Moily Clarifies Telangana Committee

AICC in-charge for AP affairs Veerappa Moily came up with a potentially troublesome statement today in New Delhi when he said categorically that the proposed committee for Telangana was being formed to take the opinions of the people of all regions into account.

What this means is that any assumptions that the committee is being formed just to come up with a mechanism to divide the state are wrong. The question of whether the state should be divided is also going to be addressed by the committee.

This is likely to provide a spark again for T-leaders who have led themselves, or at least their constituents, to believe that separate statehood was an impending reality, and that the committee was just going to handle technicalities.

Moily also said that the committee was still at a proposal stage, and that its terms of reference and its members are yet to be finalized.

Equally importantly, Moily told all AP Congress leaders to stop making public statements on Telangana, and that there would be action taken against them by the Congress high command if they did. He also told the AP Congress to drop out of the Telangana political JAC.

Congress MP and influential local Telangana Congress leader K Kesava Rao refused to comment on Moily's statement, as did Professor Kodandaram, who said he needed to see the written statement by Moily first.

Visakhapatnam MP D Purandeswari, another Congress leader, also said that the committee intended to study demands of people of all parts of the state, and not take a one-sided decision.

Meanwhile, TDP Seemandhra leaders are leaving for New Delhi tomorrow to meet the Home Minister Chidambaram and discuss the committee with him.