Leading nowhere

The Srikrishna panel on Telangana seems to lead to a dead end

The Justice Srikrishna Committee’s voluminous report, made public by the Union home ministry on Thursday, has a discernible undercurrent in support of a united Andhra Pradesh, as against bifurcating it in response to the vociferous demand for a separate Telangana state. The committee offers six non-binding options but also shoots down four of them as impracticable. Between Option 5, dividing the state as demanded by Telangana protagonists, and Option 6, keeping the state undivided, it plumps for the latter. The committee agrees in so many words that governance has failed Telangana but adds that smaller states may not be the best solution for lack of development, as the experiment with Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand proves. At the same time, it also does not argue that council and constitutional guarantees have met with success in addressing identity politics. Given this broad line of thought, it is only natural that the committee, while noting the cultural differences between the people of the two regions, concludes that the best option is to keep Andhra Pradesh united, with certain constitutional guarantees to address Telangana’s concerns. It recommends this option as workable despite the “concerns” in the areas of public employment — which is covered by an amendment to the Constitution — and water and irrigation.

The panel more or less backs a united state though it notes that violence could occur when this option is exercised. Supporters of Telangana statehood have argued that even the constitutionally-guaranteed mechanism covering government jobs has not resulted in equitable allocation of employment. That has been the biggest promise of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti: Jobs for youth. A statutory council backed by constitutional provisions will hardly satisfy them. The Srikrishna Committee, which was to point a way forward, appears to lead to a dead end. What is needed is honest action to address the concerns and the demands of Telangana supporters. But if anything, what the report points to, in its comparison tables, is the truly pathetic situation in Rayalaseema, where the development indices are worse than even in Telangana. The Srikrishna panel does not make recommendations because it is constrained by the terms of reference.

Deccan Chronicle, January 7