Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday urged individuals, groups and political parties to read the Srikrishna Committee's report carefully with an open mind, and not to come to any instant conclusion.
Stating that the committee itself rejected the first three of the six options suggested by it as “non-practicable,” he told journalists after an all-party meeting to release the report here that the panel listed three more options and also suggested the way forward. All stakeholders must respect the “labours” of the committee, he said.
Referring to the absence of some parties (the BJP, the TDP and the TRS) from the meeting, Mr. Chidambaram suggested that they too study the report. “The parties which I think regrettably did not attend the meeting today [Thursday], showing scant respect not to me but to the Committee…I would urge them to read the report.”
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Mr. Chidambaram asked the parties to give their “most careful, thoughtful and impartial consideration to the report and its recommendations.”
“Read the report and the recommendations with an open mind and be prepared to persuade, and to be persuaded, by people who hold another point of view,” he said. “It is the government's sincere hope that the report will generate an informed and mature debate.”
Meanwhile, the representatives of five political parties that attended the meeting appealed to the people of Andhra Pradesh to maintain peace, harmony and law and order. While Mr. Chidambaram and representatives of the Congress, the Praja Rajyam Party, the CPI and the CPI (M) signed a joint statement, Akrabuddin Owaisi of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen refused to sign it. “We did not sign the appeal because it is not us but the Congress workers who have been engaged in creating disturbance. The Congress should first put their house in order,” he told journalists.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who represented the State government at the meeting, remained silent. Nor did he interact with the media. He left for Hyderabad in the evening.
Sources said the government was likely to convene another all-party meeting in the last week of this month to further discuss the report, based on the views expressed by the political parties.
