Leading English daily Times of India today published a banner news story saying that the Centre has decided to offer a special package to the Telangana area in tune with the package offered to the Darjeeling area by the West Bengal government.

The story says that Centre will soon offer to the pro-Telangana elements and groups a package to the Telangana area similar to the Gorkhaland model which includes the formation of a special council for the Darjeeling area with wide ranging powers and a broad financial package.

If this were to be accepted by the pro-Telangana elements, a Telangana Regional Council with constitutional guarantees will come into force.

“Neither the UPA government nor the congress president Sonia Gandhi is interested in granting statehood to the Telangana area,” said the daily quoting its highly placed sources in the AICC. It further says that the party leadership has already instructed the Union Minister and in charge of AP Congress affairs Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad to offer this package to the Telangana leaders soon after his return to India from his international jaunt.

The congress party high command’s line was indirectly announced by the Union Minister Mr S. Jaipal Reddy who said recently the party would never encourage regionalism or sub regionalism in the country. His statement, on the occasion of the new PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana’s taking over the party reins in the state, has clearly hinted that there won’t be any Telangana state.

It is however doubtful whether the Telangana groups which included the TRS and the Telangana political JAC would ever accept this package to be offered by the Centre.
It is true that the Gorkhaland Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which has been fighting for the separate state of Gorkhaland for the last 15 years, has finally accepted the package offered by the new West Bengal government led by Mamatha Banerjee.

We have to wait and see how far the proposed package for Telangana which would also be as per the recommendations of the Sri Krishna Committee would curry favour with the TRS and other pro-Telangana elements. Some of them have already stated that the package is not acceptable to them.