Addressing a press conference here, PMK leader S Ramadoss said while the long-pending demands for carving out a “separate” Telangana from Andhra Pradesh and “Vidarbha” from Maharashtra were justifiable, the UPA government should consult all stakeholders.
“Small is beautiful” is the maxim on which the PMK mooted the creation of “smaller states” nearly a decade ago, he noted. The party had then first raised the issue of carving out a new state from north Tamil Nadu, comprising nearly 13 districts, where the “Vanniyars” are the dominant caste-group.
“When I first raised this demand, there was a huge protest in Tamil Nadu. But now there won’t be any opposition to it after the Telangana developments,” Ramadoss said. “I don’t need to elaborate our demand, as new proponents of bifurcation have now cropped up,” he said.
Maintaining that the Congress should have resolved the Telangana issue much earlier as it was part of the UPA’s “common minimum programme”, Ramadoss disagreed with some Opposition parties, including the Left, that creation of more states would undermine the 1956 reorganisation of Indian states on the basis of a common language.
He said deferring a decision for “political reasons” would only lead to violence as seen in Andhra Pradesh. Administrative rationale and development of backward regions should be the guiding principles in the bifurcation of bigger states including UP. Smaller states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal and the Union Territory of Pondicherry were doing well, he added.