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Journalism of Courage
In a couple of days,as the Srikrishna Committee delivers its assessment,the Congress will have to get itself off the fence it has been determinedly straddling on the Telangana issue. It was an uncomfortable position anyway,as the party visibly struggles to bargain with its own Telangana leaders over questions like student agitations and paramilitary presence in the region. Telangana,with its long and mutinous history,really started to blaze out of control in political terms after the Centre rashly announced separate statehood last year,and divided Andhra politics over the question of state bifurcation. Its own party members postured for or against Telangana,depending on where they came from. Political grandstanding fed on old grievances,until the government put a temporary stopper on the issue by setting up the five-member Srikrishna Committee in February to pore over the question and come up with optimal solutions based on consultation and consensus. Now,the report threatens to tear up the states politics again,and the Congress finds itself in an especially delicate situation. Its state unit is bitterly divided: the chief minister and governor are reportedly opposed to a separate Telangana,even as legislators from the region claim that division would garner great political benefits for the party. However,things look bleak for the Congress,as either move would cause smouldering resentments to flare up,ready to be exploited by new adversaries like Jaganmohan Reddy,or snatched away by rival formations like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. But now,even if the report says nothing concrete,the politics around it must cease to be blurry. Instead of another season of agonised ambivalence,the only thing for the Congress would be to take a stand and face the consequences. The state cannot continue to be held hostage to political brinkmanship over a troubled region. The Congress doesnt have an easy way out,but it can certainly try to heal the breaches and address the structural problems that have created this situation. After all,Telangana is not just an emotional insistence on having its own name and address,but a cry for developmental redress. It is a question of allocating resources and accommodating diversities. The party can dedicate itself to directly addressing those issues,instead of stretching out the pain.
