Hyderabad: After the AP State Reorganisation Bill, 2014 became an act, then Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said, albeit in a different way, that injustice had been done to Andhra Pradesh. “Telanagna took away the dulhan (Hyderabad). Why should it worry?” he asked implying that the bifurcation was unjust.
Now Telanagna is happy with its dulhan and Andhra has to find a new one. As the Telangana chief minister goes about spending money like water as he has loads of it, Chandrababu Naidu is unable to keep pace with him. After all Naidu doesn’t want to be looked at in a poor light compared with K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was originally from the TDP stable.
According to sources, Naidu has taken up the Amaravati project—to build a world-class capital outshining the dulhan—only to make KCR burn with envy. But the Centre has released only `2,500 crore for Amaravati.
Just as the way the separate Telangana slogan turned into a movement leading to the bifurcation, the special category status demand is showing all signs of exploding like a tinderbox. The special status denial is reopening the wounds of the bifurcation.
When the Centre took a U-turn within two weeks of promising Telangana in 2009, KCR formed a Joint Action Committee to fight for the state. Now Pawan Kalyan appears intent on cobbling up a coalition for the status. There are questions like how the status is difficult to come by when KCR could get statehood for Telangana.