Telangana: Congress shooting in the dark

In its trademark style of waking up to a crisis only when it blows up on its face, the leadership of the Congress in Delhi is now engaged in some desperate firefighting following the resignation of party MPs and MLAs from Telangana demanding that there be no further delay in granting of statehood to the region. The Congress leadership in Delhi has called a meeting of senior party leaders from the state – including some of those state ministers and MPs who have submitted their resignations today—today evening. The last ditch effort is being seen more as an effort to buy a little more time than the leadership having some brainwave to resolve the crisis. A senior Congress leader told  Firstpost that the central leadership is “really clueless and does not have anything concrete to offer to those pressing for a separate state other than generic platitudes and lame assurances.’’ [caption id=“attachment_36270” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Congress MP from Telangana region, K Keshava Rao after resigning from Rajya Sabha to protest against the Centre’s “delay” in the formation of a separate Telangana state. PTI”]  [/caption] A sample of  that was available in the press conference of the Union Home Minister  P Chidambaram on Monday afternoon when he kept on repeating his call to the Telangana leaders to maintain calm and not take any decision which would further precipitate an already delicate situation. The home minister also had the gumption to say that the situation was not “out of control” as was being suggested and reported by the media. Both he and Sibal — a member of the GOM on media— clearly had nothing substantial to say on the issue. They just kept saying that the press should play a “mature, cautious and responsible” role on this extremely sensitive issue. In response to a question on why the centre has not convened an all-party meeting to discuss the Telangana stalemate, the home minister said such an exercise will not serve any purpose till “all parties made up their mind”. It’s difficult to guess which party has not made up its mind on the issue. The TRS, the TDP and the state units of all the major national parties have supported the demand for creating a separate state. Obviously, it’s the Congress which is caught in a situation where it finds itself between the devil and the deep sea as the demand for a separate Telangana state finds stiff opposition from the party leaders in the politically important and volatile regions of coastal Andhra and Raysaleema. Chidambram hinted once again as to how complicated the issue was. “It’s a complex and difficult issue and different people have widely different and very strong views on the subject.’’ A pretty lame thing to say on an agitation which has occupied the centre stage in the state’s politics for nearly a decade now. The home minister said the government was still to take a final decision on the issue and the process of talking and explaining the situation to different stakeholders was still on. The minister’s refusal to go beyond statements like it’s a “very sensitive and complicated issue which requires mature handling and patience” was not only exasperating after a point but also let the cat out of the bag. Does the government really have no game plan on an issue which is potentially so explosive? The kind of passions the issue of Telangana evokes and the violence it unleashes across the state of Andhra is a story everyone knows. In a 294 state assembly the Congress will be reduced to a minority if the 36 MLAs from Telangana decide to really force their resignation. And each time the central government fails to deliver on an announced deadline, it only forces its MLAs to opt for a drastic course because otherwise they would be faced with political oblivion. There’s no underestimating the importance of  Andhra Pradesh – which sends 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha—in the Congress scheme of things. The Congress contingent from the state in the Lok Sabha both in the 2004 and the 2009 general elections played a vital role in the formation of the UPA governments in Delhi. But after the tragic death of YSR , former chief minister and the party’s charismatic mascot in the state, the Congress has barely managed to cling on to power in Hyderabad. The tenuous nature of their popular support base in the state was further exemplified in May when the rebel son of YSR’—Jagan Mohan Reddy—who wanted nothing less than the chief minister’s post after his father’s death in a helicopter crash, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Congress candidate in the parliamentary by election who not only lost by a margin of over five lakh votes but also forfeited his security deposit. The Jagan threat is further preventing the Congress party to take a call on Telangana as the party will be unable to face the Jagan spearheaded backlash in coastal Andhra and Rayalseema if the demand for Telengana statehood is conceded. What the Congress party really fails to understand is that unless it starts taking some difficult decisions there may not be much left to protect anywhere in the country.