T on track, says Moily

New Delhi, Dec. 25: The Union law minister, Dr M. Veerappa Moily, who is in charge of Congress affairs in Andhra Pradesh, on Friday said, “The Union government has not diluted its stand on Telangana.”

However, the central leaders of the Congress and Union government are reluctant to call on the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, and help him restore peace to the state.

The Congress appears not very keen on sending an emissary ever since trouble started over the Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram’s December 9 midnight statement on the formation of a separate state of Telangana.

On the other hand, Union ministers from the state, who have not been asked yet to tour jointly to douse the fires in the state, appeared clueless about the “official” line.
MPs, legislators, even ministers, stepped up pressure tactics and sent their resignations to the party high command.

While 13 Andhra Pradesh ministers from Telangana region faxed a common resignation letter to the Congress chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Rosaiah is finding it difficult to simultaneously handle the political crisis and the law and order situation.

However, Dr Moily said it was only the “other political parties” in Andhra Pradesh that have made a U-turn on statehood for Telangana after promising to support a resolution in the state Assembly favouring bifurcation.

“They had said they would support a resolution in the Assembly at the all-party meeting convened by chief minister K. Rosaiah on December 7. Now they have made a U-turn,” he charged. “The Union government is not a monarchy. We have to set in the democratic process, and that is possible only through consultations and the government of India is always willing to be a facilitator,” he said, apparently in response to criticism from Telangana activists that the Centre had put the issue on the backburner in the name of consultations.

Mr Moily is holding the “other political parties” responsible for the crisis, ignoring the division on the issue in his own party, a division that came to the fore on the floor of Parliament during the just concluded Winter Session.

The Congress leadership is giving conflicting signals on this issue. If it is convinced about the creation of a Telangana state, it should have convinced people from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra before the home minister’s statement on December 9. But Mr Chidambaram’s second statement, on December 23, clearly concedes: “The situation in Andhra Pradesh has altered. A large number of political parties are divided on the issue. There is a need to hold wide-ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state.”