The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s refusal to toe the party high command’s line on the contentious issue has worsened matters
The UPA Government is planning to introduce in Parliament on December 9 (Ms Sonia Gandhi’s birthday) the controversial Telangana Bill to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh. It was on Ms Gandhi’s directions that the schedule has been drawn up by Congress bigwigs. Also, on the directions of Ms Gandhi, the Group of Ministers on Telangana is expected to finalise the Bill by November 18, send it to the Union Cabinet and then to the President by November 21. The President may send it to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly where Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has been asked to convene the legislative on November 25 to consider the Bill.
This may not be the end of the Telangana tangle. The process has not been smooth since there is a split in almost all the political parties in the State, including the Congress. But the most alarming is the opposition from Chief Minister Reddy, who is becoming a problem rather than a solution. He has resisted the Centre’s pressure to fall in line.
It is not often that the Congress high command faces such behaviour from one of its Chief Ministers, that too a light-weight politician like Mr Reddy. Also, he was not a known rebel since he came from the Congress stable. He took office on November 24, 2010, from Mr Konijeti Rosaiah. Since then, it has been a bumpy ride for the young Chief Minister.
To the dismay of the party high command, Mr Reddy is now taking on the Centre on the bifurcation issue. In a strong letter addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister recently expressed concern over the way decisions were being taken and the process of bifurcation being pushed through, ignoring all conventions and procedures.
The Congress leadership is not sure how to tackle the Chief Minister, who is bent on ruining its plans. Getting rid of Mr Reddy is not easy at this juncture. He has no intention of resigning and ha declared on a television show recently, “Quitting is not the solution here, we have to debate the issue. We have to convince the people of the State as to why it should be united.” Congress in-charge of the State Digvijaya Singh’s repeated pleas to the Chief Minister and the State president to persuade leaders to fall in line, have been in vain.
Mr Reddy has been blunt right from the beginning that he would not be a party to dividing the State. It is alleged that he is instigating the agitators in the the Seemandhra region. Mr Reddy is planning to get the draft Bill defeated when it comes to the Assembly, with the support of 179 legislators from the Seemandhra region. He is confident that no legislator will listen to the high command when the chances of their own re-election are in jeopardy. Though the Bill will be referred to the Assembly for eliciting its views, the Congress high command is mulling over whether to avoid voting. Mr Reddy, who wants to emerge as a martyr, may also resign on the floor of the House during the debate. He will then have two options — launch his own party or join the resurgent YSR Congress.
Meanwhile, the GoM has had another round of negotiations with all the political parties from the State, including the Congress, the BJP, the TRS, the CPI, the MIM and the CPI(M). They continue to have their differences. The GoM is determining the boundaries of the new State, judicial and statutory bodies, and other administrative units. It has also consulted water, finance, road transport and infrastructure departments in Andhra Pradesh to work out the division of assets once Telangana is created.
The draft Bill is likely to be on the basis of the Antony Committee report on Telangana. The report proposes a regulatory mechanism for water disputes, a special authority to supervise law and order, and also a law to prevent any legislative measure revoking existing land allotment. This is not palatable to the TRS leaders. land, water, jobs and law and order are the four important issues for the TRS.
The TRS wants the Krishna water award kept in abeyance. It also has reservations about the Polavaram project. The burden of the whole song is the status of Hyderabad. The TRS is against diluting the powers of the new State. The Congress’s hope that the TRS will merge with it, may not realise. Still the party has to keep the TRS on its right side. Else, its calculations will go awry.