Congress bites more than it can chew
Sensing the mood of the House and the anger outside, the Union Government should not have tabled the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, for the establishment of a separate State of Telangana at this stage. But by doing so in the lok Sabha on Thursday, it has not only deepened the fissures between the pro and the anti-Telangana groups but also worsened the environment of acrimony that will impede a smooth division of Andhra Pradesh in the coming months. It is clear that the Congress, which heads the Government at the Centre and is nearing the end of its inglorious tenure, was desperate to score political points and corner electoral largesse from the people of Telangana. While this remains a doubtful proposition even after the Bill has been tabled, what is undoubted is that the party has lost whatever little hope it had in the Seemandhra region of the State following its mistimed adventure. It now has to brace up for the huge fall-outs in the form of rebellion, led in all possibility by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, Members of Parliament and even Union Ministers. The scenes inside the House should give an indication of what lies ahead. One enraged member used a pepper spray (how was he allowed to enter with the deviseIJ), another ripped apart a mike, while a third smashed a glass. Even Union Minister for Home Affairs, who introduced the Bill, was not sure in the commotion whether the Bill had indeed been tabled! The Congress cannot seriously believe that getting the Bill into the House has taken care of the Telangana issue, since it cannot possibly proceed meaningfully from hereon in the rest of its term. In other words, it has used the occasion to table the Bill as being nothing more than a symbolic gesture, and left the successor regime to clean up the mess. There is no way it can get the support of the majority in Parliament. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party has been clear from the beginning that it backs the creation of a Telangana State, it has also stated that it opposes the brinkmanship of the Congress-led UPA Government. The BJP has clarified that it would support the Bill only if the Government lays down specifics on how the interests of Seemandhra region would be protected. Others such as the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress have opposed the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. In such a situation, there is slim hope of the Bill being passed for now.
The demand for Telangana is genuine and it must be honoured at the earliest, but the new State must be born in an environment of cordiality and not in times when the people are at each other's throats. States have been divided before, but the issue was handled with deftness and compassion, leaving all the stakeholders satisfied and happy. The BJP-led NDA had helmed the creation of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and there was none of the chaos and bitterness that we witness today over Telangana. The difference is that the NDA took everyone along while the UPA has not only resorted to confrontation but also allowed — and indeed patronised — such tendencies. Sadly, the people of Andhra Pradesh, regardless of their being from Seemandhra or Telangana or elsewhere, are paying a price for the Congress-led regime's follies.