As Telangana region keeps burning, the Congress-led UPA government continued to play the proverbial Nero. On a day when the whole region was passing through a shutdown in protest against the Congress government’s delay on the Telangana issue, home minister P Chidambaram insisted that no decision could be taken on the separate state demand until the eight political parties in the state arrived at a consensus. To add insult to injury, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy issued a statement on the same day that only the Centre is empowered to take a decision on the separate state demand .
“There is nothing that the central government can do if the parties in the state lacked clarity on the Telangana issue. The issue can be resolved by the leaders of the state alone. Therefore, any all-party meeting on the demand for Telangana can happen only after the state parties arrive at a consensus,” Chidambaram told the media in the lobby of Parliament. And indicating that no immediate decision on the issue could be forthcoming, the home minister added: “The people of Rayalaseema have their own demand for a separate state. If everyone puts forth such demands, it will only complicate the issue.”
CM Kiran Kumar Reddy striking a contrary stand said “the Centre – which alone is empowered is perhaps busy with so many other national issues that it is not able to get time to focus on this one. We have discussed the issue during my recent trips. There will be more interactions in the future. In all, we want an early solution to the issue,” the chief minister told the media on Tuesday.