Antony committee an 'eye wash': Duvvuri

Citizen’s Initiative secretary calls for boycott of panel

Kakinada: Secretary of The Citizen’s Initiative Duvvuri Subrahmanyam said that the Antony committee is not a committee set up by the government but one which has been set up by the Congress party as an eye wash for the Seemandhras. This is not of any use to anyone, he added.

Expressing great resentment against Antony committee, he questioned as to why the Congress leaders who were so enthusiastic in implementing the separate State decision of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), spike the decision of the then CWC which approved the candidature of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for prime ministership. The Antony committee is not meant to unite Telangana and Seemandhra but only to discuss the ‘alimony’ for Seemandhra region, he said. The Congress has made it clear that it is ready to discuss anything but united AP and the divorce is inevitable, he observed.

Mr Duvvuri opined that at this juncture anyone who genuinely wants united AP will boycott the Antony committee. It was a mistake to bring Andhra and Telangana together against the suggestion of the States Reorganisation committee led by Fazil Ali, he said. To put it in Pandit Nehru’s words, it will be “a matrimonial alliance having ‘provisions for divorce’ if the partners in the alliance cannot get on well”, with reference to Telangana and Andhra merger in 1956. But because of the destruction of the alliance today the Seemandhra people have only mental strife, he said.

He further observed that Hyderabad which is now being referred to as part of Telangana would not have been so had it not been for the initiative of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was he who saw to it that Hyderabad consented to merge with India by using police action within five days when the Nawab wanted to merge it with Pakistan. Nehru wanted to refer the matter to the UN. Had Sardar Patel not been Home Minister then, Hyderabad would have become another Pak occupied Kashmir, he revealed. Because of the special facilities accorded to Telangana there exists a thin line of separation between Andhra and Telangana and each one’s estimate as to who lost more in this is different. The demand for separate States disrupts the national fabric and may pose a threat to sovereignty. He opined that there should be a moratorium on separate States by the Centre as demanded by Trinamool Congress.