Lok Satta Party national President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today appealed to the Union Government and national parties to set aside electoral considerations and strive to resolve the crisis in Andhra Pradesh at least now.
They should appreciate that Telangana and Seemandhra cannot be kept united or separated forcibly. As Abraham Lincoln said, public opinion is everything. Without it nothing can be done and with it there is little that cannot be done.
Addressing a media conference, Dr. JP said the Union Cabinet need not have wasted 64 days merely to endorse what the Congress Working Committee had decided on July 30 on the formation of Telangana. It ought to have utilized the interregnum to hold discussions with all stakeholders and harmonized the conflicting interests among people of the three regions of the State.
Dr. JP pointed out that while people in Telangana ardently demand self-rule those in Seemandhra are genuinely haunted by fears of insecurity. The Center has merely displayed complacency, lack of will and incompetence in recognizing the ground realities. When an immovable object meets with an irresistible force, disaster becomes inevitable. Far from recognizing this, the Union Government is staging a political drama keeping its sights on votes and seats in elections.
Dr. JP said the need of the hour is statesmanship and recalled how Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel integrated 562 princely States with the Indian Union peacefully with his foresight, tact, diplomacy, patience and restraint. In contrast, our present day rulers are living up to the maxim that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Dr. JP appealed to intellectuals, youth and media as also all political parties in the State to realize that no problem is intractable if they display sincerity and restraint. Asking people to set aside passions and refrain from violence, he told them that they should not cut the nose to spite the face.
Dr. JP said that the Lok Satta Party would do its best to douse the fires and help promote a solution that gives comfort or causes equal dissatisfaction among all stakeholders. Although past sins cast long shadows, it is never too late to retrieve the situation, said Dr. JP. Otherwise, there is the danger of Andhra Pradesh degenerating into another Lebanon or Somalia or Kashmir. He expressed the hope that the Union Cabinet Committee on the State’s bifurcation will sincerely and find solutions based on facts and logic.
State Lok Satta Party President Katari Srinivasa Rao, Vice Presidents D. V. V. S. Varma and Bandaru Ramamohan Rao and Secretary Nandipeta Ravinder took part in the media conference.
