Realising that the Telangana Bill was not going to be a reality in the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament, Congress Legislators and MPs from Telangana have decided to put pressure on the Union government to make a statement reiterating its commitment to implement its December 9, 2009 announcement.
To this effect they have decided to support the “non-cooperation” movement scheduled from February 17, despite knowing that the movement is intended to paralyse the whole administration in the Telangana region.
According to sources some of the ministers hailing from Telangana will raise the issue during on Monday’s Cabinet meeting.
The meeting is supposed to approve the text of governor Narasimhan’s address on February 17 during the joint session of AP Legislature. The Telangana ministers will insist that the Telangana issue is mentioned in the governor’s address.
The Congress leaders said that they have realised that the “non-cooperation” movement called by the Telangana JAC would be the last and final agitation for achieving a Telangana state and they cannot remain mute spectators. Congress MPs from Karimnagar and Nizamabad, Mr Ponnam Prabhakar and Mr Madhu Yashki Gowd said: “Unless the UPA government makes an announcement during the Budget Session, the people’s representatives of Congress cannot show their faces to the public and will be ridiculed.”
“We have realised that the Telangana Bill cannot be introduced in the ensuing Budget Session, but the UPA government has not announced whether it is going to grant Telangana or not, first it has to make up its mind and the Cabinet has to take a decision on the Telangana Bill,” Mr Prabhakar said.
MPs thus feel that the UPA government should at least make an announcement reiterating their commitment about the December 9, 2009 announcement. They said that Congress leaders would have to face a tough situation if an announcement was not made and they would be forced to take some “strong decisions” like resigning from their posts.