President Pranab Mukherjee, the former trouble-shooter of the Congress party, may informally ‘guide’ the Union government in drafting the bill on the creation of Telangana. He will be acting ostensibly on the basis of a memorandum received by him from 35 Members of Legislative Assembly of the Andhra Pradesh’s Congress unit. Indications of Mukherjee’s interest in the matter can be gauged from the queries sent by the Rashtrapati Bhavan secretariat to senior home ministry officials, seeking clarifications on how the government is going to handle various tricky issues, including those listed in the MLAs’ memorandum. Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan, who is currently in Delhi, has already held two meetings with Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The governor also ...

Read More »