The Congress had taken to creating committees and commissions and ultimately stalling any decision on Telangana. “There was the Pranab Mukherjee Committee that held meetings but never took a decision.
There was the Ghulam Nabi Azad Committee that had exhaustive deliberations with various stakeholders and where PowerPoint presentations were made, but finally there was no decision. There was Sri Krishna Committee, which has failed to come up with a comprehensive recommendation.”
Instead, he said, there was a Secret Chapter in Sri Krishna Committee Report that counselled the State on how to crush the agitation and how to manage the media. “Is this the mandate of any committee or commission?” he asked. He said that so far, the Congress was misusing the CBI, but now it started misusing committees and commissions.
Javadekar said there was opposition from the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, but the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tactfully managed the situation and finally the CMs moved the resolutions in their respective State Assemblies and passed the resolution for the creation of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The Centre should take a clue and should bring Telangana Statehood Bill and the BJP would support it.
BJP in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Purushottam Rupala, supporting the Resolution, said 700 people had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Telangana and asked the Centre how many more lives did it need in order to act on the issue.
Senior TDP leader T Devender Goud, speaking on the issue in Rajya Sabha, demanded that the Centre create Telangana without any further delay. Longer the delay in taking a decision, greater will be the problem. “Let the Centre bring the Telangana Statehood Bill and we will support it,” was the categorical assertion of Devender Goud.
Goud targeted the Congress-led UPA Government for playing politics on Telangana. “People are dying. Telangana is burning, but the government remains a mute spectator. Telangana is not a small State. There are 18 States smaller than Telangana. What then is the objection of the government?” he asked.
He said the debate revealed that there was considerably a good understanding in the august House about what was happening in Telangana. “Telangana is not a new demand nor is it a demand for a separate State. What is being demanded is the demerger of Telangana, which had merged with Andhra under the Gentlemen’s Agreement.
The Agreement was honoured more in breach. The Telangana Agitation in 1969 rocked the region, but a Six-Point Formula brought an end to the agitation. Right from the formation of the AP State, there have been demands for the creation of Telangana. The latest example is the general strike in which all sections of the society participated,” he said.
Goud said that the Congress may be trying to manage TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao as it had done in the case of Dr M Channa Reddy in 1969. “You may manage Chandrasekhar Rao, but not the people in Telangana region who want nothing short of a separate State,” saying so, he took a dig at Congress member K V P Ramachandra Rao who acted as the de facto CM during the YSR regime, for allowing the diversion of about 44,000 cusecs of water from Telangana to other regions.
Advani, he said, also opposed the division of Uttar Pradesh. “If the BJP wants smaller states, it should favour the creation of a Second States Reorganisation Commission to consider all the demands for smaller States.”
Rao reminded that in 1953, in the same Rajya Sabha when the issue of creation of Andhra State with its capital at Kurnool was being debated, there were protests against a State without Hyderabad as its capital. Leaders like P Sundarayya spoke on the issue, he said.
Leaders in the erstwhile Hyderabad State were unhappy over the creation of Andhra State without Hyderabad. Even Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru worked on the lines of integrating Andhra State with erstwhile Hyderabad State, he said.
Narendra Kumar Kashyap (BSP) said former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati proposed dividing the State into four smaller states. The BSP believes smaller states will help take governance to the doorstep of the common man. The Centre has not responded to it.
Similarly, the creation of Telangana will help give a fillip to the pace of development in the region. This is the aspiration of millions of people of Telangana. This decision is required for bringing all-round development of Telangana.
The BSP leader also favoured trifurcation of Jammu & Kashmir into separate States for Kashmir Valley and Jammu and Union Territory status to Leh-Ladakh. Shivanand Tiwari (JD-U) said the Congress never learnt lessons from history. Potti Sriramulu sacrificed his life and then Andhra State was created.
Even in Punjab, there were fasts before it was created. Similarly, Gujarat was created after a sustained struggle. The Congress concedes a separate State demand only after tremendous struggles and sacrifices were made.
“People want Telangana. Public opinion is so strong that elected representatives cannot visit their constituencies. Congress cannot gain any political mileage. Look at the election results. It is losing everywhere,” he said.
However, when the House took up the issue for debate, there were just enough members for the quorum. Except Ajit Singh none of the Ministers was present. Goud in his address pointed out that Home Minister Chidambaram was not present when the House was discussing such an important issue.
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