Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR), who used to claim that ensuring statehood for Telangana was his only motive and for that he was ready to join with any political party, is now being viewed as a leader seeking continuation of stalemate on the issue. Just a few months ago, he offered to merge his party with Congress, if the latter made a notional promise on the floor of the Parliament favoring Telangana state.
But his announcements that the TRS will not merge with any other party and will continue even in Telangana state, makes us to believe that he has deep political intentions. He used to claim that TRS was not an ordinary political party, but a political movement with a single aim of achieving statehood for Telangana.
At a time when all the Congress leaders in Telangana region have lost hopes for the formation of separate state, he used to express lot of trust on Congress leadership stating that the Center is about to announce separate state in a month or two. But now when the Congress high command is moving swiftly to find out a lasting solution for this issue, he is saying that TRS will not trust the Congress unless and until the Telangana Bill is passed in the parliament. He was conspicuous by his silence for over a fortnight over hectic consultations at Congress high command on Telangana issue.
Breaking his silence for the first time after the Congress core committee meeting on Telangana, Rao said on Sunday at party headquarters: “Do not believe the Congress blindly. Congress has been deceiving the people on the Telangana issue since 1956. It is responsible for the merger of Telangana with Andhra. That was the beginning. The Congress can’t be trusted. No one in Telangana will believe Congress.” On the Congress core committee’s decision to refer the issue to the party’s working committee, he said the TRS does not want a resolution in favour of Telangana by the Congress working committee.
“Not mere introduction of T-bill in Parliament, we want it adopted. If the bill is adopted, then only will the people believe the Congress,” Rao said. A senior leader from the Telangana region commenting on Rao’s attitude said that the TRS chief is really not looking for a solution to the issue, as that would make his presence in the region irrelevant. He recalled that when he was part of Union cabinet in 2004, he had never referred this issue in the cabinet meeting or before Congress high command.
