Hyderabad, April 19: After months of holding its cards close to its chest, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) said it was clearly for keeping Andhra Pradesh united. But, in its submission to the Srikrishna panel today, the party included some surprising departures from conventional wisdom.
If division of the state became inevitable, the MIM opposed union territory status for Hyderabad and argued for its inclusion in a Greater Telangana, which would include 10 Telangana and 4 Rayalaseema districts as one state. If this were the case, all the Coastal Andhra districts would be cast together as another new state.
Pundits had until now surmised that the MIM would pitch for union territory status for Hyderabad should the state be divided. That would give strong l e ve r a g e i n Hyderabad, on the strength of the 40 per cent Muslim presence in the capital city. However, the party made a push for the altogether new idea of lumping Telangana and Rayalaseema in a Greater Telangana.
Clearly, the party has its eye on the sizeable Muslim presence in several pockets of the two regions — not including Hyderabad — Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts in Telangana and Kadapa and Kurnool districts in Rayalaseema.
In its representation to the panel, MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said: “In the event of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, our party demands that Hyderabad should become an inseparable part of the new state of Telangana (or Greater Telangana with the inclusion of Rayalaseema). Both Telangana and Rayalaseema regions have closer affinity. Both regions have a sizeable population of minorities, particularly Muslims, compared to Coastal Andhra Pradesh.” Hyderabad should not be made a union territory under any circumstances, he said, because resources generated from the capital city would be needed to make Telangana viable. However, the party said the ideal situation was continuance of status quo, that is, united Andhra Pradesh in the overall interests of the minorities. “Muslims have issues and concerns with regard to the demand for separate statehood for Telangana because of apprehensions regarding their safety, security and socioeconomic well-being,” it said.
The MIM said it did not trust the BJP and the Left and had suspicions about the TRS being a cat’s paw of the BJP. “Muslims feel that a separate Telangana state would largely help the BJP achieve its s ingle-point agenda to grab power from the Congress in the smaller states,’’ the party’s paper said.
While conventionally, the MIM has been seen as a Hyderabad-centric party, its influence in Muslim pockets in all three regions have made it an alluring ally to both the Congress and the TDP. By supporting Samaikya Andhra, and failing which, a Greater Telangana, the party hopes to retain this charm. Accordingly, the MIM’s paper to the panel clearly said bifurcation would dilute the presence of Muslims.
On Hyderabad, the MIM said the people of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema do not have any locus standi to lay claim to the capital city since their regions have no geographical contiguity with it.
“In the event of bifurcation of the state, Telangana without Hyderabad would be geographically, financially and politically unviable.
“Our party feels that the concerns of the people of other regions and other states who have made Hyderabad their abode need to be considered.
–Agencies