Chandrababu Naidu is setting a wrong precedent

This refers to the editorial, “Southern discomfort” (March 9). Re-organisation of States is usually followed by clamour and State-wide protests for Special Category Status and heated debates in Parliament. Residual States cite bizarre reasons to walk out of alliances at the Centre — ranging from inadequate access to natural resources to exodus of the talented workforce to newly-created States. In 2000, on the eve of the creation of Jharkhand, the Bihar Assembly unanimously passed a resolution seeking a compensation package of Rs1.79 lakh crore from the Centre. While the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee never accepted the demand for the package, he did announce a special assistance package for the State to improve and expand its technical institutions and a grant for e-governance which was eventually welcomed by the then Chief Minister Rabri Devi.

By indulging in parochial opportunism and using political pulpits to run a charade against the Government in the pretext of championing the cause of ‘self-respect of Andhraites’, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is displaying political brinkmanship and setting a dangerous precedent for other ‘disadvantaged’ States to follow. The resignation of TDP Ministers and subsequent threat to walk out of the NDA is reminiscent of the moves Naidu made in the first term of the NDA Government between 1998 and 2004 when he tried to wield influence, forcing the Government to shift important institutions like the IRDA to Hyderabad. It is time Opposition parties stop fishing in troubled waters by making unconstitutional promises of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.