Time has come for Telangana: Keshav Reddy

Pro-Telangana leaders cluster-bomb New Delhi in a bid to win the 42-year fight

The Telangana crisis has reached Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s doorsteps, with Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief Chandrashekhar Rao as well as Congress’ own Members of Parliament and Ministers issuing a ‘make or break’ warning to the UPA government.

“Telangana” parts of Andhra Pradesh, which has been shut down for the last 21 days, has seen three suicides on just 2 October. The pro-Telangana leaders are in New Delhi to convince the Centre as well as opposition that the time has come for the 42-year-old movement for a separate state to end. Five Telangana Congress MPs along with five ministers, two MLAs and one MLC met the Prime Minister asserting that he either issues a “statement which is pro-Telangana” or “put a definite time frame on the establishment of the new state”. 

Rajya Sabha MP Keshava Reddy, who is the chairman of the Telangana Congress steering Committee, speaking to TEHELKA, said that the delegation told the PM that the Telangana movement cannot wait anymore. “We told him that all the ministers, MLAs and the MLCs will resign if there is no movement on the issue. There will be no government then,” he said. “He gave us a patient hearing as we asserted that the prejudice against Telangana must end,” he added.

Sources revealed to TEHELKA that the sticky issue troubling the Congress over taking a tangible decision on Telangana continues to be the question of the city of Hyderabad. The other two issues that need resolution are issues of water sharing and power. Since Telangana is home to the coal belt, which is a major source of power for the whole of Andhra Pradesh, matters pertaining to consumption and distribution of power is proving to be tricky terrain. However, pro-Telangana leaders have always asserted an open minded approach on all the above issues.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj too expressed her support for Telangana on Twitter. “Members of Joint Action Committee of Telangana met me along with Shri KCR President of TRS and Shri Vidya Sagar Leader of BJP. I reiterated our stand that we are in favor of creation of separate Telangana State. We demand that the Government should bring a bill for this purpose. We will lend our full support and get it passed,” said Swaraj. 

G Vishnu is a Correspondent with Tehelka.com.
vishnu@tehelka.com