Faced with intense pressure brought to bear by Congress MPs from coastal and Rayalaseema regions, the Centre on Wednesday once again confirmed that the Telangana issue would remain indefinitely on the backburner, saying that there was a fresh need to hold consultations on the issue.
"The situation in Andhra Pradesh has altered. A large number of political parties are divided on the issue. There is a need to hold wide ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state. Government of India will take steps to involve all concerned in the process," home minister P Chidambaram announced after agonising discussions with rival sides from Andhra Pradesh.
The statement was carefully drafted not to give the hint of a re-think let alone retracing of steps, but it can be interpreted also as signaling a desire to start the process of consultations afresh -- an exercise which was deemed to be over on December 9 when home minister P Chidambaram announced that the Andhra Pradesh assembly would start the process of creation of Telangana.
In Hyderabad, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Osmania University students -- the spearhead for the agitation for Telangana's statehood -- screamed betrayal, wasting no time to announce a 48-hour bandh. They have asked all the MPs, MLAs, and elected representatives down to panchyat level to quit. The move immediately put the Congress MPs in a cleft.
Violence broke out in Telangana region. A TRS activist, a lecturer died of heart attack. A leader of TRS youth wing slashed his nose and ears with a knife before trying to immolate himself in Kamareddy town in Nizamabad district.
A state transport bus and a telephone exchange were set afire immediately after Chidambaram announced the decision to hold fresh consultations.
The Congress MPs who initially did not see the statement as reneging on the statehood commitment were forced to review their stand after protests from K Chandrashekhar Rao, the TRS boss.
Chidambaram's statement on Wednesday also stressed that the Centre had taken the decision on Telangana state, announced on December 9, in light of all major political parties supporting the demand.
Having virtually said that the Telangana decision was on hold for the time being, Chidambaram appealed to all political parties and students to withdraw their agitations.
The appeal was not going to be heeded, however.
The Centre had hoped that the reactions would not be too sharp, but with TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao angrily claiming that the statement was a betrayal and calling a 48-hour bandh, Congress MPs from the region also took a hard line. "People of Telangana were happy to see their 50-year struggle fructifying. But my party colleagues and Opposition have blackmailed the party. It is the same group that had lobbied for Jagan Mohan to be made CM and has now colluded with TDP. This is disappointing," said Madhu Yaskhi, Congress MP from Nizamabad.
Congress Telangana MPs were busy assessing the impact of the TRS call and the likely public response. The pressure of their constituents is a factor that would weigh on their minds.
The Centre's statement was forged after meetings of Congress MPs from both pro and anti-Telangana camps stretched through Tuesday night into the early hours of Wednesday. MPs from Telangana, who had warned against any dilution of the Centre's earlier statement conceding statehood, were told that an appeal would have to be issued.
The view of the agitating non-Telangana MPs that they had been left without even a fig leaf after Chidambaram's statement promising an "appropriate resolution" on statehood in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, had to be considered by the high command. The MPs made their plea quite forcefully in meetings with central leaders, all but directly attacking the home minister.
The face-saver devised after intense negotiations allows non-Telangana MPs to claim some gains. It reinforces the Centre's commitment that the statehood cannot progress without the Andhra Pradesh assembly passing a resolution to the effect. This is not likely to be possible for some time yet. The Telangana side seems ready to wait, believing that the Centre could not junk the proposal without re-igniting the statehood agitation.
The Centre is clearly hoping that with non-Telangana MPs off its back, it will get breathing space to slowly look for a way out. The government will wait for the situation to normalise and then pick up the threads for negotiations with parties like TDP and PRP. It will also have to respond to reports that a faction of the state Congress has been busy stoking the fires in coastal and Rayalaseema regions.
The view in Congress is that the Telangana genie cannot be pushed back into the bottle now. There might be delays and the process may be prolonged, but there is little likelihood of reconciliation. But Wednesday's statement seems to indicate that the government intends to let matters lie where they are for some time to come.
