BJP biding its time

SPECIAL STATUS CONUNDRUM

Promises are perhaps more brittle than eggs. Sometimes they break under their own weight, with the one who made them not even being aware of it. It is pertinent to note that a promise is a mere string of words, which is nothing but wind. More often citizens in this country come across such a word given, but never kept by any political class.

Special Status to Andhra Pradesh seems to fall under this category. It is easier said than done, and hence would need more time to deliver on this promise. But, more importantly, it is the intent that matters more than when they (the BJP) intend to deliver on it, one could say.

When the nation was witnessing a bitter war of words and an acrimonious debate over the bifurcation of Telugus was raging, extraordinary concerns were aired about the needs of the soon-to-be partitioned Telugus of Andhra Pradesh. The most important of all the promises delivered to the people was according a Special Status to the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh after the reorganisation.

This assurance was given on the floor of the Rajya Sabha by Dr Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of the UPA-II Government. Dr Singh committed on the floor of the RS on February 20, 2014, that the successor State of Andhra Pradesh would be granted the Special Category Status. On March1, 2014, the Central Cabinet approved of this important decision and directed the Planning Commission to implementthe same.

Later, speaking on the AP Reorganisation Amendment Bill, Sonia Gandhi recalled the promise on 17th March, 2015, and demanded that the incumbent government implement all the promises made by her government. However, the hurriedly passed Bill made no mention of the Special Status at all. This came in handy for the BJP leadership and they joined hands with the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh to come to power, decimating the Congress.

Narendra Modi himself gave his word to the people of AP at a rally in Tirupati that he would accord the status to the State if he sailed to power. Since then, the issue (of Special Status) has made no headway at all and despite the strength of their partnership at the Centre, the TDP has been unsuccessful in negotiating it. Not surprisingly, there is heartburn over the issue among the TDP leaders.

The BJP central leadership is in no urgency at all in conceding the demand owing to its own constraints. However, the different voices being heard within the BJP over the issue are not ad hoc responses. They are carefully calibrated responses to the demands.

One need not look far to understand why the BJP is taking a divergent stand in relation to those in the government on this issue. Ministers like Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu - the latter a more vocal proponent of the Status - take shelter behind the constraints imposed on them by the Finance Commission in delivering the promise. The government is categorical in admitting that the Union Cabinet meeting held on March 2, 2014, directed the Planning Commission to implement the decision to grant Special Category Status for a period of five years to the successor State of Andhra Pradesh.

The Minister of State, Kiren Rijiju said on the floor of the Lok Sabha on July 22, 2014, that the Planning Commission was approached for the same status for a period of 10-15 years by the Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu. It was under consideration, he said. On yet another occasion, the Minister of State for Planning, Rao Inderjith Singh, clarified that such requests had been made several times by several States and the demands were under consideration.

The government's stand has been that the criteria laid down for according the Special Status for Plan Assistance has been granted in the past by the National Development Council (NDC) to some States that are characterised by a number of features necessitating such a special consideration. These include hilly and difficult terrain, low population density, a sizeable share of tribal population and economic and infrastructural backwardness and non-viable nature of State finances etc along with sharing an international boundary. Which of these AP fulfills, ask the Ministers indirectly.

That is the government arguing for you. Coming to the party itself, the delay is not due to the limitations that these conditionalities impose on the government. Sources in the party mince no words when they admit that "if any, it is a political decision. Yes, there is a problem to some extent in conceding the same because of the demands from many other States. It is not just the Bihar Assembly elections that pull us back from going ahead.

We need to look at the ground realities in AP too.” The ground realities that he is mentioning have got more to do with the political space that the BJP is looking for in AP to occupy. It is confident that its alliance with the TDP would, no doubt, continue. But, it is planning to strengthen its base in the State “as part of the future plan.” The party's general secretary, Muralidhar Rao, has been quite categorical in his assertion of late that "friendship apart, we would like to occupy as much political space as possible.”

The party is also not ruling out roping in senior leaders from other parties at the "right time and right moment to swell its numbers". It is aware of the fact that the space left open by the decimated Congress could be conducive to its growth. Hence, "the friendly race would be run and a friendly contest would be in place and there is nothing wrong if we aspire to strengthen our cadres and increase our percentages,” argues the BJP.

Against this backdrop, the senior leadership of the party contends that it is imperative that the party make deft moves in AP. Conferring a Special Status is one thing and reaping the political benefits out of it is another. It does not want to go the Congress way (as in Telangana) where despite conceding the demand for separate Statehood, it had to concede the political ground too to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Till then the negotiations would continue and demands could become more pronounced.

And the government i.e., the ministers would keep talking about conditions and stipulations. This is no rapid chess game, after all! The issue would not have been a controversy had the BJP maintained a status quo (in supporting the demand) on it. Yet, it preferred to queer the pitch for the TDP. Is this to test the political waters a bit?

The BJP leadership appeared to be keen on resolving the issue when the party president, Amit Shah, recently at his anniversary media briefing, held that talks were on and the promise would be kept. But he did not elaborate on whether AP's demand was linked to consensus among other heads of States in the National Development Council. How would it resolve the issue amicably now when even the neighboring States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and even Telangana are objecting to the same?