Hyderabad, December 28: Eleven Congress MPs are now on the second day of their hunger strike in Andhra Pradesh – they’re taking on their own party which is in power in the state.
The MPs, who are from the Telangana region, began fasting on Monday. They want Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to drop close to 1600 cases against student protestors who fronted a violent campaign last year for a separate Telangana state.
Under considerable pressure, the government has dropped 700 cases so far. It is reluctant to let students accused of arson and other serious charges off the hook.
The debate over whether a new Telangana state should be created is turning aggressive once again as the Srikrishna Committee’s report on the matter is expected before the end of the year. The committee was appointed by the centre to get the viewpoints of all stakeholders, after a political debacle last December. First, the Home Minister, P Chidambaram said a Telangana state would be sanctioned. However, political parties from Andhra Pradesh, under severe pressure from those members who were not from Telangana, quickly withdrew their support for the bifurcation of the state. The Centre was then forced to withdraw its decision and announce that the Srikrishna Committee would be assigned to collect political opinions.
The Telangana controversy has been an emotive and dangerous one, with the Osmania University campus turning into the main battleground. Students are in favour of a new state and spent the early part of this year confronting the police with demonstrations that turned violent virtually everyday.
The Congress leaders from Telangana who are fasting to express their support for student protestors claim that they have shared their reasons in a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi. One of them, Sarve Satyanarayana, said “every good thing has her blessing”.
The Congress MPs also want central security forces sent to Telangana to be withdrawn – they’ve been sent to the region as a precaution against any violence in response to the Srikrishna Committee’s report.
–Agencies