Politics of opportunism - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad, Oct 20 (INN): 'Jab miya bibi hain razi to kya karega Qazi.' This was the cryptic remark made by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in mid 1970s at a public meeting held at Kachiguda cross roads in the backdrop of Jai Andhra agitation that came after a Jai Telangana agitation in 1969.

If Prime Minister and Congress President are willing, BJP will support the separate Telangana Bill in Parliament is what the party senior leader LK Advani says in 2011 even as Dr Manmohan Singh admits that the issue is very complex in nature and there cannot be a quick solution.

Much water has flown down the stream in the 40 years and significantly of the two BJP leaders, one became the Prime Minister and the other his deputy for a good period of time and surprisingly the Telangana issue was kept on the backburner in the NDA regime due to coalition compulsions, as the phrase has become very popular.

Any political party need not stick to one stand on developing issues and the stand or support can be need-based is what leaders and political parties learned from coalition politics which have come to stay in the country.

Pushing the graft and other charges behind, Advani harped on the Telangana issue and played to the gallery during his Jan Chetna Yatra, saying that BJP will extend support if the UPA introduces a Bill on separate Telangana state. Needless to say, UPA has a majority on its own to get any Bill passed and BJP had earlier moved a private member Bill on the same issue.

The focal point is how people and parties change their stand and take a U turn and try to defend each of its contrasting stands. When the party needed the support of TDP, Telangana was not an issue at all and Medak MP A Narendra was suspended from the party for organizing a pro Telangana meeting which prompted him to start his own party which eventually merged with TRS.

When the party has no stakes or has nothing to lose, the ball is put in the Centre's court and senior leader LK Advani extends his support for the cause of Telangana with a rider that they will support the Bill if the Dr Man Mohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi agree and table the Bill in the Parliament.

Conflicting stands and contradictory statements are not new in Indian polity and no party can claim that it has a clean slate on this count. After the fall of Rajiv Gandhi and the emergence of coalition politics, things worsened and values stooped to new depths.

There are many instances whether in Centre of States, particularly, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Punjab where coalition compulsions dictate policy of the government many a time, such change of stand is seen very frequently.

In Andhra Pradesh itself, of the two Communist Parties, CPM withdrew its support to TDP immediately after Chandrababu Naidu extended outside support to BJP-led NDA government but CPI delayed its view for a few days. In the meantime, the party leader Dasari Nagabhushana Rao was elected to Rajya Sabha, needless to say with the support of TDP.

Back to the 'mia bibi' adage, here only one party is seeking 'talak' while the other wants to continue the marital life. Since there is no 'razi', the question of 'qazi' does not arise, but an amicable solution should be found out at the earliest without taking political mileage and other such factors into consideration. Delay and wait and watch cannot be the answer, however serious and complicated the issue could be.

As of now Andhra Pradesh polity has seen a bi-polar tussle but in the days to come irrespective of the Telangana issue, it is going to be multi-dimensional affair.