Telangana - What will happen after December 31?

The committee headed by Justice Srikrishna is expected to submit its report on the Telangana issue to the Union Home Minister on or before the 31st of December this year. There is a lot of speculation in the local media on what will happen after that day? December 31st is projected as the D-day on which a decision on statehood for Telangana will be taken. Some pro-Telangana politicians dramatically declared that they would create 'earthquakes' and 'tsunamis' if that decision doesn't go in their favor. All this hype has created some sort of 'countdown' to December 31st.

I predict that nothing will happen on that day. Going by the history of committees and commissions in India, the committee may not even submit its report on that day. Even if the committee submits its report in time, it is just a report, not a decision. The union government is in no way bound to act on the recommendations of the report. Forget acting on its recommendations, the government might never even make the recommendations public. The reports of many committees appointed in the past by the Government never saw the light of day.

We don't know what the committee is going to recommend. It might recommend against bifurcating the state of Andhra Pradesh. It might even recommend trifurcating the state. Somehow I feel the committee is not going to recommend exactly what the pro-Telangana groups are demanding. If the report contains some 'hard to digest' facts or if its recommendations go against the interests of the ruling party, this report also might find its way to the dustbin in the office of the union home minister.

Even if we assume that the recommendations are in the interest of the nation, of the ruling party especially, a decision can not be taken overnight. The government has to table the report in the parliament and we all know it will be a long drawn out process. The earliest session of the parliament after December will be in February to discuss the railway budget and the union budget. The chances of the Telangana issue being discussed in that session are very remote.

So nothing significant will happen after the 31st of December. At the most, there could be one or two 'bandhs'. All this hype around that date is just a media gimmick to keep the people glued to their TV sets.