Hyderabad: Optimism rekindled among people of Andhra Pradesh as Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday announced in New Delhi that there will be decision within one-month on the Telangana statehood demand.
More than what the decision will be, everyone is happy that for the first time in years, the Government of India has come out with a specific time-frame for resolving the vexatious statehood issue.
Nobody, including the political parties involved, expected this response from the Centre as it had been dragging its feet on the issue that kept Andhra Pradesh on the edge especially in last three years.
Repeated pleas by various stakeholders to the Centre to take a call on the contentious issue virtually fell on deaf ears as the ruling Congress party appeared unenthusiastic.
Even at the all-party meet today, the ruling party could not speak in one voice despite all other parties making their respective stands clear.
Now that the Union Home Minister set a one-month deadline, the Congress will have no other option except to mark its position.
That the major political parties -- Congress and Telugu Desam -- are vertically divided along regional lines on the state bifurcation issue is a known fact.
But, the "mental separation" between common people of Andhra-Rayalaseema and Telangana regions is also an indisputable fact.
Everybody is thus waiting for the Centre to tell whether there will be geographical separation (of Andhra Pradesh) as well.
Meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao, the self-styled torch-bearer of the statehood movement, became the subject of sharp ridicule on social media following his reaction after the all-party meet and the call for a bandh in Telangana region on Saturday.
PTI
