Author: Ganesh S Lakshman
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 27, 2006
Just as TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao has
begun crowing that a separate Telangana is nigh with the passage of a bill
to that effect in the forthcoming session of Parliament, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen (MIM), the paramount party in the Old City of Hyderabad, has raised
a demand that would surprise all parties to the dispute: should Andhra Pradesh
be carved up into Telangana and Andhra, Hyderabad should be made an Urdu-speaking
state, or at least a union territory.
The party's MP for Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi,
says a consensus is emerging with the Muslim community of the city that there
be a separate state for the Urdu-speaking people, just as there are several
other linguistic states in the country.
"Urdu played a great role in the Independence
struggle. States so far have been divided on linguistic lines. There is a
great churning within the Muslim parties as well as the intelligentsia that
there should be a separate state for Urdu-speaking people," Owaisi told
TOI.
Referring to the Telangana issue, Owaisi said,
"When there can be talk of two Telugu-speaking states, Andhra and Telangana,
why not a state for the Urdu-speaking people?"
As the representative of a party which is
a partner in the UPA coalition, Owaisi said he met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and submitted a memorandum to them seeking
a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) as well as a Rs 10,000 crore
development fund for Telangana.
"But let me make one thing clear. If
Telangana is formed, Hyderabad should be made a Union territory. Warangal
can be the capital of Telangana and Rajahmundry or some other city the capital
of Andhra," he said.
The Muslim community here harbours an apprehension
that if Telangana is formed, it will end up in the hands of the BJP, as happened
with the creation of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
According to Owaisi, there being no strong
Congress leaders from Telangana, the Grand Old Party nor the TRS's K Chandrasekhar
Rao would be able to hold off a saffron surge.
Owaisi said leaders espousing the cause of
the people of Telangana were speaking of the lack of any development in the
region, but the plight of the Muslim community in the country was far worse.
"Muslims are the worst sufferers in terms
of jobs, etc. Most of the localities in the Old City do not even get drinking
water," he said.
It is because of these reasons that the MIM
and the Muslim community is veering around to the formation of a separate
state for Urdu-speaking people. "The idea is avidly being discussed both
in the party and the community," he added.
