By IANS,
New Delhi : The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), spearheading a movement to carve out a separate Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh, said Sunday it was prepared to wait for a “reasonable period” if the central government was sincere in creation of Telangana.
“We are prepared to wait. There is a constitutional procedure and legal formalities have to be completed,” K. Jayashankar, a Telangana ideologue, told IANS.
Jayashankar represented TRS along with party chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao at the government’s talks with eight recognized political parties of Andhra Pradesh on Jan 5.
Both Jayashankar and Rao have stayed put in Delhi since the talks in the hope of a government announcement to take forward the process of creating a new state. Rao has not spoken to the media for the past five days.
Jayashankar, 75, who has striven for a separate state since 1952, said the struggle for statehood will be “intensified” if the government soft-pedals on Telangana.
“People are restive. We will wait for a day or two for the announcement and go back (to Hyderabad). We will review the situation with political parties and other sections of society.”
The TRS, he said, had made it clear to the government that it cannot back track on its Dec 9 announcement to initiate the process of forming Telangana.
On the government saying it wanted to have more consultations, Jayashankar said the TRS was not concerned about the mechanism the government adopts for more talks. “What we want is clarity about the purpose of consultations – whether these will work out the mechanics for implementing the Dec 9 announcement.”
He said the party was keen on clarity about the objective of future consultations and also on a time-frame for creating the new state.
Asked to define “reasonable period” that Telangana supporters were willing to wait for creation of a new state, Jayashankar said “five-six months”.
He said the government had held extensive consultations both at the national and state levels before the Dec 9 announcement and there was no need of further talks.
“Home Minister P. Chidambaram has laid emphasis on primacy of political parties in a democratic set up and they have given their views in writing on creation of a new state. If consultations are to be held these should involve the parties which have differences.”
Jayashankar said the agitation in Andhra region against the new state was orchestrated by “vested interests including real estate agents and corporate house sharks” and the government should not have “succumbed to pressure” by issuing a statement on Dec 26 to have wider consultations.
He ruled out any compromise on inclusion of Hyderabad in the proposed new state.
Jayashankar defended overground Maoist sympathisers supporting the demand for Telangana, saying: “Should we say, do not support us?”
He dismissed apprehensions that the new state will lead to growth of Maoism. “The advent of Naxalism has been due to neglect and lack of development in this region,” he said.
Asked if the 11-day fast of the TRS chief had forced the government to agree to creation of Telangana, he said it was the peoples’ agitation during his fast that led to the Dec 9 announcement.