Hyderabad, December 24: Businesses and shops were shut and vehicles stayed off the roads Thursday in parts of southern India as part of a two-day strike protesting the federal government’s decision to delay the creation of a new state.
Hundreds of armed police and paramilitary troops patrolled the streets in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The strike paralyzed the state capital Hyderabad and several parts of the Telangana area, where the new state is proposed.
After weeks of violent protests and a hunger strike by a senior local leader, the federal government agreed earlier this month to declare a new state called Telangana out of what is now the northern portion of Andhra Pradesh.
Activists in the area had complained it was underdeveloped and ignored by powerful politicians from southern Andhra Pradesh. Demands for a separate state had erupted sporadically since the 1950s.
The decision sparked joy among its supporters but fury from opponents, who flooded the streets, set public buses on fire and clashed with police for three days.
Wednesday night, India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the situation in Andhra Pradesh “has altered” since his initial announcement promising the creation of Telangana.
“A large number of political parties are divided on the issue,” he said. “There is a need to hold wide-ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state.”
Chidambaram’s statement is viewed as a delaying tactic by Telangana supporters. Soon after his comments, hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets burning and damaging dozens of buses.
K. Chandrasekhara Rao, the politician who went on the hunger strike to demand the new state, called the statement, “a betrayal of the people of Telangana.”
“This is an attempt to put Telangana into cold storage. He has used the words ‘wide-ranging consultation with all political parties’ without giving any timeframe. How long this will go on?” Rao said.
The 48-hour strike was called by the Telangana supporters from various political parties.
At least 50 local lawmakers and 11 federal legislators who support the creation of the new state have offered their resignation following Chidambaram’s comments.
Several parts of India — the Bundelkhand region in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha in the western Maharashtra state and Gorkhaland in the eastern West Bengal state — also face similar movements for new states. So far there have been no moves by the government to create separate states there.
India now has 28 states and seven federally administered regions.
–Agencies