By: A Srinivasa Rao
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After dodging the Telangana statehood issue for nearly two years, the UPA government has at last come forward to hold an all-party meeting on December 28 to find a solution to the decades-old problem, but it does not appear to have any clue as to how to take the move forward.
In fact, Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was compelled to announce the decision to hold the allparty meeting on Telangana, in the wake of an impending revolt from seven Congress MPs from Telangana who threatened to defy the part whip and abstain from voting in Lok Sabha on FDI.
But once the UPA crossed the FDI hurdle in the Lok Sabha, the Congress leadership has realised that it has virtually stirred the hornet’s nest by committing itself on the all- party meeting to resolve Telangana issue. All this time, the Centre had kept the Telangana issue in cold storage on the pretext that there have been divergent opinions among the major political parties and unless the parties come out with a concrete stand either for or against Telangana state formation, it would not be able to take a decision.
The Congress party has been taking advantage of the inability of the major opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and fledgling YSR Congress party to come out with their respective stands on the state bifurcation. Though both these parties have declared that they would respect the Telangana sentiment, they have not openly supported the formation of a separate state.
Now that Shinde has announced the date for the all-party meeting, the Congress party has found itself in a tight spot. Since it is the ruling party both in the state and the Centre, it is compelled to reveal its stand on the Telangana issue for the first time. This is a tough task for the Congress party, because it is a national party and has to face the consequences elsewhere in the country, whereas the TDP and the YSR Congress are regional parties and their stakes are confined only to Andhra Pradesh.
So, the Congress party is struggling to find an escape route to avoid embarrassment. As part of the strategy, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the state Con- gress Committee are bringing pressure on the Centre to defer the all-party meeting on the pretext that the state would be holding the World Telugu Conference at Tirupati from December 27 to 29 and holding an all-party meeting on state bifurcation would send the wrong signal to the Telugu people.
Simultaneously, party leaders from Seemandhra region have been demanding that more than two representatives from each party should be invited for the allparty meeting so that there would not be any unilateral decision in favour of Telangana. That way, the situation would come back to square one if there are different views from the same party on regional lines. The purpose of holding the all- party meeting itself would be lost.
According to party sources, the Congress party may not disclose its stand on state bifurcation at the all- party meeting, but would only collect the views of all parties.
This would definitely be resisted strongly by the opposition parties, as the meeting is being held by the union home ministry and not the Congress party; so, it has to disclose its stand like any other party.
They might ultimately walk out of the meeting, which is what the Centre wants.
Unfortunately, the Congress leadership is yet to realise that such delaying tactics would only result in a heavy debacle for the party in the next elections.
Courtesy: India Today