True colours coming out

Hyderabad: The decision of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh has blown off the mask and presented the political leaders in their true colours. Political parties and leaders which have played hide and seek all these years are forced by the events to come out with their real agenda. Those who challenged Congress President Sonia Gandhi to take a decision on Telangana issue if she can are now finding it difficult to sustain their double-talk and equivocal stand.

Vijayamma, Honorary President of YSRCP, was the first to come up with an open letter declaring that her party is for united AP. She told the people that the bus campaign to be undertaken by her daughter Sharmila on Monday from Tirupati would be called ‘Samaikya Shankharaavam.” YSR’s daughter would be undertaking the bus journey parallel to that of TDP chief Chandrabau Naidu as she did during his walkathon. YSRCP was the first party to abandon Telangana and root for united AP by spearheading the movement in Seemandhra.

Chandrababu Naidu, the author of the two-eye theory who maintained the same stance until Sunday morning when he started his bus campaign called ‘Telugu Jaati Aatma Gaurava Yaatra’ at Pondugula village in Guntur district, has had to react to YSRCP’s announcement and tell the crowd that it was he who stopped NDA government from conceding Telangana. Naidu who would spend five more days in Guntur district would go to Krishna from there.

Naidu also promised to tour Telangana. He is more concerned with matching the YSRCP in the populist politics. In doing so, he at last lent some clarity to his stand on the Telangana tangle. While most of his speech was devoted to mount an unprecedented attack on Sonia Gandhi and Kiran Kumar Reddy besides repeating allegations about ‘monumental corruption’ by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, he blurted out that he had asked the NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee to keep the State united and it obliged out of respect for him.

This comment is likely to go against him in Telangana. If he plans to encourage his party leaders in Telangana to change the tack and campaign for united AP, that would be giving greater clarity and altogether new twist to his line. Otherwise, his comment at the Guntur district rally would confuse the TDP leaders in Telangana.

When 16 MLAs of YSRCP resigned in protest against CWC decision to bifurcate the State, almost all important leaders in Telangana left the party. What would be the attitude of the TDP leaders in Telangana? It is possible that Naidu may explain away his comment at the rally and assure the party leaders in Telangana that he would abide by his earlier stand of accepting the decision of division with a rider that it should be done without causing any pain to any region.

While both the opposition parties are trying to give greater clarity to their stand on Telangana question, the leaders of the ruling party are indulging in the same drama, adding new twists and turns every day. Political observers are surprised that the Congress high command is not bothered when its Chief Minister indulges in aggressive rhetoric and publicly questions the decision by one person (Sonia Gandhi) and one party (his own Congress party) and concludes that it is for the people to decide the fate of the State.

We have some ministers planning to meet the Governor on Monday with resignation letters and another minister who is planning an indefinite fast. People are wondering whether it is sheer indiscipline on the part of the Congress leaders or another part of the drama being enacted by them based on the script written by their party high command.