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The violence, which is on ever since the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhara Rao launched his fast, has now spread across Andhra Pradesh, showing the present administration of K Rosaiah in bad light.
That Rosaiah, anointed chief minister after the death of Y S Rajaasekhar Reddy, is weak was never in doubt as he has helplessly watched the lawlessness spread beyond the Hyderabad confines.
In addition to violence, the AP legislature has not been allowed to run its business with nearly 150 legislators from different parties opposing any move to grant statehood to Telangana.
The chaotic situation in the state has been accentuated with the resignation of 20 ministers belonging to the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions on Saturday.
The UPA government and the core committee of the Congress party are likely to take stock of the situation here early next week.
It is likely that senior ministers and the Congress high command will consider ways to bring the situation under control. Ironically, the Congress has a majority in the Assembly with 156 out of 294 seats, and despite this, the state is faced with instability.
A repeat of 1972
If the top Congress brass considers a spell of the Central rule to bring the state under control, it would be reminiscent of 1972 when the then chief minister, P V Narasimha Rao, was forced to step down in the face of widespread violence caused by a prolonged pro-Telangana movement.
That time the Rao government enjoyed a massive majority of 242 members in the state assembly.
In the face of a spate of resignations by legislators and ministers, the Centre is said to have advised the Rosaiah government to get the legislature session adjourned sine die on Monday as against the scheduled closure of December 23.
Speculation set to rest
There were speculations in the national capital that the Centre was also considering in terms of setting up of a second States’ Reorganisation Commission to look into the demands of carving out a number of new states. The speculation was also that it would look into the Telangana demand so that the issue was put in the backburner.
However, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, speaking to Deccan Herald, dismissed the suggestion. “There is no discussion on that score”, he remarked.
Demand doesn’t mean new states everywhere, says Pranab
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the demand for smaller states does not mean that new states would be created everywhere, reports PTI from Barasat, West Bengal.
“The demand for Telangana is 60 years old. This does not mean everywhere new states are to be created,” Mukherjee told reporters, after inaugurating a new hospital here in North 24 Parganas.
He said that so far Telangana was concerned, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had made a statement that “there were stages for formation (of a state). These are preliminary stages.”
A state, he said, has to express its views because the President would like to know it before recommending a Bill to be considered in the Parliament, he said.