8/22/2019 India in a State After Telangana

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Domino Effect

India in a State After Telangana

UP to Assam and Kashmir to Vidarbha, statehood demands get shriller after Andhra split

OUR POLITICAL BUREAU NEW DELHI

Congress decision to grant statehood to Telangana has given a fresh impetus to similar demands

from Uttar Pradesh to Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir to West Bengal, prising open a veritable

Pandoras box of regional movements across the country.

A day after the triumph of the Telangana movement, which triggered a shutdown in Rayalaseema

and coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati took the

lead in reviving the demand for breaking up Uttar Pradesh into four states.

In Assam, one person was killed and about 20 injured in police firing and incidents of violence in

Karbi Anglong, where the Congress office was also set ablaze amid efforts to mount pressure on the

government to concede the demand for a new state. Trouble Brews in Northeast

Other ethnic groups raised separate demands in Assam, just as many of their counterparts did in

various parts of the country, throwing up newer challenges for Congress ahead of the next elections.

We have always supported smaller states because they can be managed easily, Mayawati said in

Lucknow, seeking forward movement on an assembly resolution passed during her tenure as chief

minister for dividing the state into Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh.

Even as Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal reiterated its longstanding demand for creating a Harit Pradesh

out of the western parts of UP, the Mulayam Singh Yadavled ruling Samajwadi Party stuck to its

opposition to dividing the state. We have a strong majority in the UP assembly and will oppose anymove to divide the state, senior minister Shivpal Singh Yadav declared, even as Mayawati urged

central ministers hailing from the state to mount pressure on the Centre for its division.

The Telangana effect sparked trouble in the Himalayan districts of West Bengal as well, with Gorkha

Janmukti Morcha restarting the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland state. Its president Bimal

Gurung has already resigned as chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. In

Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the Centre for encouraging separatists and ruled

out the possibility of a bifurcation of the state. But GJM activists have threatened to intensify the

agitation. Once the present 72-hour shutdown ends on Wednesday, we will give a two-day respite

to people to stock provisions and for tourists and students to leave. The indefinite shutdown will

begin Saturday, a GJM spokesman said in Darjeeling.

There were also reports of fresh agitations in the Northeast in support of demands for creation of

Bodoland and Kamtapur states. While the All Bodo Students Union announced a series of agitations,

beginning Friday, in protest against the Centres discrimination towards the Bodos, the Biswajit Roy

faction of the All Koch Rajbongshi Students Union called a 36-hour Assam bandh from 5am on

Thursday in support of their demand for creation of Kamtapur state.

The clamour for a separate state of Vidarbha has also gained momentum, with pro-statehood

activists announcing their decision to hold rallies in Delhi in support of the demand. I have written

to (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi seeking immediate action on the demand. She had promised

to address the Vidarbha issue along with Telangana, said Vilas Muttemwar, Congress MP from

Nagpur.

8/22/2019 India in a State After Telangana

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The demand got more muscle on Wednesday when BJP promised its support to the Vidarbha

movement. The people of Vidarbha have been demanding a separate state for the past 40 years,

Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis said, adding the region has suffered because

Congress has always given the region a stepmotherly treatment. Over 2 lakh hectares in Vidarbha

have not been provided irrigation for 30-35 years because all the funds have been utilised only in

western Maharashtra. We will need about Rs 80,000 crore if the demands of Vidarbha are to be

satisfied. A separate state is the only answer, Fadnavis said.

The calls for reorganising Jammu & Kashmir have also turned shriller, with Panthers Party chief Bhim

Singh saying the Centre must read the writing on the wall and help reorganise the state. A day after

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah criticised the nod to Telangana, Singh argued, J&K is an unnatural and

heterogeneous union. All the three constituents of the state Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu Pradesh

can grow after the reorganisation of J&K on the basis of cultural, geographical and linguistic

identity of its three regions. Parliament must initiate the process without delay.

ON THE STREETS: The announcement of statehood for Telangana triggered protests across

Rayalaseema and the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday

Students of Osmania University celebrate creation of Telangana