divided, they pointed out.
This means a blame game will begin in the coming days. The Congress will blame the TDP for changing its stance and the BJP will try to put the Congress in the dock for adopting dilly-dallying tactics.
The Centre’s attempt to make K. Chandrashekhar Rao a hero in a decision driven by fear is not going down well. Union minister and AICC leader in charge of Andhra Pradesh M. Veerappa Moily on Wednesday talked to the party MPs from the state individually to elicit their views on bifurcating the state. “But he did not tell us the high command’s thinking. We came to know of this only at midnight,” insiders said and asking who was misleading the leadership.
If senior Congress leaders and MPs are to be believed, a new state would not be carved out early. “We have four-and-a-half years, let us wait. What is the hurry,” they said.
Latest Comments
Ok guys! Telangana agrees KCR is hungry for power. But what answer do you all have for Chandrababu, Chiranjeevi and Jagan? Shame on all of you guys, KCR at least declared since day one that his party is only for Telangana, but CBN, Chiranjeevi, YSR, JC all said they are for separate Telangana during elections and what about now? Hahaha the most worst politicians in the history of India. Even Central ministers are surprised by the double standards. If all these leaders did not promise separate Telangana Sonia Gandhi would not have declared separate Telangana. Andhra people have no right to burn effigies of KCR. First burn your leaders's effigies for agreeing for a separate Telangana and ditching your Telugu brothers on the other side then come to negotiations with Telangana people, but first ask your power hungry leaders.
KCR promised Telangana and whatever he did he did for the promise he made, your leaders should have killed the promise in 2004, ok not then why did they did again in 2009?
So please think and post, be educated and educate.
Maybe India is too big to be managed by one central government. Lets divide it into North, Sourth, East, West and elect separate President, Prime Ministers.
This guy (KCR) is one among many opportunist political actors. He never found that Telangana was being ignored developing in agriculture, industry and educationally. Even people from this region were not given their fair share in jobs while he was minister in TD. People did not support him or for Telangana in recent AP Assembly and general election. I am from Hyderabad and hope that at least now the state and Central government start development projects specially in Telangana (good roads, healthy drinking water, proper power supply at reasonable tariff, and we would like see a united and prosperous AP and dump politically such jokers forever.
People need to think before reaching such decisions hastily. If a politician goes on fast to get what he wants, then he is setting a very bad example. He needs to build public support and not resort to such tactics. Did he ever once ask his people not to riot, not to burn down public property and lost of tax payer money. If he is really concerned about the development of certain region, it is clearly not going to come by destroying public property. Hyderabad has not always been developed or the IT hub. People have worked hard to make that happen. By just building separate states one is only going to make the problem more complicated. Do you think the so called andhras and rayalseema people are going to be remain quiet. There will all sorts of conflicts and will hinder the development of the region itself.
Chandrasekhar Rao is a great tactical politician. He was humiliated by last election results and wanted to bring his party glory back. So he started a drama of fasting. Chandrababu wanted to gain in election and so he said he would extend his support for separate state. BJP felt it can gain some political mileage by saying that it would support separate state. We can blame both BJP and Chandrababu for this Crisis. I am sure Chandrsekar can do nothing without Chandrababu and BJP support. People you have your own mind, at minimum you got to speak out now. History has shown many times division on emotional basis never brought prosperity. Even a powerful country like Russia fell down after it had been divided. Let the wisdom guide us all and do not let the emotions injected by politicians influence us. Tell every politician what you really think is good for all.
Guys I am from Hyderabad and from Telangana but I support for United Andhra Pradesh. We all know what kind of person KCR is and he is doing this just for political hunger to become CM of Telangana. Who is Sonia to decide about our state or our CM? Congress leaders from AP should be strong and bold as you are sent to Parliament by a common man and you got to think about us. How many MPs do we have from AP in our central cabinet - 1 or 2. And also state leaders in AP should start developing Telangana region and develop projects to give more water to Telangana region. Most of you are aware that farmers from Andhra or Rayalaseema or richer than farmers from Telangana and this should change. I really feel bad that this kind of Telangana and Andhra feeling has now taken centrestage and this is not good for telugus worldwide. We should all be united and fight for our Andhra Pradesh state. People who are fighting for separate Telangana state should fight with for developments in Telangana and leaders from telangana region should work harder to uplift the region. After reading and listening to the Andhra agitations I dont think Telangana state would be formed in coming future and people really do not want this to happen.
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