Telangana gets a communal hue
HYDERABAD: Votaries of Telangana appear to have suddenly hit a major roadblock with the forces against a separate state now painting the issue as a communal one and a Hinduvta cause.
The latest to join the anti-Telangana stand is the Samajwadi Party, whose president Mulayam Singh Yadav said on Sunday that his party was opposed to the creation of smaller states. He was seconded by MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who said the lives of the minorities would be under threat as the demand for Telangana was basically a BJP gameplan to seize control of the region and target the Muslims.
While Mulayam may have made a general statement, it acquired a special meaning as it was made by him during a visit to Bhainsa and Vatoli in Adilabad district that were rocked by communal clashes recently along with Owaisi. Clearly, the SP leader was seconding the MIM's argument that the issue became communal.
Mulayam also said that he would do his best to convince the Congress not to take up the Telangana cause. Keeping in mind the fact that the SP is a major ally of the Congress, the ruling combine at the Centre will have to consider the suggestion. Thus projected at the Centre as a communal issue, chief minister YSR's stand against Telangana statehood on the claim that it would make the lives of Muslims in the separate state insecure, seems to gain increasing credence by the day.
