New Delhi: Home Minister P Chidambaram
has said political parties in Andhra Pradesh must help the
Centre find a solution to the Telangana issue but they are
divided and a solution cannot be thrust down their throats.
"This is a unique situation where political parties in
Andhra Pradesh are divided down the middle. Congress, Telugu
Desam, CPI, CPI(M) are all divided. The only party which
claims to be undivided is BJP because it has only one member,"
he said.
Therefore, he said, the political parties were divided
and "we cannot thrust the solution down the throats of
political parties who represent the people”.
Chidambaram said so far as the Congress party was
concerned, the effort was to unite the party and find a
solution that was acceptable to all Congress MPs and MLAs.
This was what was being tried by his colleague and Union
Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.
"The other parties must all do the same thing. For
example, Telugu Desam must try to do the same thing. Unite
all Telugu Desam members to find an agreed solution. It is
easy to say you have not found a solution but anyone who
tells us we have not found a solution has no solution
either," he said.
Asked about some critics accusing him of "going back"
on the promise of Telangana, the minister said the government
took a position as the Home Ministry and as Home Minister I
made the statement on behalf of the government on December 9,
2009 and then when protests broke out in other parts of Andhra
Pradesh, Government reconsidered the matter and revised its
position and I made the second statement on December 23, 2009.
"I was speaking on behalf of the government. So if it
is anyone`s case that the Home Minister can unilaterally
announce or withdraw an announcement, one must be very naive
to think so," he said.
PTI
