Forsaking Telangana

A dysfunctional Congress abandons its home turf

No other part of Andhra Pradesh has been more loyal to the Indian National Congress than the Telangana region. Though the first generation of separatists, led by the late Chenna Reddy, walked out of the party to form the Telangana Praja Samithi, they eventually returned to the fold. The second generation of separatists, led by K Chandrasekhar Rao, not only supported a Congress-led government in Hyderabad and New Delhi but they even hold out the hope of returning to the fold if their demand is met. An overwhelming reason for that has been the loyalty of the people of Telangana to the party that led them to freedom from the tyranny of the Nizam of Hyderabad and his marauding Razakars. Yet, for all their loyalty, it appears a rudderless party, currently at odds with itself, and a disinterested Union government have forsaken the people of Telangana. Large parts of the region and the metropolis of Hyderabad have been brought to their knees by an agitated people who are now more upset about being ignored than about their demand not being met. The statement made by Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K T Rama Rao, who was arrested for disrupting normal life in the city, that “the central government should intervene, make a statement, pacify the anger or else when things get out of hand, [it] will be responsible” is a fair warning that the Centre should take seriously. Telangana has fallen between the multiple cracks that have come to characterise the United Progressive Alliance government. The Union government seems to have virtually washed its hands off the issue, after having set up the Justice Srikrishna commission and not doing anything to take this very valuable initiative forward. This has created the impression that this was more an attempt to procrastinate than take a decision. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not paid much attention to the issue, Home Minister P Chidambaram has become a suspect in the eyes of many for his infamous midnight media statement, issued at the behest of the Congress party leadership.

To make matters worse, Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s illness has meant that the party has had no direction on how to deal with an evolving situation. None of the party leaders dealing with the issue seems to have struck a chord with the people of the state, or specifically the Telangana region. The party has tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, but even this game has run its course. An army of small men with no vision routinely tries to make empty statements that no longer inspire anyone, even within the party. Finally, the party’s beacon of hope, prime ministerial aspirant Rahul Gandhi, has never bothered to grapple with the challenge at hand or engage the separatists in a meaningful way. Rather, the Congress party has itself split in the state and the followers of the one man who brought the party back to power in the state, and indeed at the Centre, both in 2004 and 2009, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, have in fact left it. Caught amid separatists who have a misplaced demand, based on genuine grievances, but no vision for the future of the region beyond statehood, and an inept Congress party, an ineffective assortment of other parties whose support base has been dwindling, and an unimaginative Union government, Hyderabad, Telangana and, indeed, Andhra Pradesh, suffer.