Smaller states with consensus: Advani

BJP Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on Tuesday said his party,in principle,supported smaller states,but added that smaller states,when feasible,should be carved out only after a consensus is reached on the same.....

BJP Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on Tuesday said his party,in principle,supported smaller states,but added that smaller states,when feasible,should be carved out only after a consensus is reached on the same. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also slammed the UPA government for failing to take everyone into confidence on Telangana,thereby letting the situation get out of control in the state. The UPA government should have spoken to every party concerned on Telangana, he said.

We would have carved out Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh,and Vidarbha out of Maharashtra,when we created three new states of Jharkhand,Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh in 2000,but for the opposition from our allies then,the TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Advani told The Indian Express.

Arguing that identities which,at times,lead to demands for separate states are not inconsequential,Advani,however,stopped short of endorsing the demand for the second State Reorganisation Commission in view of the mushrooming of statehood demands across the country.

Drawing a contrast among states having country-like dimensions with states having district-size geographical dimensions,Advani said: Most demands for a separate state usually come from regions far away from the state capital,Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand,for instance. The Telangana statehood demand belongs to another category,for it comes from regions close to the state capital. This difference notwithstanding,the approach to deal with any statehood demand must be one of evolving a consensus before any concrete action.

Asked about the roadblocks his NDA government faced during formation of new states,Advani said: There was a view that tribal districts of Bihar,West Bengal and Orissa be combined to form a new state. Another school,however,felt it was not a practical solution and I tried to talk to the political class in Bihar on the need for a new state in keeping with aspirations of the southern districts of the state.

Asked if UPA government managers had spoken to him on the Telangana issue,Advani replied in the negative. He said after the debate on Telangana in the Lok Sabha last week,where he was among those supporting the cause,Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhara Rao had called to thank him.