US ambassador Timothy Roemer felt Congress may ‘go slow’ on Telangana – Wikileaks

The Congress Party came was being portrayed as “weak and spineless, caving at the first signs of trouble at the hands of a politically desperate has-been regional politician,” Roemer pointed out, adding prophetically that it may already be regretting the announcement. The Congress, he pointed out, may decide to go slow on the creation process.

However, Roemer saw Chidambaram’s statement that the Government will start the process of Telangana formation as a firm commitment. So sure was Roemer that the commitment was unbreakable, that, in his update on the issue, he did not even mention the possibility that the central government may back-track over the issue.

Though he was not very convinced about the way the Congress Party tackled the issue, he nevertheless titled his update: “Telangana: a new state is born.”

“The announcement [by Chidambaram on December 9] comes following intense pressure on the government due to a hunger strike undertaken by K. Chandrasekhar Rao, a member of parliament and president of the regional party Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS).

“Rao’s fast had entered its 11th day and his health had deteriorated considerably. In support of Rao’s fast, students of the state’s largest university had decided to go on a strike and take to the streets on December 10.

“Street demonstrations in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana region have been occurring over the last few days. Several self immolations by Telangana supporters have also taken place. The December 10 [next day] demonstration in Hyderabad promised to be a particularly large, impassioned and unpredictable one that forced the GOI to cave to Rao’s demands,” he noted.

Despite all this, Roemer pointed out, there were many reasons for the Congress to resist the demands of Chandrasekhar Rao’s TRS, which, as he pointed out, had just six members in the state Assembly and only two in the Parliament.

“There are many other statehood demands simmering in India. These demands are likely to get a fresh impetus from the overnight success of the Telangana movement. Within hours of the GOI’s Telangana decision, the Darjeeling -based Gorkha movement has called for a 96-hour Darjeeling closure and a fast unto death by its some of it members to press its demand that a separate Gorkha state be carved out of West Bengal.

“Similar demands could come from the Vidharba region of Maharashtra; the Bundelkhand and the Poorvanchal regions of Uttar Pradesh; and more obscure nascent statehood movements in other parts of the country,” he pointed out.

“..the Congress Party appears to have opened a can of worms.. It has created a split within the Andhra Pradesh unit of its own party; and it appears to come across as weak and feeble, a party that can be easily bullied and intimidated by threats just six month after winning a decisive electoral mandate,” Roemer, a former US House of Representatives said.

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