Delhi fears Telangana fallout in Northeast
The Union home ministry in a note prepared on the vexed Telangana issue has warned of a direct fallout of giving separate statehood to it in the Northeastern region on the country. Cautioning the government of some very serious consequences, the home ministry has referred to more than half a dozen pending statehood demands in the Northeastern part of the country which can get a fillip if the Centre accedes to dividing Andhra Pradesh to carve out a separate Telangana state.
“Telangana’s impact in the north east cannot be ignored. The concerns are being put before the Cabinet before a final decision is taken,” a senior home ministry official said.
While there are demands for separate State of Bodoland and separate hills State status for Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong districts in Assam, four eastern Nagaland districts also seek statehood. Here, the demand for a “Frontier Nagaland” is cutting across party lines. Further, the Kukis in Manipur demand statehood. There are also demands for an alternative administrative arrangement for the Nagas living in Manipur.
The MHA has also been apprised of the demand for creation of an Autonomous Tribal State (ATS) in Manipur.
The fresh unrest in Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) areas in western Assam during panchayat polls last week further come as a grim reminder to the MHA of the lurking unrest in the region.
The home ministry officials said that the Telangana issue cannot be resolved in isolation. They said that the move to grant statehood to Telangana can not only reignite the Gorkhaland movement and the separate state demand for Vidarbha in Maharashtra, the maximum fallout of such a move may impact the Northeast region most.
In the backdrop of the Telangana movement seeing reverberations in Northeast, the emerging opinion in the ministry is to empower the Telangana region by granting territorial autonomy to it on the lines of Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) or the Bodoland Territorial Council.
The Centre and the Congress party however are yet to take a final decision.
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