Contain the drama

The Telangana statehood issue has been thrown into suspended animation,as the government mulls its hasty announcement and works out a way to fit it into a cogent framework for addressing regional demands. But in the interim,it has ripped Andhra Pradesh politics down the seams. The Congress was stunned as its own man from Kadapa,Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy walked over to the other side and registered his own demand for a united Andhra,hollering along with the TDP.

Jagan claims his move was motivated by the fact that he did not want the TDP walking away with the united Andhra cause,a clever way of making sure his party had it both ways in the coastal Andhra-Rayalaseema area. Or maybe it was payback for the scotching of his chief-ministerial bid,or a way of fashioning himself in his fathers image,as a force not to be discounted. Andhra Pradeshs relatively settled politics has been recently upended first by Chiranjeevis emergence and then by YSRs death and the succession drama that followed. It is clear that the Congress pulling the Telangana rabbit out of the hat,its suscept-ibility to KCRs theatrics,also stemmed from this disarray. But now that it has been seen to cave,the Congresss vulnerability could be exploited by every actor on the make,and not just in Andhra.

Having gone this far,the Congress must not spin this drama for its own politic ends,speaking in several voices to squelch opposition and waiting to see which side wins out. This is the moment to articulate principles,outline the logic by which the Telangana rationale was accepted and the lens through which new statehood demands will be considered. A new states reorganisation commission,should it be formed,must be backed up with clear and impeccable logic entirely unlike the Telangana drama,which was random and politically motivated. It might suit the ruling dispensation to arrogate to itself the power to create and break up states,but such arbitrary actions only create further political churn and fragmentation. It is time to take statehood demands with the seriousness they deserve,and rescue Indian politics by keeping immediate politics out of the matter.