TELENGANA-YES OR NO?

ANDHRA Pradesh is tending to go on the boil again over the Telangana issue. The fact that 10 Congress members of Parliament and 78 legislators belonging to that region drawn from various parties have submitted their resignations to press for statehood for Telangana is an index of nervousness among representatives from the region that the electorate would take them to task for not doing enough to espouse the demand. Yet, there is an element of optimism in the Centre as reflected by Union Home Minister Chidambaram’s statement that some solution would be worked out so that the political crisis is resolved for now.

It is indeed typical of our politicians to drag their feet over such demands till the clamour reaches a crescendo. It was Chidambaram who had given a new lease of life to the long-festering demand when he indicated back in 2009-end that the Centre was inclined towards accepting the demand for statehood. That led to sharp divisions and the politics of procrastination again. This time around, as the situation escalates again, it would be interesting to see how the day of reckoning is pushed further.
The Centre knows only too well that the grant of statehood to Telangana would give new impetus to demands for Gorkhaland, Vidarbha, Harit Pradesh or Bundelkhand, carved out of other states.The Telangana demand cannot therefore be seen in isolation. The formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956 (by merging Andhra and Hyderabad state) had been followed by reorganisation of states across the country. Is the government then prepared for a second reorganisation of states? To stave this off, a proposal mooted is that of creation of a regional autonomous council for Telangana as also such councils for Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra within the State of Andhra Pradesh. Instead of postponing a solution and thereby keeping the pot boiling, it would indeed be prudent to work out a solution around this at the earliest to meet the pulls and counter-pulls half-way.