Andhra House rejects bifurcation. What nowIJ

The rejection by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly of a Bill to create a new State of Telangana comes as a huge embarrassment to the Centre, and leaves it in a terrible dilemma on how to proceed with the issue now that the legislators of a State which is to be bifurcated have voted against the move. Given the numbers in the House which weighed in favour of the Seemandhra region whose MlAs were vehemently opposed to the division of the State, and the belligerence of Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy who threatened to quit politics if the Assembly adopted the Bill, it was evident that the Bill had no chance of being passed. When Mr Reddy had demanded four weeks' time more to discuss the matter, he was essentially hoping to buy time and firm up his political moves. But Thursday's decision of the House has precipitated a crisis which the Congress-led UPA Government has to face headlong, here and now. The Government has the option to ignore the Andhra Pradesh House's rejection of the Bill and push for the bifurcation. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh had recently remarked that while the Assembly could merely give its opinion, the final decision lay with the Union Government. And the Centre has already announced the creation of the Telangana State. The Group of Ministers assigned to the task is scheduled to meet soon to take the issue forward. But the State Assembly's rejection of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, will dominate the proceedings, and it remains to be seen how the Government extricates itself out of a self-made crisis, more so when the lok Sabha and the State elections are round the corner. Things need not have come to this level of acrimony if the Union Government had handled the issue with care. To begin with, it dilly-dallied on the announcement of a new Telangana State for years, hiding its procrastination behind one committee or the other which it formed to study the issue. And, when it finally summoned the courage to bite the bullet and announce the creation of the new State, it failed to take along representatives of the Seemandhra region, cutting across political lines. The result has been a nasty confrontation which developed between the two camps, leading to violence and a further hardening of stands at a time when the need was to soften positions so that the creation of a Telangana State could be had in a cordial environment.

The haste and ill-preparedness which preceded the Union Government's announcement had entirely to do with politics and not governed by the interests of either Telangana or the Seemandhra regions of Andhra Pradesh. The Congress realised that it was losing electoral ground rapidly in a State that had sent the maximum number of MPs of the party to Parliament in 2009 and been its stronghold ever since it decimated Mr Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party. Therefore, it wanted to cut its losses by deepening the wedge between the warring factions. It also calculated that the decision to create a Telangana State would fetch it electoral dividend at least in that region. As things have turned out, even the people of Telangana have remained lukewarm to the Congress, because they have seen through the party's political game. What is worse for the party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has been spearheading the cause of a Telangana State, has shown no inclination until now of either aligning with the Congress or merging with it.