'Centre ignited Telangana fire, it must douse it'

Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday accused the Centre of stoking fire by announcing the "shocking decision" about creation of separate Telangana state and said the onus lay with it to douse it.

"The Government of India has made it a fully complicated issue now... It is now for the Government of India to douse the fire ignited by it," he told a press conference in Hyderabad.

Naidu accused Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister M Veerappa Moily of stoking the emotions of the people in Andhra Pradesh by their "hasty and thoughtless decision".

"It is now beyond political parties and beyond the leaders. It (the reaction) was so spontaneous that MPs (Members of Parliament), MLAs (Members of Legislative Assembly) and other elected representatives cutting across party lines, have tendered their resignation from their respective posts. In fact, even political parties have split vertically on the issue," he said.

Claiming that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah was kept in the dark, the TDP leader said the Congress did not even consult its United Progressive Alliance partners on such a sensitive issue.

This became evident following the statement of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who charged the Centre with taking a hasty decision, Naidu said.

Naidu, who is the leader of the opposition in the Andhra assembly, said, "The chief minister became helpless, as he was kept in the dark about the Centre's hasty decision." Blaming the Congress for "doing nothing" in the last five years on Telangana, he said, "It (Congress) could not convince the people or its own partymen. It could not build a consensus on the separate statehood issue among various parties or even within it." Naidu, whose party had supported the formation of a separate Telangana state during the elections earlier this year, parried a question on if there would be any change in his party's stand on the issue in the wake of the ongoing agitation for a united Andhra Pradesh.

"People did not give me mandate in 2009 despite our stand on Telangana. Now, we have to discuss everything again in the party and take a decision. We are a very disciplined party, but we too are unable to find a solution to the current crisis," he said.