Analysis
Congress
hallucinations in Telangana & AP
Congress may be, once again, trying its hand at kidding, as
it normally does, the people of the country and Andhra Pradesh, as its general
secretary in-charge of party's Andhra Affairs Digvijay Singh did, by denying that "electoral
considerations were behind the decision" to carve out a new State of
Telengana. "Political expediency cannot be a reason for such a
path-breaking decision; this has nothing to do with the elections", Singh
added. But he stood contradicted and
real intentions of Congress exposed by none other than the Congress President
Mrs. Sonia Gandhi herself when she managed
"to douse the fires" of coastal Andhra and Rayalseema urging them
"to serve the overall interests of the party".
That the decision has been totally motivated with an eye on
elections due simultaneously for State assembly and Parliament in April-May
2014 is proved by the fact that Congress failed to honour its commitment to
create Telangana in its 2004 election manifesto and repeated in 2009. It felt
encouraged to ignore the people of Telangana after Congress under late YSR Reddy
was returned to power again with an overwhelming majority in State assembly and
won 33 out of 42 seats to Parliament. That is the reason why it went back on
Congress Home Minister's announcement on December 10, 2009 that government will
start the process of formation of a new State of Telangana out of Andhra
Pradesh. It was all politics.
If Congress was so honest in implementing its solemn pledge
to the people of Andhra and Telangana why did it wait for about four more years
during which period more numerous precious lives were lost, hundreds of people
injured and property worth hundreds of crores destroyed? Therefore, it goes
without saying that the decision to stage a U turn to the announcement by a
home minister was as much political with electoral overtones as it is the
decision now to carve out Telangana.
The decision was triggered by reports of a likely complete wipe
out of Congress party, both in the State and Parliament elections. It now hopes
to marginalize its arch rival Jagan Reddy's YSR Congress, Telugu Desam Party,
and BJP. It hopes that Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) will merge with it, as
had its President K. Chandrashekhar Rao earlier promised if Telangana was
formed. It hopes to repeat a 2009 in Andhra and Telangana. Congress is planning
to engineer defections in TRS if Rao doesn't fall in line.
In 2002 the then BJP-led NDA of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee
created three States of Chhattisgarh (out of Madhya Pradesh), Jharkhand (out of
Bihar) and Uttranchal (out of UP)– later rechristened Uttarakhand. Congress
led by Ajit Jogi in the new State
of Chhattisgarh, BJP led by Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand and BJP led by Nityanand Swami in Uttaranchal formed
the first governments in the new States. But after the next assembly elections,
Congress lost and BJP formed government in Chhattisgarh more because of Ajit
Jogi's unpopularity, BJP lost in Uttranchal and managed to scrape through a
hung verdict to form an alliance government.
Therefore, formation of Teleangana is no guarantee of a
Congress return to power. It is a victory of the relentless struggle of the
people at a great sacrifice of innocent lives and property. Congress played no
constructive role. It is no favour it has bestowed on Telangana people.
Needless to recall that in a similar fashion in 1966 the
Congress Working Committee with a similar wish had decided to create a
Punjabi-speaking and a Hindi-speaking State of Haryana out of the existing
Punjab. But in elections held next year in March Congress lost to pave the way
for the first-ever non-Congress alliance government led by Justice (Retd.)
Gurnam Singh of Akali Dal. In Haryana Congress did win but lost power in less
than a month.
To hope for washing out its sins of corruption,
incompetence, performance deficit, anti-incumbency both in AP and Telangana and
at the Centre is a day-dream. It is akin to the British then hallucinating to
defeat Congress in elections on the claim it that was the British who had
granted freedom to the nation. ***
