Srikrishna report on Telangana widens divide in Andhra Pradesh

Political parties in Andhra Pradesh stood vertically split on Thursday as contents of the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission report on the feasibility of a separate Telangana state became public.

While the five parties — Congress, CPI, CPM, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and PRP — which attended the home ministry-convened meeting to discuss the report, appealed to people to maintain peace and agreed to meet again later this month for further discussions, separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) dismissed the report and reiterated their demand for introduction of a separate state bill in parliament.

“We have received a copy of the report and have indicated that we would consider it within our respective parties before we express our views thereon,” a statement signed by representatives of Congress, CPI, CPM and PRP said, appealing for calm.

MIM, however, refused to sign the statement. Its leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said, “We did not sign the appeal because it is not us but Congress workers who have been engaged in creating disturbance. Congress should first put its house in order.”

CPM, which is opposed to creation of a Telangana state, asked the government to take a decision now as the stage of soliciting views of political parties was over. “We and other parties have given our views [on Telangana] repeatedly. Now, we want the government to do what it wants to do,” party politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

BJP, which dissociated itself from the committee right since its inception, accused the Congress-led UPA government of acting in an “irresponsible and childish” manner on the issue and maintained that delay in formation of the state would harm the interests of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“The Srikrishna Commission report shows they [UPA] deliberately want to delay the issue. We want Telangana at the earliest,” party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Rejecting outright anything less than a separate Telangana, TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) said: “People of Telangana are not ready to accept anything short of Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital.
“I earnestly appeal to prime minister Manmohan Singh not to dilly-dally on Telangana and come forward and fulfill the promise made on December 9, 2009, to form Telangana.

“We don’t think the committee has achieved anything or provided any permanent solution. We don’t want to go into details of the report since we don’t recognise it. We want nothing short of Telangana and that too a Telangana of 1956 with Hyderabad as capital.”

The Telangana political joint action committee (JAC) too pooh-poohed the committee report. “We are not happy with the findings of the committee. We are not interested in the government further experimenting with the sentiments of the people of Telangana. We are going to take our demand forward for immediate introduction of a bill in parliament. There are going to be a series of agitations and protests across Telangana from Friday,” JAC chairman M Kodandaram said.

TDP joined TRS and JAC to seek a bill in parliament. “The six options mentioned by the committee in its report will only add to the prevailing confusion. The observations made by the committee in a way insult the sentiments of the people of the region. The government should immediately take some definitive action to respect the sentiments of Telangana,” N Janardhan Reddy, a senior party leader from Telangana, said.

Interestingly, several senior Congress leaders who were vocal in demanding Telangana remained indoors and left it to All-India Congress Committee to take a final view on the committee’s report.

Party’s Nizamabad MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi, however, said he was weighing the option of resigning from Lok Sabha as the report had not made any headway on creation of Telangana.

Another Congress leader from Telangana R Damodar Reddy said: “We still believe the Congress leadership and the UPA will stick to their commitment made on December 9, 2009, for according statehood to the region.”