M A I N   N E W S

Srikrishna heads panel on Telangana
l Committee to consult all AP parties l Govt skips announcing time frame l BJP calls it a delaying tactic l TRS answer after terms of reference 
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 3
Almost two months after Home Minister P Chidambaram made the midnight announcement on the formation of a separate Telangana state that virtually led to chaos in Andhra Pradesh, the government today constituted a five-member expert committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge B N Srikrishna on the contentious Telangana issue.

The Home Ministry said the committee would hold wide-ranging consultations with all sections of people and different political parties and groups in Andhra Pradesh. Though officially no time frame was announced, sources said the panel had been given three years.

The other members of the committee are Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi; Abusaleh Shariff, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi; Ravinder Kaur, Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi; and Vinod K Duggal, former Home Secretary, who will also function as its Member Secretary.

Being extremely cautious on the issue that had all parties, including the Congress, divided, the government as of now has neither specified the terms of reference nor the time frame of the committee in the carefully-drafted statement, thereby giving an opportunity to the BJP to reject the newly-formed group “lock, stock and barrel”.

The official statement on the formation of the committee also made no mention of the word Telangana. The ministry said terms and references were being drafted and would be finalised in consultation with the chairman of the committee and announced shortly. However, the BJP called it a delaying tactic and futile exercise as no time frame or terms of reference had been spelt out for the committee. The party also termed as “irrelevant” the appointment of former Supreme Court Judge B N Srikrishna as head of the committee in a matter that was purely political. BJP spokesman Prakash Javedekar said: “Bifurcation of Andhra and creation of two separate states — Telangana and Andhra — is essentially a political issue, which requires firm political decision and action by the Central government. Instead of deciding the time frame to carve out the two states, the government has abdicated its constitutional obligation by shifting its responsibility on the shoulder of the committee.”

Defending the government, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said the announcement made today was part of the setting into motion the process. “I’m extremely sure that in this sensitive matter, a decision will be taken to the satisfaction of all,” she said.

Political observers feel this “buying time tactic” will give ample manoeuvrability to the government, which had came under fire from all sides for making a hasty announcement on the formation of Telangana, which it had to later retract following protests from the anti-Telangana lobby.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which has been spearheading the separate statehood movement, has said it would wait for the terms of reference of the committee before giving its views on it. “We are waiting for terms of reference of the committee to know if it is in furtherance to the December 9 statement made by Home Minister P Chidambaram. Then we can look forward to it. If it is a step back to explore whether to give Telangana or not then we will not be happy with it. We are demanding a committee for the formation of Telangana within a time frame,” K T Rama Rao, TRS MLA and party president K Chandrashekhar Rao’s son told agencies in Hyderabgad.

Chidambaram in the meeting with political parties from Andhra Pradesh on January 5 had said that the agenda of the committee would be to “deliberate on the mechanism and lay down a road map for consultations” on the Telangana issue. The meeting followed the Home Minister’s statement on December 23, last year, when the government had put on the back burner the formation of the separate state for which it had on December 9 promised to initiate the formation process.