HYDERABAD: The very next day after Union home minister P Chidambaram’s Dec 9, 2009 statement announcing steps towards creation of a state of Telangana, the then US ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, observed that in doing so, “the Congress appears to have opened a can of worms.”According to an unclassified diplomatic cable released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, Roemer commented that the party “appears to come across as weak and feeble” that can be “easily bullied and intimidated by threats just six months after winning a decisive electoral mandate”.On the other hand, he termed the development a “huge success” for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. “For Rao and the TRS, a party with just two members currently in the Lok Sabha and only six in the State Assembly, picking and winning the confrontation with the UPA represents a huge success,” he said.The US envoy said Rao’s poor health on the 11th day of his fast, frequent agitations in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana, self-immolations and the threat of massive demonstrations in Hyderabad as reasons for the government of India’s “abrupt” surrender. Interestingly, Roemer also refers to the intense behind-the-scenes battle for the top job between the then chief minister K Rosaiah and the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy. “The latter, not unhappy that Rao’s fast was creating discomfort for his rival, has encouraged the split within the party (Congress) on the Telangana issue,” he said.In a rather accurate prognosis, Roemer said Hyderabad could be a thorny issue. “Hyderabad business is dominated by the Reddy and Khamma communities...these politically powerful communities are unlikely to cede Hyderabad to Telangana easily,” he predicted.Roemer further felt it might be in the interest of the Congress and the government of India to go slow on the process of creating Telangana in the face of resignations by Seemandhra leaders.Winding up his cable, he put the entire issue in perspective, stating that “the ramifications of the Telangana surrender may go beyond Andhra Pradesh.” To substantiate his argument, he cited the Darjeeling-based Gorkhaland movement, which called for a bandh within hours after Chidambaram’s statement, and other separate state demands in the country. “The Congress Party (and the UPA government) may already be regretting its Telangana decision as more demands for statehood come out of the woodwork, the party splits in its stronghold of Andhra Pradesh and as it is portrayed in the media as weak and spineless, caving at the first signs of trouble at the hands of a politically desperate has-been regional politician,” he opined.
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