Telangana: The real problem Congress faces

A crucial meeting between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and leaders from Telangana once again resulted in no concrete decision being taken on the issue of a separate Telangana.

During the meeting, Mukherjee said the consultation process on Telangana has already begun and the Telangana leaders should consider taking back their resignations since there was a lot of turmoil in the state.

Congress leaders from Telangana were, however, adamant and said they the assurances were not good enough. While this remains the official line that the Congress leaders from Telangana have been giving out, the real reason is that they are under tremendous pressure not to take back their resignations.

According to sources, the original ploy by the Congress was to bring pressure on the Union government and then take back their resignations after a couple of assurances were made. In fact, they had even agreed to take back their resignations once the government said it would withdraw Article 14 (f), according to which Hyderabad would not be a free zone any longer. This means only people from the Telangana region would be entitled for government jobs in Hyderabad.

However, for the Congress the ploy went wrong when members of legislative assembly from the other parties too came forward and began submitting their resignations. The MLAs from Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Smithi who have tendered their resignations have only done so to put pressure on the Congress.

Moreover, these MLAs are adamant that they would not take back their resignations, which has only increased the pressure on the Congress MLAs. During the various meetings held in New Delhi, the high command has been told about this situation. They have also been saying that if they return empty-handed or take back their resignations then it will spell doom for the Congress in Telangana.

Applying more pressure on the Congress are the various protests that are taking place in the Telangana region. Students, ordinary men and women and also government officials from the region have taken to the streets and are planning a series of protests over the next few days.

In addition to this, Congress MLAs have also sworn at the martyrs' memorial in Telangana that they would not take back their resignations until Telangana is formed. Sources say the Centre is seeking more time and is trying to drag on the issue so that the crisis blows over. However, it does not appear that it would be successful this time round since the pressures are different, with 40 per cent of the MLAs in the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly having tendered their resignations.

The Centre, meanwhile, has its own set of pressures. While the MLAs from Telangana have refused to budge, the Centre is coming under pressure from MLAs from Rayalseema and the Andhra region too. These MLAs have been threatening to resign en-masse if the Centre decides to give in to the demands of Telangana. The Seema-Andhra MLAs have at the moment been pacified not to take any hasty decision until this crisis blows over.

While there are meetings galore scheduled in New Delhi, the entire Telangana region continues to be on the boil with the bandh continuing for the second day. On Tuesday the bandh was total and it appears that it would be the same on Wednesday as well. Students are likely to take to the streets on Thursday and have set a July 10 deadline for an announcement on Telangana.

The students have also warned that the protests would intensify if the government ignores the deadline. Following this there would be other forms of protests including a rail roko across Telangana.