New Delhi, January 06: With political parties sticking to their split opinion on statehood for Telangana, the Centre is mulling options on the “mechanism” for further consultations on the vexed issue.
Sources said the government could form a Cabinet sub-committee comprising representatives of Congress and UPA allies while a panel consisting of politicians and experts is also one of the options.
In case the two options don’t pass muster, government may ask home minister P Chidambaram to hold another round of talks with political parties to search for ways to resolve the issue which continues to smoulder with students in Telangana region raising the cost of procrastination with an agitation that threatens to snowball into mass unrest.
The options began to be shuffled in the ruling hierarchy after the all-party meeting on Tuesday saw
Telangana Rashtra Samithi come out strongly against a committee, saying that it would only drag the issue.
TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao is scheduled to meet Chidambaram on Wednesday afternoon, in what may clear the air. The home minister told reporters after the meeting that a mechanism would be evolved in a “reasonable timeframe” over which there was unanimity among parties.
TRS, which leads the statehood charge, opposed the need for expansive consultations involving “all stakeholders”, saying enough had been done at the national level by the Pranab Mukherjee panel in UPA-1 and by chief minister in Andhra Pradesh which resulted in a consensus. TRS chief Rao and Jayashankar told the meeting, “If a couple of parties have different opinion on the issue now, then you (Chidambaram) may speak to them. Why involve all?”
The meeting between eight political parties from the state brought out the resistance to statehood, if surprisingly in muted tones, while the force behind Telangana appeared solid. TRS, CPI and BJP were categorically in favour of Telangana while Congress and TDP were soft in their opposition, with one of the representatives of the latter, Prakash Reddy, even discomfiting his leadership by claiming that TDP never resiled from its pro-statehood stand. PRP and CPM batted for “united Andhra”.
Despite their apprehensions, the deliberations had Telangana proponents “positive” about the future of statehood. The only argument against Telangana came from PRP’s Ramchandraiah who said the claim that Telangana had suffered in AP was incorrect as it had benefited more than coastal and Rayalaseema. It, however, was demolished by TRS’s Jayashankar who reeled out facts over 50 years to prove otherwise.
The TRS, with swirling speculation that Centre is again trying to buy time with open ended commitments, seems to be cautious about what shape the proposed “mechanism” should have. The view that Chidambaram hold further talks stems from the belief that Congress can be tied to the fate of Telangana talks.
Given that Congress pushed the envelope on statehood with Centre’s statement on December 9, it had to face aggression from both sides of the fence. CPM said its opposition was notional as it did not matter in terms of numbers in the assembly and Parliament and asked the Centre to move if it was sincere. BJP, on the other hand, told the Centre that it bring a bill in Parliament fast as BJP and Congress made enough numbers to create Telangana.
K S Rao, MP who has been at the forefront of Congress faction against Telagana since Chidambaram’s December 9 statement, merely said he would go by what the leadership decided. While there appeared to have been a briefing from Congress leadership that they should just speak one-line as done by Rao, Uttam Reddy, who represents Telangana, sought expeditious action on the new state. He spoke at length to refute claims that separate Telangana would be the hotbed of naxalism.
Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP was shocked when its Telangana representative Prakash Reddy denied in writing that the party had gone back on its support for Telangana. He said the party had not withdrawn its letter to the Mukherjee panel in UPA-1 nor revoked what it said to Business Advisory Committee in AP assembly. Sources said a disturbed Andhra representative of TDP demanded that all regions should be consulted over the decision.
Interestingly, PRP of mega star Chiranjeevi demanded President’s rule in the state, complaining that agitations had brought life in Hyderabad to a standstill at a great cost as it was the only party which came out clearly against Telangana. It sought a committee for consultations. Asaduddin Owaisi of MIM also sought central rule and said that concerns of 16% Muslims in Telangana should be taken care of in any decision. It, however, did not spell out any of the concern, keeping it a secret to be revealed before the “mechanism”.
-Agencies