His admission of 'guilt' for the deaths of pro-state agitators has energised the BRS campaign and inflamed Telangana passions again.
Published Nov 17, 2023 | 12:47 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 17, 2023 | 12:48 PM
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Member P Chidambaram criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governance in Hyderabad on Saturday. (supplied)
At a time when the ruling BRS is finding it difficult to get traction with voters to its attempts to reignite Telangana passions, former Union home minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram’s apology for the loss of lives during the struggle for statehood has come as a godsend.
As the zeitgeist of the movement is lacking in the state now, the Telangana slogan appeared to have outlived its political utility. The turbulent days of the movement are now a distant memory for the people of Telangana as about a decade has gone by since the formation of the state.
The BRS, which is raring to score a hat-trick this time, has been struggling to find an emotive issue to consolidate people in its favour as it had done in 2014 and 2018.
As elections are less than a fortnight away and the Congress appears to be making rapid inroads into the BRS vote banks, Chidambaram’s comment at a news conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday, 16 November, gave a new lease of life to the BRS party to power its campaign in the direction that would promise rich political dividends.
Chidambaram, answering a question, said that he was aware that lives had been lost in the people’s movement for a separate Telangana state and that he was sorry for those deaths. He added that, at the same time one should understand how difficult it was for the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at that time to divide the state as there was opposition from people of Andhra.
He said: “I still remember whenever I called the MPs of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh for talks over dinner, they never used to mix. In fact, they used to be at different tables for dinner.”
He said that when Andhra Pradesh state was created, it was in response to a people’s movement for a separate identity for the Telugu-speaking people.
“In 2014, too, the state was created in response to a similar movement,” he said and wondered whether Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was under the impression that the state was created because of him.
“Is he under that impression?” he asked, looking incredulously at a media person. “If so, people would tell him that he is not in the ensuing elections,” he added.
Chidambaram, while regretting the deaths of Telangana activists during the agitation for a separate state, sought to turn the tables against KCR for the suicides that took place under his dispensation. “How about suicides by 4,000 people since KCR took over in 2014? Who is responsible for them? A suicide is always a very unfortunate incident,” he said.
Chidambaram perhaps did not anticipate was how his admission of “guilt” for the deaths of pro-state protagonists was going to energise the BRS campaign to inflame Telangana passions once again.
Grabbing the opportunity, BRS working president KT Rama Rao said on X (formerly Twitter) that Chidambaram was too late in expressing regret, and what he said was too little.
Said he: “Too late and too little, Chidambaram Ji. Your party is solely responsible for taking the lives of hundreds of Telangana youngsters from 1952 to 2014. No matter how hard you try now, the people of Telangana will always remember the brutalities Congress perpetrated on us.”‘
Too late and Too little Chidambaram Ji
Your party is solely responsible for taking the lives of hundreds of Telangana youngsters from 1952 – 2014
No matter how hard you try now, people of Telangana will always remember the brutalities Congress perpetrated on us https://t.co/ifUGOTAK93
— KTR (@KTRBRS) November 16, 2023
Finance Minister T Harish Rao also pounced on the opportunity to play on the raw nerves of the people who were slowly forgetting the wounds inflicted on their psyche in the struggle for bifurcation of the state.
He said Chidambaram’s admission of responsibility for the deaths and expression of regret was like the murderer mourning the death of his victim. He said on X: “Several youths sacrificed their lives only after the central government took back Chidambaram’s statement on separate Telangana state.”
For KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, the Telangana slogan rained votes in tonnes in 2014, as also in 2018.
In 2014, KCR, riding on the crest of the popularity wave in the wake of the formation of Telangana, cruised to power in the new state with 63 of 119 seats.
In 2018, when the Telangana slogan was losing its sharp edge, the entry of TDP chief and then Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu into the state’s electoral battlefield in an alliance with the Congress, saw KCR using the development to his advantage.
He portrayed Naidu as the villain who opposed creation of Telangana to rally people behind him. He described TDP chief as an alien leader riding roughshod over Telangana people and their self-respect in their own land, and also castigated the Congress for entering into an alliance with an Andhra party.
With his rhetoric, he managed to change the mood of the voters overnight and steam-rolled to power with 88 of the 119 seats.
