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Friday, Oct 15, 2004

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INCOMPATIBLE MARRIAGE

ALL MARRIAGES OF convenience come under pressure as soon as interests diverge. No surprise then that the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti are at each other's throats over Statehood for Telangana. The two parties, brought together not by political chemistry but by alliance arithmetic, have incompatible political interests on the question of carving Telangana out of South India's most populous State. Although the Congress was quick to reach an understanding with the TRS prior to the May 2004 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, its promise on Telangana was limited to constituting a new States' Reorganisation Commission. There was no assurance of any kind on a separate State. With the Congress winning a comfortable majority in the State Assembly, and the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre being able to do without the support of the TRS, there was no existential pressure of any kind. Unlike the TRS, whose vote base is confined to the Telangana region, the Congress holds sway throughout Andhra Pradesh. Other than in the region, there is no popular support for the bifurcation of the State. Understandably, the party leading the Central Government is in no hurry to commit itself one way or the other on the Telangana issue.

But for the TRS, whose single point agenda is a Telangana State, any delay could spell erosion of a narrow support base. Top functionaries who began their political career in different parties are united only by their demand of Statehood for the region. Thus TRS leaders have been trying to keep up the pressure on the Congress. This has frequently led to a war of words. The latest in the series is the remark of the TRS' second-in-command, A. Narendra, that the Telugu Desam president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, who has been steadfast in his opposition to a separate Telangana, was a "much better enemy" than Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who was ambiguous on this issue. Congress leaders, including Dr. Reddy, took the alliance to the brink of a rupture by responding that the TRS was welcome to break away and join hands with the TDP if its leaders considered Mr. Naidu a better leader. The regional party was forced to back down. Some time earlier, its president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, did not win Congress hearts by announcing he would not hesitate to "drag to the bazaar" the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, if her party went back on the `assurance' of a Telangana State. Mr. Rao was subsequently obliged to clarify that he meant no disrespect to Ms. Gandhi. However, the strains in the relationship have become more visible since then.

A great part of the problem is the ambivalence of the Congress towards the concept of smaller States. Instead of adopting a clear and consistent policy, the Congress is allowing itself to be led by local situations and regional expediency. TRS leaders were quick to realise there was a divergence between the Congress' stand on Vidarbha and its attitude to Telangana. As they saw it, only electoral politics, not procedural difficulties, stood in the way of a separate Telangana. The Congress promise of a second States' Reorganisation Commission, which does not meet the demand of the TRS, actually serves only to hide the party's contradictory positions on the issue of smaller States. If the present truce between the two parties is to hold beyond the Maharashtra Assembly election, the Congress must give up its use-only-to-discard attitude towards an ally — and the TRS will have to come to terms with constitutional and democratic requirements while seeking to achieve its one-point programme.

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