Congress Core Group discusses Telangana
The Congress' top leadership is still not fully convinced that creating a new State of Telangana is the best option for it. On Tuesday, a 90-minute meeting of the Congress Core Group at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence ended without any change in the situation, even as reports from Hyderabad suggested that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had taken a stern line with striking government servants. At the meeting, members of the informal group on Telangana, headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Singh on the consultations they had over the last few days with party leaders from both sides of the divide in Andhra Pradesh.
The leadership's concerns relate to two issues: whether conceding the demand for Telangana will not result in similar claims from other parts of the country, such as Vidarbha and Gorkhaland; and whether pleasing the people of Telangana will end in the Congress losing voter support in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra, the larger chunk of the State — and perhaps, destabilising the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. And the question what will happen to Hyderabad remains central in case of a division.
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad — a member of the informal group on Telangana, in his capacity of party general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, and who was a special invitee at Tuesday's Core Group meeting — had told journalists on Saturday that the leadership had given the visiting Chief Minister suggestions on how to deal with the agitation in Telangana. That statement, taken with the Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy's action since he returned to the State, suggests that the central leadership's first effort is to see if it can quell the agitation so that whatever decision is taken can be taken when tempers have calmed. In any case, if a material change in the situation is planned, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee may have to be called.
Posted by Ak Reddy
on 12:58.
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