The over four-decade-old demand for Telangana that Indira Gandhi rejected when it first came up in 1969 has been granted by her successors (The Song of Telangana, Aug 12). With this unilateral decision, based more on political compulsions and electoral gains than on consensus, the UPA government has dealt a huge setback to the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. Politicians of all hues had all along led people to believe that the state would be kept united at any cost. The people in these parts feel cheated and rendered homeless in their own land.
