Even as three Ministers from Andhra Pradesh — K. Jana Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Baswaraju Saraiah — arrived here on Monday night and started informal consultations with the Congress leadership on Telangana, some party MPs have gone hammer and tongs at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for “messing up the whole issue.”
Andhra Pradesh Congress MPs' Forum convener Ponnam Prabhakar, who submitted his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, told The Hindu that Mr. Chidambaram's approach to the issue from the beginning was “very casual” and he was not giving the respect due to the elected representatives of the Telangana region. It was he who made the announcement on the formation of Telangana and now he was going back on the issue. The Home Minister was not respecting the sentiments of the four crore people of Telangana. The issue had not come up overnight and the demand for carving a separate State out of Andhra Pradesh had been pending for over 50 years, and so far over 600 persons had died for the cause of Telangana. It would be unfair if the Centre continued to delay a decision, said Mr. Prabhakar.
Nagar Kurnool MP M. Jagannath rejected Mr. Chidambaram's stand that some parties were to give their opinion on the separate State issue. All the parties had already given their views to the Centre (to the Pranab Mukherjee committee) and there was no reason for any further delay, he said.
Mr. Jagannath charged Mr. Chidambaram with misguiding Congress president Sonia Gandhi and confusing her from taking a final decision on the subject.
Congress member from Peddapally G. Vivekanand said the party legislators from Telangana were firm on quitting their posts.
My job over: Srikrishna
Meanwhile, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, who headed the committee that went into the demands for a “separate Telangana” and a “united Andhra Pradesh,” commenting on the latest developments, said he had no further role to play as he had already submitted his report. “It is for the government to take a political decision on the three best options recommended by the committee,” he said.
Committee member-secretary V.K. Duggal pointed out that no one — either those supporting Telangana creation or opposing it — had expressed any reservations, nor did they challenge the panel report. “We have given the best options for the way forward.”
Mr. Duggal replied in the negative to a question on the view that an unpublished Chapter 8 of the committee's report could be the reason for the Centre not yet acting on its recommendations. “Some of the points mentioned in Chapter 8 have already been incorporated in the final report and I don't think this is the reason,” he said. The committee decided to give Chapter 8, which dealt with law and order and some other sensitive subjects, separately. Later, the Centre decided not to release it.
We'll support Bill: BJP
Referring to the stand taken by Congress leaders from Telangana, the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the UPA government of misleading Telangana people, and said even the Congress legislators had stopped believing it.
Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar asked the Centre to table the Bill on Telangana in the coming Parliament session and promised BJP support. It would be passed easily with the support of the two parties. He said the BJP's agitation would continue until the separate State was formed.
