28 plus 1

Put simply,the distance the Congress is papering over is not from the simmering demands for Telangana since the 1960s. It is from Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s untimely death in 2009 and the party’s subsequent inability to hold its own politically. Andhra Pradesh,ever since its formation,has been a unique administrative unit. Its birth nudged the country to work out a template for reorganisation on a linguistic basis. More importantly,it demanded an overarchingly cohesive politics from the state government to carry the project on. It is to the Congress’s discredit that even after that possibly understandable lurch in December 2009,it did nothing to rework the Telangana demand into a coherent political dialogue in the state. There is a case to be made for smaller states,with the promise of enhanced political representation. There is,equally,a record of political instability that has wracked some smaller states. If an assessment on these lines informed the Centre’s thinking on the bifurcation of Andhra,it was kept a well-guarded secret. Besides,the anxiety in different parts of the state and within the city itself about Hyderabad’s status was never fully addressed,even after the Srikrishna committee gave all stakeholders a document on which to base their discussions on various options. There has been,for instance,little focus on developing other urban magnets,lest it be seen to undermine this or that party’s claim to Hyderabad.

It is a matter of regret that the announcement for Telangana does not follow from proper homework. The government has a lot of catching up to do.