Saying that it was seriously working on Telangana issue of late, the Congress high command has been summoning Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC Chief Botcha Satyanarayana again and again and discussing with them on Telangana. The high command has also been saying that it was discussing with both on pros and cons of the issue before coming to a conclusion.
Here the point is that both Chief Minister (Rayalaseema) and PCC Chief (Andhra) were from Seemandhra region. It is well known fact that the Chief Minister was an ardent supporter of United Andhra Pradesh. PCC Chief was changing his stand time and again on the issue of division of the State. There was no representative from the Telangana region and the high command was taking both the Chief Minister and PCC Chief into confidence on the Telangana issue and was listening to them only. Undoubtedly, both would bat for United Andhra Pradesh only.
Unfortunately, the high command never thought it fit to call Deputy Chief Minister Damodara Rajanarasimha, who was given the coveted post as part of rendering justice to the Telangana region. But in practice, there was no such move.
No Seemandhra leader, including Chief Minister and PCC Chief will bat for division of the State and the high command was depending upon only these two Seemandhra leaders to know the situation in the State.
According to Telangana Congress leaders, the Centre was also depending on the inputs given by the Governor and Intelligence sources as they were not party functionaries. The high command was gauging the Telangana issue on party prospects whether the division of the State will benefit the party or not.
Generally, no Chief Minister, that too from Seemandhra region, would express his opinion in favor of division of the State. Seemandhra senior Congress leader Gade Venkat Reddy, has already said in an interview with a vernacular TV Channel that the Chief Minister had stopped the Centre, which prepared to announce a statement on Samaikyandhra only to protect his position. According to him, indications from the high command are not clear that they will announce a statement in favor of Telangana. Gade Venkat Reddy’s statement might be correct and hence nobody condemned his statement.
This time too, the Chief Minister, who was in Delhi for two days and participated in a meeting convened by the AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi might have argued in favour of United Andhra Pradesh, political analysts say. The Chief Minister had said that West Bengal PCC Chief and Maharashtra Chief Minister spoke on the Telangana issue, but didn’t reveal what they had said. But one could easily expect that both West Bengal PCC Chief and Maharashtra Chief Minister were not interested to carve out Bodoland and Vidarbha State and so that they might have opposed creation of separate Telangana State and the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy might have got unexpected support from the West Bengal PCC Chief and Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Political analysts were in an opinion that the Chief Minister, who used to say that the Congress party will come to power even in 2014 elections, couldn’t say anything in favor of Telangana. According to Congress leaders, the PCC Chief also followed suit on the Telangana issue. On the other hand, the Samaikyandhra lobby was very strong in Delhi when compared to their counterpart Telangana lobby.
The question is, who will bat for the sake of Telangana at New Delhi as there were no strong leaders from Telangana region to lobby in Delhi. There was also a serious problem that the Telangana leaders were facing trouble in getting appointments with the high command to explain about the pulse of the people of Telangana. The high command did not give appointment to the Telangana leaders even when they were waiting for the sake of appointment for several days. Though some leaders like Rajya Sabha member Palvai Goverdhan Reddy will bat for the sake of Telangana but the high command was not serious on the inputs given by these leaders.
The Telangana protagonists and intellectuals were in an opinion that the Telangana Congress leaders, except few leaders to name, were not serious on the issue and they were only serious on their political future and hence they were speaking on the issue now and then. Also Telangana leaders were not lobbying seriously on the issue. The leaders were making serious statements but doing seriously nothing in practice leaving the Telangana people in frustration. Days were moving very fast and already second month was coming to an end in the year 2013 but there was no development on the Telangana issue in Delhi.
On the other hand, the Seemandhra leaders were moving steps very fastly whenever the Centre tried to say something on Telangana issue. The Telangana leaders were not much competent in this regard, political analysts say.
Even some Congress leaders on the condition of anonymity, said that the Telangana Congress leaders were doing movement for the sake political future more so for the sake of positions and were also giving examples by naming the MLAs and MPs, who fought seriously before getting Minister posts, were maintaining silence on the issue enjoying the unexpected power. (NSS)
[Courtesy: Siasat]