Opinion Bitter parting

Having failed to manage its Andhra MLAs, the Congress should now put Telangana on hold.

January 28, 2014 12:10 AM IST First published on: Jan 28, 2014 at 12:10 AM IST

Having failed to manage its Andhra MLAs, the Congress should now put Telangana on hold.

The issue of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh has split the ruling Congress party’s legislators, in the Centre and the state, and predictably so. Their concerns are a mixture of political expediency and genuine worries about the basis and design of the bifurcation to form the two states of Telangana and Seemandhra. In fact, tension cutting across party lines and adhering to geographical loyalties has been evident since the Centre’s surprise December 2009 announcement on Telangana, though the UPA government has seen fit to carry on with reorganisation of the state regardless.

However, even against this confrontational background, Monday’s scenes from the Andhra assembly are alarming, and must counsel a rethink at the Centre about legislating on the split so late in the life of this Lok Sabha. Events have given the process of meeting the regional aspirations of Telangana an unstoppable momentum, but from here on, rushing headlong, without bringing all concerned parties together on a joint, coherent plan of action, threatens to provoke more animosities than needed. For its own reasons, the Centre has taken bifurcation to be the first step, presuming that once the deed is done, the nitty-gritty will be sorted out. This is wrong and irresponsible. Bifurcation must follow from a confidence-building consensus, not be the pretext to force one.

On Monday, MLAs from the Telangana region, including Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha and other ministers in their ranks, disrupted the state assembly, forcing repeated adjournments. Their ire was directed at Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy for issuing a notice to the speaker to move a motion to return the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, to Delhi. These scenes are a reminder that divisions on the issue will have to be managed politically. Basic points of contention, especially relating to Hyderabad, revenue and water sharing, have not been sorted out to bring the proposed Seemandhra and Telangana on the same page. It must be emphasised that this divisive stalemate stems from a lack of effort and political adroitness on the Centre’s part. If the Congress at the Centre cannot bring on board its own flock of MLAs and assuage their concerns, how responsible would it be to legislate bifurcation and leave the possibly divisive aftermath to a future government to handle?

Parliament has extraordinary powers to legislate on state reorganisation. But it would be foolhardy for this Lok Sabha to do so while ignoring the deep-rooted and legitimate anxieties in the state legislature.