The following article was written for Niti Central. Posting it here for reference.
“I bow my head before the Congress Working Committee (CWC) decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh. I request them to take back their decision regarding AP bifurcation.”
This epic level statement that gives the word contradiction a whole new meaning was given by the AP Congress president, Botsa Satyanarayana. And this statement in a way summarises the total confusion that Sonia Gandhi imposed on the people of the State.
It has been 100 days since the CWC announcement on Telangana was made. In multiple articles, we have captured the confusion that prevailed since day one. Even though 100 days have passed, Sonia Gandhi did not speak to the people of the State. For some weird reason, she found it not fit to even tour the State when it was badly affected by recent floods. So much for her care and concern for the people of Andhra Pradesh.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) she had constituted has suddenly picked up pace. In a surprise move, they have asked all political parties to respond to the terms of reference of the GoM. And the parties were given a whopping five days to respond back. However, the TDP has decided to boycott the GoM. The BJP is mulling over the contents of it’s reply yet.The Congress from AP sent two reports. One is a 100 page report from the Telangana unit of Congress. The other is a one page letter from the Seemandhra unit asking for a united AP!
The GoM now has given each party a whopping 20 minutes to present their case on November 12 and 13. Twenty minutes to seek opinion on a fundamental issue like the State bifurcation and then on the November 18, they plan to meet the Union Ministers from AP. But till date, we really don’t know officially what the GoM has discussed and how it proposes to resolve various contentious issues.
As usual, the leak department of Congress is in full flow. Various reports suggest that Hyderabad will be Union Territory, Hyderabad will be under Governor’s rule, Hyderabad’s status has not yet been decided etc! The worst part being that there is not even a semblance of clarity on when the AP Assembly will get to discuss this Bill. Fellow tweeter and blogger, KV Sarmaj commented that even after 65 years of Independence, the Union of India has no set of rules that govern the formation/split of a State! Digvijay Singh lied openly to the people of AP that the Assembly will discuss the issue twice. Now, Shinde says it will only be once – Digvijay Singh does not even bother to apologise or clarify. Isn’t it a shame that we rely only on precedents for an issue as basic as this? UPA’s contempt to established institutions is anyway known – atleast when dealing with redrawing boundaries, couldn’t they have formulated a more humane approach?
The Anthony Committee never visited AP. Sonia Gandhi last visited AP four years back. The GoM has no plans of visiting AP. Why is the human angle missing in this process? Why are people being left in the lurch? Why do we have to go through this ‘leak’ policy every single day? This dictatorial attitude of pushing through the Bill will rank as one of the worst disasters of Sonia’s UPA.
In these 100 days, the role of ‘national media’ has been near negligible. In any other major democracy, such lack of governance in a State for 100 days would grab national headlines. The farce of resignations that flew back and forth would have invited the wrath of the media. Perhaps, if AP was ruled by the NDA, then we would have got more eyeballs at the national level? When the announcement was made, reports suggested that Ghulam Nabi Azad was keen to complete the process within 180 days. Hundred days and we are still nowhere – wonder how they will complete the process in 80 more days!
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