Separate Telengana fight gains momentum

By R.J. Rajendra Prasad

HYDERABAD, APRIL 16. The decision of Mr. K. Chandrasekhara Rao, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, to set up a non-political forum and take up the cause of separate Telengana before the Panchayat elections, has been welcomed by about 20 Congress MLAs from the region, who have been spearheading the cause of separate statehood for the past one year.

The State witnessed two major agitations, for separate Telengana in 1969 and for a separate Andhra Pradesh in 1972, but since then the talk of separation receded into the background. The 1969 agitation subsided with the exit of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy and induction of Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao as Chief Minister, and Dr. M. Channa Reddy, who led the agitation in 1969, became Chief Minister twice, in 1978 and in 1989. In the same way, the separate Andhra Pradesh agitation subsided with the imposition of President's rule in the State in January, 1973 and in December that year, Jalagam Vengal Rao took over, heralding another change of leadership.

The Congress is yet to decide on the separatist issue, despite a persistent demand from some Telengana Congress MLAs for the cause, since three new States have been created recently by dividing Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. But the fact that these MLAs are issuing calls for separation from the Congress Legislature Party office in the Assembly, shows that overtly or covertly, they have the approval of the party on this issue.

On Sunday last, Ms. Ambica Soni, AICC general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, ruled out creating a separate PCC for Telengana, a demand made by the former MP, Mr M. Baga Reddy. Congress MLAs have made a number of trips to Delhi in the past, seeking the AICC approval for Telengana, and the AICC had constituted a committee to go into the issue of smaller States, since this is interlinked with the demand for Vidharbha in Maharashtra where the Congress is in power. The Congress, which lost in the general elections of 1999, is clearly aiming to take an emotional issue so that public opinion could be built up in the course of a year or two. At the moment there is not much of a public support.

In a debate in the Assembly on the problem of backward areas development, the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, had proposed that there should be consensus on a set of parametres to determine backwardness, that the 1,100 mandals in the State should be categorised as backward on the basis of these parametres, and special steps should be taken to ensure development of these backward areas. This policy will help focus attention on backward areas of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, as well as those in Telengana. An all-party meeting should agree on these parametres.

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