Please don't waste my time : Pranab to MPs

When a group of pro-Telangana MPs went to meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today to “discuss” the issue, Mukherjee snapped at them and said: “please don’t waste my time. There is nothing more to discuss now.”

Minutes before Mukherjee sent this group back, the MPs opposed to a separate Telangana state held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There too, the visitors had to return empty-handed as the PM remained non-committal about issuing any “detailed statement” despite an appeal from the group of MPs.

Not only has the Congress brass decided to put Telangana on the backburner for the time being, it has resolved to keep a safe distance from both groups—for and against Telangana. When one pro-Telangana MP today tried to appease the irked Finance Minister and said, “sir, we have come to thank you for the efforts” Mukherjee retorted, “you don’t need to do that either. Please don’t come here again.”

On Tuesday evening, the informal statement from the PMO was carefully calibrated not to include a single word on the Telangana issue but to focus on peace and harmony. The anti-Telangana lobby was visibly dissatisfied and they met the top leaders today with the expectation of extracting a ‘detailed statement’. “We feel that the government should come out more clearly to defuse the tension in the state. There is need for a statement which common people can understand. These issues of evolving consensus, assembly resolution, etc need to be simplified as people won’t be able to understand,” D Purandareswari told reporters before meeting the Prime Minister.

While the PM remained non-committal about any detailed statement, he did, however assure that efforts were on to work out an amicable solution to defuse the political crisis. Singh also reminded the MPs that they should accord priority to restore normalcy in the state.

After the meeting, Rajya Sabha MP T Subbarami Reddy told reporters, "The Prime Minister sought our cooperation to bring calm in the state hit by agitations over the Telangana announcement.”

Both Houses of Parliament were today adjourned barely minutes after meeting for the day as the opposition protested on price rise and Telangana issue. As soon as Speaker Meira Kumar took her seat, opposition MPs stormed into the Well of the Lok Sabha. While the BJP, Left, SP, BSP and Shiv Sena members raised slogans on price rise, the TDP members raised slogans against creation of Telangana and demanded a unified Andhra Pradesh.

The most conclusive word on Telengana came from an official. "Forget about it. Nothing is going to happen till 2014" he said, referring to the next round of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.