Telangana movement leader and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) said the people of the state would never forget the support of Manmohan Singh.
Published Dec 27, 2024 | 2:10 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 27, 2024 | 2:10 PM
Manmohan Singh with former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Telangana shares an emotional bond with noted economist and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who passed away on 26 December, since it was under his watch that its six-decade-long dream for a separate state came true.
The BRS which is highly critical of the Congress, however, has high praise for him for facilitating the creation of the new state in 2014.
Telangana movement leader and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) said the people of the state would never forget the support Manmohan Singh had lent for the creation of Telangana.
“He personally felt inside him the desire of the people for a separate and supported their cause,” KCR said.
The Telangana movement leader said the creation of the Telangana state was a milestone in history.
“In pursuance of this goal, the TRS (now BRS) joined the UPA in 2004 and I joined Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. The TRS as part of its strategy to make the Union government create a separate state, joined the UPA at that time,” he said
In 2004, the TRS fought the general elections in alliance with the Congress. The party won five seats in the 14th Lok Sabha and KCR was taken into the Cabinet and assigned the portfolio of Ports, Shipping and Waterways but he relinquished it with DMK, a key regional ally of the UPA from Tamil Nadu, insisting on it.
Later, he took the portfolio of labour and employment. This was all part of KCR’s strategy of getting the UPA into his debt and making it cede Telangana state.
It was during this period that KCR is understood to have sensitised the Congress about the demand of the people of the Telangana region for a separate state. He used to confer with Dr Manmohan Singh quite often on the Telangana statehood issue.
Manmohan Singh was the prime minister when the then Union home minister P Chidambaram announced the formation of Telangana state — on the night of 9 December 2009. It was Manmohan Singh who declared the formation of Telangana state on the last day of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014 who said that the country was capable of making difficult decisions.
At the time of the passage of the Telangana Bill, he had promised several incentives to Andhra Pradesh to facilitate the formation of the new state.
One such promise was according special category status to Andhra Pradesh in lieu of Hyderabad which went to Telangana. However, the promise, as it was not built into the Act, has remained on paper to date.
It was through this persuasion with Andhra Pradesh that Telangana could become a reality. Even though the Congress did not have a full majority in the House, he could get the bill passed with the support of allies, which showed his deft handling of the issue.
Telangana Congress leaders say they are indebted to Manmohan Singh as without his involvement and initiative Telangana would not have become a reality. The MPs had fought with the party high command for years, though it was against the party line.
On 13 February 2014, the Lok Sabha session witnessed Andhra Pradesh Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal letting out pepper spray at the Telangana Congress MPs. Ponnam Prabhakar, who is now the Telangana Transport Minister, suffered the most from the attack and he had to be shifted to a hospital on a stretcher. At a later date, he said he thought he had lost his vision completely.
In this turbulence, the bill was passed with Manmohan Singh standing steadfastly at the forefront. From the beginning, Manmohan Singh remained resolute even in the face of the MPs of his own party threatening to resign.
Reminiscing on his association with Manmohan Singh, Prabhakar said he had the fortune of being a member of the 15th Lok Sabha when Manmohan Singh was the prime minister. He said the people would remember him forever for the role he had played in the creation of Telangana state.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
