US felt Telangana move hurt Congress' image

In what could be an embarrassing disclosure for the Congress in the ongoing Parliament session, a recent cable released by Wikileaks has revealed that US diplomats believed the ruling party had appeared weak, feeble and vulnerable to being bullied and intimidated by threats, after it agreed to the formation of Telangana.

While making an assessment on December 10, 2009, soon after the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, US Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, had described the decision as a surrender which could lead to similar demands from other parts of the country, thanks to the overnight success of the Telangana movement. Reddy died in a helicopter crash in September 2009.

The top US diplomat wrote the decision could lead to similar demands from Vidharba in Maharashtra and Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal in Uttar Pradesh. The cables claim the observations were noted a day after Home Minister P Chidambaram had announced the formation of a Telangana state.

“It (Congress) appears to come across as weak and feeble, a party that can be easily bullied and intimidated by threats just six months after winning a decisive electoral mandate,” the cables released by Wikileaks said.

Terming the UPA government’s decision a big success for K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Telangana Rashtriya Samiti, Roemer wrote that with just two members in Lok Sabha and six in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, Rao had won a confrontation with UPA government and it was huge success.

It said the Congress and UPA government had potentially “opened up a can of worms” by abruptly conceding to the demand on December 9, 2009, after 11 days of hunger strike by K Chandrasekhar Rao.

“The Congress and the UPA government may already be regretting its decision regarding Telangana, as more demands for statehood come out of the woodwork, the party splits in its stronghold of Andhra Pradesh, and is portrayed in the media as weak and spineless, caving at the first signs of trouble at the hands of a politically desperate has-been regional politician,” Roemer wrote in the cable.