Telugu Desam and the art of dilly-dallying

Hyderabad, Sept. 12: The Telugu Desam has made dilly-dallying a fine art especially when it comes to Telangana. Nearly three months have passed by since the TD deputed a core committee to take a stand on the Telangana issue. But whenever the media asks TD leaders when it would fructify, the answer is, "Soon, very soon."

How soon is that? "When the core committee presents a report." When would that happen? "Soon, very soon". So it goes on. And no TD leader is willing to speculate what would happen when the committee finally presents a report.

The core committee has taken its own sweet time to hold a series of meetings and according to the senior leader, Mr Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, it would need some more meetings to come to a conclusion. It is safe to assume that the exercise would go on for an interminable time. Probably to ensure that the committee does not get to a conclusion, so to say, the party has arranged a lengthy schedule for it.

First, the committee has to get the opinions of all the stakeholders. It would start off with the MLCs, and then move on to the MLAs, MPs, politburo members, and the state executive members. This could take quite a while. The fact remains that nobody is expecting the TD to come up with an unambiguous stance on Telangana.

Even the Telangana Rastra Samiti, with which the TD wants to patch up an alliance, only wants the TD to say something akin to "we are not opposed to Telangana" or "we respect the Telangana sentiment." Some fine word-spinning would be enough for an electoral alliance.

The TRS would also like the TD to withdraw the letter given to the Pranab Mukherjee committee. The TD leaders think that an ambiguous stance on the issue would help it as it helped the Congress in 2004. Interestingly, the TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, is telling party workers that he has been given a solid assurance by the BJP leader L.K. Advani that Telangana statehood would become a reality if the NDA comes to power.This has created the impression that the TRS may support a BJP-led coalition after the polls, if not before. One does not know where that would leave the TD, which is now trumpeting the Third Front concept.