Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) Congress’s Madhu Goud Yaskhi, who is among the MPs who have tendered their resignations to press for a separate Telangana state, said Friday that the lawmakers who have quit their posts will never accept the recommendations of the Srikrishna Committee.

“We will never accept the Srikrishna Committee report. The centre is losing 10 MPs, but we have no other option,” said Yaskhi, parliament member from Nizamabad.

Yaskhi, who gave in his resignation letter July 4, said: “We have decided that there will be no more innocent deaths in the Telangana region.”

“People have killed themselves for the cause of the Telangana,” the former New York-based lawyer turned parliamentarian said, citing examples, at the launch of the book, “Battleground Telangana: Chronicle of an Agitation”, written by Kingshuk Nag at the India International Centre here.

He said the constitution was very clear about the majority consent in case of a debate over a separate state. If majority of the people from the area consented, “it did not require wider consultations”.

The Andhra Pradesh government had sought wider regional consultations on the issue.

Fifteen Members of Parliament and 100 legislators have quit their posts over the Telangana issue.

“For me, as a representative of the people and as a lawyer, my people’s cause is important,” he said.

Referring to a reported “secret chapter in the Srikrishna Commission report which advised against the creation of Telangana”, the former MP said “Justice Srikrishna must have been a secret service officer in some life”.

“How can he recommend an unconstitutional method against a public movement. We welcome a debate across the table over Telangana,” Yaskshi said. He said the Telangana region and the Andhra Pradesh region have lived for 50 years like twins “with different cultures”.

The book, which chronicles the movement for a separate Telangana state in the historical context of the creation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, says at the heart of the problem is the city of Hyderabad which lies in the middle of the proposed Telangana state - but is being claimed by both sides.

Author Kingshuk Nag suggests a Hong Kong-type model for the administration of Hyderabad through a city government with a legislature and ministers.

“The government could be given limited powers with respect to land use, taxation and some aspects of law and order. But it would be incumbent on the city government to give off its revenues to the Telangana government,” Nag said.

The government has taken no decision, Nag said. “What started as a political movement has become a people’s movement. The creation of Telangana can’t be a standalone thing, along with it the government has to create at least seven more states - like Gorkhaland, Vidarbha. It would need another re-organisation of the map of India,” Nag told IANS.

The Srikrishna Committee, which submitted its report in December last year, has suggested six options but strongly favoured maintaining status quo. Telangana groups rejected the report and want the centre to table a bill in parliament to fulfil the promise made in 2009.

The book has been published by HarperCollins India.