Surrendering to Telangana demand may harm the Congress image
NEW DELHI: According to US assessment of the situation in 2009, by “surrendering” to the Telangana statehood demand, the Congress opened a can of worms and came across as a party that appeared “weak and feeble” and one that can be “easily bullied and intimidated by threats”.
In a secret cable written on December 10, 2009, then US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said the ramifications of the “Telangana surrender” may go beyond Andhra Pradesh as similar demands that were simmering are likely to get a fresh impetus from the Telangana movement’s “overnight success”.
By conceding on Telangana, Roemer wrote, the Congress has potentially opened up a can of worms which was just emerging from the crisis it faced following the death of its Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in September, 2009.
Writing the cable a day after Home Minister P Chidambaram announced the formation of a Telangana state, Roemer said the Congress is likely to be faced with a floodgate of similar demands from other statehood movements across the country and the decision has created a split within its own party.
The cable, which has now been released by WikiLeaks, said, “…it appears to come across as weak and feeble, a party that can be easily bullied and intimidated by threats just six month after winning a decisive electoral mandate.”
Roemer also termed the Government’s decision as a “huge success” for the then fasting K Chandrasekhar Rao and the TRS, a party with “just two members currently in the Lok Sabha and only six in the state assembly, picking and winning the confrontation with the UPA represents a huge success.”
The cable also said the Indian Government “abruptly caved” on December 9 and gave the go-ahead for formation of Telangana on the 11th day of Rao’s hunger strike.
