Is there something more to it than meets the eye in the setting of the special task force by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, ostensibly to study the law and order and other related aspects in the wake of bifurcation of the state?
Speculation to this effect is making rounds in political and official circles after the speed and secrecy with which the task force headed by retired IPS Officer from Tamil Nadu, K. Vijay Kumar, who attained fame after the sensational encounter killing of dreaded sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, was appointed.
The other members of the task force include retried DGP A.K. Mohantay, DGP in-charge of Octopus and Greyhounds J.V.Ramudu ( both from AP), Additional Secretary in Union MHA in-charge of naxal management Rajeev Sharma and Additional DGP NIA N.R.Wasan. Besides this, a 19-member consultative committee comprising of former DGPs, retired bureaucrats and senior police officers to assist the task force in their mission was also constituted.
What has triggered various speculations is the fact that even the state administration was kept in dark till the eleventh hour about the setting up of the task force. Even the Chief Minister seemed to have been kept in the loop line in the formation of the task force. However, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan seemed to have had an inkling about the special task force as it was at his behest it was set up. During his four-day stay in the national capital, the central leaders including the President, Prime Minister,
AICC Chief and UPA Chairperson, Union Home Minister and others have gathered crucial inputs and suggestions from the Governor on the prevailing situation in the state, and also about the possible scenario after bifurcation of the state, especially on the law and order front.
Against this background, the talk that is making rounds in certain political quarters is that the setting up of the special task force was a prelude to the deft moves of the central government to impose President’s Rule in the State in its anxiety to speed up the formation of Telangana State formation. The defiant posture of the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy in openly opposing the bifurcation of the state, his clandestine moves to float a new political party after emerging as the Messiah of the integrationists, the suggestion of the Governor not to delay the T process any longer etc seemed to have weighed heavily on the centre to speed up the Telangana formation.
Though the Union Ministers, MPs and other Congress leaders from the Seemandhra region were considered as hurdles in the bifurcation of the state in the beginning, these leaders seemed to have now become inconsequential after they were forced to toe the line of the High Command. However Kiran Kumar Reddy seemed to have become the new irritant and stumbling block for the central leaders in carving out the Telangana state. Thus the central leadership seemed to be having no other option but to impose President’s Rule in the state if the process of Telangana formation has to be completed without any further delay.
LAW AND ORDER
Therefore, according to informed sources, the central leadership was anxious to be prepared to meet any eventuality on the law and order front in the wake of imposing central rule in the state, has decided to set up the Special Task Force to study the law and order and other related aspects like naxalite menace, the threat from the IM operatives specially in Hyderabad etc. It is pertinent to note here that all these aspects have already been studied in depth by the Justice Sri Krishna Committee which had even prepared a separate Chapter VIII with various suggestions. This chapter has been even today kept as a guarded secret.
Thus these sources wonder why the central leadership had decided to set up a special task force now when already it was having with it all the information and other inputs regarding law and order, naxal problem etc. Hence these sources aver that the special task force was now entrusted with the task of preparing a report about the steps to be taken to nip in the bud any outbreak of violence in the wake of imposing central rule after showing the door to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy shortly !!!. (NSS).