FLAIR - REAR WINDOW

Front Foot
___________RAJEEV SHUKLA

State of Creation

The BUCK is not going to stop at Jharkhand.

After the creation of three states—Chattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand —the formation of the fourth state Vidarbha seems inevitable. The top brass in the Union Home Ministry also realise that the reorganisation of Maharashtra carving out a new state called Vidarbha could soon be on the cards. Even the Home Minister L. K. Advani does not rule out this possibility.

Nailing Naidu

So what if Chandrababu Naidu didn’t join the NDA government. Whenever the Telugu Desam chief visits the capital Vajpayee’s cabinet ministers — particularly the finance and the rural development ministers — run scared of his long wish lists. But not Pramod Mahajan. Recently the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs took on Naidu when he busted the myth of super IT status of Andhra Pradesh. Mahajan made it clear that Andra comes sixth in terms of IT export.

Moreover, Mahajan gave out figures stating that while the national capital Delhi tops the list of Internet density with 11,744 subscribers per million — followed by Maharashtra (3299n spmp), Tamil Nadu (with 2329 spmp) and Karnataka (1667 spmp) — Andhra Pradesh with its 664 subscription per million population comes even behind Gujarat which is 805 spmp and West Bengal (778 spmp). You bet Naidu didn’t relish the bitter truth.

In fact, while making his speech in Rajya Sabha on Uttaranchal, Advani announced a formula by which if any Vidhan Sabha passes a bill to reorganise its state, the Centre will accept the recommendation. Though the leaders of most political parties could not realise the vitality of the statement, it has opened the flood gates for the creation of many states in future. The agitation for the creation of Vidarbha is being launched only in August. Leaders like Vilas Muttemwar, Praful Patel and Dutta Meghe have already started making endeavours to give momentum to the demand.

Though creation of Vidarbha is a decades-old demand, it had died down over a period of time because of the tough stand of the Congress leadership and Shiv Sena. Now the demand is being raised by a sizeable number of Congress leaders only, and Congress has got a large number of MLAs from Vidarbha who will be supporting the demand in any event of passing the resolution in Vidhan Sabha. The BJP has always been a supporter of Vidarbha state and if it had mellowed down its voice over the past six years, it was because of its alliancewith Shiv Sena.

Although the leader of Rashtrawadi Congress Sharad Pawar belongs to western Maharashtra, all his key men come from Vidarbha, which include Praful Patel, Dutta Meghe and his good old friend N K P Salve. If the agitation for Vidarbha becomes serious and the bill is brought in the assembly for consideration it may be through with the support of BJP, Pawar Congress and Congress MLAs from Vidarbha. The irony of the whole system is that for passing such a bill it does not require a two-thirds majority in Vidhan Sabha. The bill for recommendation of a new state can be passed from state assembly with simple majority. With three
parties on one side it should not be difficult in Maharashtra assembly to get the bill cleared for the creation of the Vidarbha State. Now the entire issue lies with the politicians of the Vidarbha as to how they would handle the agitation. The BJP high command is in a mood to accept the demand if it gets the nod of the state assembly.

The crux of the matter is that if Vidarbha is created, the present government of Vilasrao Deshmukh will not last as most of the MLAs of Congress and the Rashtrawadi Congress are from this region. This may also be a temptation for both BJP and Shiv Sena.

With this Advani formula, the state of Telangana cannot be created as all the political parties of the state including Telugu Desam and Congress are opposing it. In fact, Telugu Desam is opposed to the creation of any new state apprehending the fresh problem of Telangana movement in Andhra Pradesh. People have still not forgotten the Telengana agitation and the role of M. Channa Reddy. Naidu doesn’t want fuel to be added to this demand.

Most of the speakers in Parliament were of the view that after the creation of these three states, no more states should be created. BJP’s own members like Shatrughan Sinha openly spoke against the creation of any new state in the future in front of Home Minister Advani. An example was also cited to the government by a couple of members that the division of Assam was done for the growth and development of the Northeast region. But the outcome of last several decades reveal that the creation of seven new states did not really help in this direction.

New-Age Sensibility

It seems the junior Abdullah is a much more sensible guy compared to his dad. The PMO and the Home Ministry find it much easier to handle it. It was music to Vajpayee’s ears that Omar said ‘‘openly in a private meeting’’ that the autonomy resolution masterminded by his father Farooq was not a reasonable document. He agreed with the Cabinet that one can’t bar the election commission and the supreme court from interfering in a state’s affair. The PMO had nobody better to tell Farooq that the resolution needed to be mellowed down.