Congress philosopher and a Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh till recent past, Jairam Ramesh has written ‘Old History, New Geography: Bifurcating Andhra Pradesh’ Jairam provides an insider view of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, which proved disastrous for congress in two states.

In his book, Jairam provides a very detailed account of the consultations that the GoM (Group of Ministers ) held with stakeholders. The main bone of contention was the status of Hyderabad, which had plenty of investments from people of Andhra Pradesh. Also, Jairam provides diligence his team did about the internal security concerns stemming from Maoists, management of water resources etc. Ramesh writes in the chapter A Last Word that he wrote the account of the bifurcation to clarify the nuts and bolts of the bifurcation process and dispel public misconceptions.

An alumnus of IIT Mumbai, Jairam Ramesh gave a freewheeling interview to Telugu360’s Gopal K on the occasion of release of his recent book ‘Old History, New Geography: Bifurcating Andhra Pradesh’

With benefit of hindsight, if you have to make the decision all over, would you still do the same? You are one of the close confidants of Sonia Gandhi. Did you get any indication that she is repenting the decision?

Electorally from the Congress’s point of view, it was definitely not the right decision—in fact it proved to be a disastrously wrong decision. But as I argue in my book, that is not the right view to take. The only yardstick has to be whether the people of the two states are better off, whether forces have been unleashed to further the interests of the people of the two states, whether objectives of social justice and empowerment in both states have received a boost and whether opportunities of more dispersed and broad-based development in both states have opened up. I think it is still too soon to give definitive answers to these questions. But I can say that bifurcation seemed to have become inevitable.

Can your party like to apologize the people of AP for hurting them so as to revive the lost glory?

I can understand the pain and anguish of the people of Andhra Pradesh. I can relate to their anger as well. But for every one person hurt in Andhra Pradesh there is one person happy in Telangana. There were very weight reasons for bifurcation just as there were equally weighty reasons against the division. It was a very tough decision to take. But it got taken—incidentally, I had no role whatsoever in that process.

KCR is an astute politician. How did Sonia Gandhi and congress high command think KCR would merge his party to congress? Even in Telanga congress doesn’t seem to have a path for revival.

True, KCR has proved to be a master manipulator. Had Chandrababu Naidu made him Cabinet Minister in 2000 and had YSR not died in 2009 history would indeed have been different. Incidentally, both KCR and Naidu started their political journey in the Congress. Congress got about 26% vote share in Telangana which provides a solid platform for its revival.

Purandeswari in an interview said that she along with some Ministers and MPs of AP met you while you are processing bifurcation. Then you told them it is not possible to include special status (SS) commitment in the AP Reorganization Act 2014. But, now your party is demanding for special status. Did your party intentionally avoid including special status in the Act predicting this kind of situation for the party in future? Your party is using special status as a weapon to corner Modi and Chandrababu Naidu Governments instead of fighting for its actual purpose? When you are well aware that it is impossible to grant SS to AP then why did your PM Promised for it?

I have discussed this special category status issue in detail in my book. Purandeswari is wrong—we discussed only Union Territory status for Hyderabad. What we did on special category status (for five years) was exactly what was done by Vajpayee to give special category status to Uttarakhand in 2002 after it was created in 2000 by law. Vajpayee did not include Uttarakhand’s special category status in the UP Reorganisation Act, 2000. Special category status is an executive decision that was to be only endorsed (and not approved) by the National Development Council. When Dr. Manmohan Singh announced special category status for AP for a period of five years on February 20th, 2014 in the Rajya Sabha, Venkaiah Naidu jumped up and shouted that when the BJP came to power they would extend special category status for ten years.

If your party is honest about special status, then why it let KVP to move a private bill for it instead of Congress party moving a bill in the parliament?

I am afraid this question betrays a total lack of understanding of how Parliament operates in relation to Private Members Bills. Such Bills are moved without the approval of the Party. Individual members move such Bills entirely on their own initiative and accord. That is why they are called Private Members Bills. Actually, they should be called Members Private Bills and I have been suggested this change for quite some time.

Why did your party fail to lend ears to the then CM Kiran Kumar Reddy’s alarm about the party’s future situation and crisis to be erupted after bifurcation. Do you think your party made a big mistake by ignoring him? Is your party ready to welcome him back into party?

I think my party made a big mistake persisting with him for such a long time and giving him so much space to work against what the party and his leadership had decided. He undercut the Congress from within. If he opposed bifurcation so vehemently he should have resigned. It was my party that made him chief minister even though he had never been even a minister before. But having said this let me wish him all the very best. He and I have been close friends and colleagues.

 

How do you think CBN is doing? What would be the way out for CBN considering state is being run in deficit and center is not willing to help much?

CBN is in alliance with the BJP and I am surprised that he has not been able to leverage that alliance to the benefit of Andhra Pradesh. Clearly Modi and he are not on the same wavelength. CBN faces many challenges and he needs the active support of the Centre. That has not been forthcoming even though Venkaiah Naidu is a senior minister of Modi’s Cabinet.