Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to stay away from the all-party meeting convened by Union home minister P. Chidambaram on the Justice Srikrishna Committee report on January 6 in New Delhi. BJP state president G. Kishen Reddy has also informed Mr Chidambaram that since the party had opposed the Srikrishna Committee all through, it, too, would not attend the meeting.
The decision of the TRS and BJP (the BJP has also expressed support for the formation of a separate state of Telangana) to stay away from the meet is significant and might force other political parties to boycott it too.
Telangana Telugu Desam leaders Kadiam Srihari and Revanth Reddy on Sunday said they would request party chief Chandrababu Naidu to also not send representatives to the all-party meeting.
Mr Chandrasekhar Rao is of the opinion that inviting two representatives from each of the eight recognised political parties in the state will not serve any purpose as the meeting might end like the one on January 5, 2010, where the representatives were chosen by the parties in such a way as to present views in favour of two regions. In a letter addressed to the home minister, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao stated it was clear that the Union government was not going to solve the Telangana statehood issue in the near future and that the all-party meet had been convened only to dodge and prolong the issue.
He stated that instead of inviting only one representative, preferably the party presidents, the Union home minister’s decision to invite two to put forth two arguments before the all-party meeting was a clear signal of not resolving the issue. “It is not too late, you can still invite only one representative from the parties and elicit their views. If you do that then the TRS will attend, otherwise we will not,” stated Mr Chandrasekhar Rao in his letter.
BJP chief Nitin Gadkari confirmed to this newspaper that his party would not be attending the January 6 meeting. “Our Andhra unit chief has already announced it there. Yes, we are not attending this meeting,” said Mr Gadkari, whose party wants the creation of a separate state of Telangana.
He said the BJP would be holding a rally in Adilabad on Tuesday (January 4) where the party would highlight the Telangana issue as well.
BJP national spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said the party had clarified its position on the issue from day one — that it was committed to the formation of a separate state of Telangana. “We did not give representation before the Srikrishna Commission and we are not attending the meeting because a political solution is the only solution for Telangana. The government should table a bill on the issue in the Budget Session. The government had one year to discuss and deliberate and they (government) still want to further discuss this issue. Discussion and deliberation will only be a futile exercise,” Ms Sitharaman said.
BJP state unit chief G. Kishen Reddy, in his letter to Mr Chidambaram, stated that his party had been opposing the Srikrishna Committee since its inception, had been boycotting its proceedings, and thus would not attend.
He, too, has asked Mr Chidambaram to introduce a Telangana bill in the ensuing Parliament Session to end the present crisis.