October 6: violent protests in Vizianagaram forced the administration to impose a curfew
Politician Chandrababu Naidu today said the centre's decision to divide the state of Andhra Pradesh is "immoral." Then he made it clear who is responsible for the move that has left large parts of his state engulfed in violent protests.
Mr Naidu, who heads the regional Telugu Desam Party, said that Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema are "immobilismo." He said he was commissioning Italian to make sure that the Centre understands the scale of the crisis it has commissioned. (
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Mr Naidu's jab was aimed at Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress party, which anchors the ruling coalition at the Centre and decided last week that the process of dividing Andhra Pradesh to create a new state of Telangana must begin immediately.
Another regional powerhouse, Jagan Mohan Reddy, stole the march on Mr Naidu by 48 hours in two ways - he started a hunger strike on Saturday and publicly censured Mrs Gandhi. "Someone wanted their son to become PM and divided the state," Mr Reddy had said in Hyderabad, referring to Mrs Gandhi's son, Rahul, who is No 2 in the Congress and has been urged by his party to accept its prime ministerial nomination. (
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Though Mr Naidu has begun a hunger strike in Delhi today, he refused -as he has in recent months- to comment on whether he believes the region of Telangana, which has campaigned to be a state for several decades, is getting what it deserves.
That waffling represents the political quagmire that Telangana has spawned for so many parties- it is politically strategic and will elect 21 parliamentarians once it is a state; on the other hand, leaders from the non-Telangana areas of Andhra Pradesh say voters will not forgive them for ceding the separation of the financially robust region.
The centre first committed to statehood for Telangana in 2009, after most parties from Andhra Pradesh said they were in favour of the move. But that support was rapidly recanted after violent protests in the two other parts of Andhra Praddesh - Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.