Memoir demystifies Pranab Mukherjee’s Telangana line
The revelations in Pranab Mukherjee’s final volume of his autobiography, The Presidential Years 2012-17, released posthumously, have come as a surprise to the people of Telangana who were for long his admirers. In his autobiography, Pranab has said that at no point of time did he ever wish that Telangana should be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
All along, the people of Telangana believed that Pranab sympathised with the cause for a separate state. Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, who was Union labour minister then, used to liaise with him and when Pranab passed away last year, he had a motion moved in the state Assembly and paid him glowing tributes.
Now and then there were indications contrary to the belief that Pranab endorsed the Telangana demand, but not much importance was given to them. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who was part of a three-member committee that Pranab led to study the demand for a separate state, had said during UPA 1 that Telangana was a distant dream and that they as a committee were just whiling away time.
During the latter part of UPA 2, the then CM of Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy used to say that Pranab, who had become President by then, would not give his assent to the AP State Reorganisation Bill, come what may. In fact, Kiran, a cricketer himself, had once said that the last ball was yet to be bowled, implying that Telangana was an impossibility.
The first doubt over Pranab’s commitment to Telangana came in 2004 itself. It was said that at the insistence of KCR—a partner in UPA 1—Pranab had played a role in the inclusion of Telangana in the Presidential address, which said the demand for a separate state would be considered after due consultations and consensus.
Those who read between the lines felt that Pranab was behind the convoluted drafting of the sentence that seemed to suggest UPA 1 was in favour of Telangana, but was in fact against it. Pranab’s views on Telangana have no consequences now as it is a separate state, just because Sonia Gandhi stood by her word. The former President’s revelations would only put the history in a proper perspective.