Hyderabad:
Mission accomplished after 36 hours of a hunger strike for the 11 Congress MPs from Telangana who had taken on their own government in Andhra Pradesh.
Ceding to the pressure, the government announced that all 1600 cases against students who protested either for or against a new Telangana state have been dropped.
Under considerable pressure, the government had dropped 700 cases, but had expressed its reluctance to let those accused of arson and other serious charges off the hook.
The debate over whether a new Telangana state should be created once again turned aggressive ahead of the Srikrishna Committee's report on the matter that is expected before the end of the year. The committee was appointed by the Centre to get the viewpoints of all stakeholders, after a political debacle last December. First, the Home Minister, P Chidambaram said a Telangana state would be sanctioned. However, political parties from Andhra Pradesh, under severe pressure from those members who were not from Telangana, quickly withdrew their support for the bifurcation of the state. The Centre was then forced to withdraw its decision and announce that the Srikrishna Committee would be assigned to collect political opinions.
The Telangana controversy has been an emotive and dangerous one, with the Osmania University campus turning into the main battleground. Students are in favour of a new state and spent the early part of this year confronting the police with demonstrations that turned violent virtually every day. In Coastal regions and Rayalaseema, students protested against the creation of a Telangana state.
The Congress leaders from Telangana who were fasting to express their support for student protesters claimed that they had shared their reasons in a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi. One of them, Sarve Satyanarayana, said "every good thing has her blessing".
The Congress MPs also want Central security forces sent to Telangana to be withdrawn - they've been sent to the region as a precaution against any violence in response to the Srikrishna Committee's report.