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Telangana: No consensus at all-party meeting

A crucial meeting on the Telangana issue, called by Home Minister P Chidambaram, has ended in a stalemate, but all the eight political parties that met him have agreed to work on building a consensus. Chidambaram will now meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to brief him about the meeting.

After the meeting, the eight recognized Andhra Pradesh parties issued a joint statement appealing for peace and harmony in the state, which has seen much strife and violence over the carving out of a separate Telangana state.


The statement said the parties had "expressed our views and the Centre has taken note." But as party leaders emerged from the meeting, it was clear that they were no closer to a consensus than they had been when they walked in.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) refused to react immediately after, with party leader K T Rama Rao saying his father and party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao would speak only after meeting Chidambaram. "KCR is now waiting for Chidambaram to give a final statement and only after that will he speak." Rao said. KCR is in Delhi and scheduled to meet Chidambaram on Tuesday.

But other parties were more forthcoming. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah said the situation in the state was under control, but actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi seemed to sum up the mood when he said: "Andhra is in crisis. We suggested the government form a committee, first maintain peace, we are for united Andhra. (We are) happy the government invited all parties, but unsatisfied as they (the home minister/ministry) didn't open their mouths." (Watch: Not happy with the meeting, says Chiranjeevi)

Congress MP K S Rao, who represented the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema faction within the party, said modalities for a roadmap on the Telangana issue were discussed. He said there was a suggestion to institute a mechanism for this, but some parties said there was no need for it.

At the meeting, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), which is against a separate Telangana state, said President's Rule should be imposed in Andhra Pradesh and a committee to discuss the issue further should be constituted.

But the BJP said there was no need for further consultations and the Centre should go ahead with Telangana. BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar said: "We firmly support formation of Telangana.The Congress is creating confusion on this issue. They should clarify whether they support Telangana or not."

The Home Minister had invited the parties to try and resolve the Telangana deadlock. Home Secretary G K Pillai was also part of the talks. After the discussion, Chidambaram described it as a "good meeting."

The Home Minister had made an opening statement as the meeting began that asked for bandhs to stop and requested all parties to work together. (Read: Stop bandhs in Andhra Pradesh, says Chidambaram)

While talks were on inside, pro and anti-Telangana groups clashed outside the meeting venue, just outside the home ministry office. They shouted "Jai Andhra" and "Jai Telangana" slogans. Such demonstrations are unprecedented in the Capital's North Block.

The fracas was but a public mirror of the way things are politically.

8 Andhra Pradesh parties attend Telangana meet

The all-party meeting on Telangana convened by Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday ended with leaders appealing for maintaining peace, harmony and law order in Andhra Pradesh.

"We, representatives of 8 recognised political parties of Andhra Pradesh, attended the meeting convened by the Home Minister. We have expressed our views at the meeting and they have been noted by the Central government," said a joint statement, signed by leaders, issued at the end of the meeting.

"Meanwhile, it is our earnest appeal that peace, harmony and law and order should be maintained in the state," it added.

Centre should move resolution in Parliament on Telangana: Rao

On the eve of an all-party meeting on Telangana, TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said the Centre should follow its announcement on creation of a separate state with a resolution in Parliament but set no deadline for it.

Mr. Rao, who met CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan here, said the Constitutional process should be set in motion for carving out Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh.

“The Government of India has announced its policy on Telangana. It should follow it up with Constitutional process. A resolution should be moved in Parliament,” the TRS leader told reporters after meeting Mr. Bardhan.

To a question on time-frame, he said 15 states had been created since Independence and that formation of Telangana would take the same time as other states did.

Asked whether he would set any deadline, Mr. Rao said, “People of Telangana have waited for 55 years, we can wait for another 15 days.”

Mr. Rao said he would answer all such questions after Tuesday’s meeting.

On his meeting with Mr. Bardhan, the TRS chief said he had come to seek his “blessings” and his views on Telangana.

“CPI is among the first parties which supported the cause of Telangana. When I was on deathbed Mr. Bardhan spoke to the Prime Minister and asked him to intervene in the issue and save my life,” Mr. Rao said.

Supporting Mr. Rao’s demand, Mr. Bardhan said the Centre should deliver on its promise.

Mr. Bardhan disfavoured constitution of second State Reorganisation Commission to decide on demands for new states.

On more demands for separate states, the CPI leader said Telangana’s case is 50-year-old and cannot be compared with others.

To a specific question on demand for Gorkhaland state, he sarcastically said, “Gorkhaland is only one district and if government wants to give state status to one district, let them do it.”

Telangana: AP leaders meet Chidambaram

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan on Monday met Home Minister P. Chidambaram separately and discussed the Telangana issue ahead of Tuesday’s all-party meeting.

Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Suresh Kiran Reddy and Andhra Pradesh PCC President D. Srinivas also met Chidambaram separately and discussed the issue.

Bandh hits normal life in non-Telangana regions

The APSRTC suspended its services across Telangana and Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions as a precautionary measure. In Chittoor district, except buses going to the temple town of Tirupati, all other services remained cancelled.
Normal life was disrupted in non-Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh on Monday due to a bandh called by the All party Joint Action Committee (JAC) in support of United Andhra Pradesh.

“We called for a complete bandh to send a message to the Centre that majority of people want a United Andhra Pradesh,” Prof Samuel, Convenor of Samkhya Andhra (United Andhra Pradesh) JAC told reporters in Vijayawada.

Schools, colleges, shops and other business establishments remained closed.

The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) suspended its services across Telangana and Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions as a precautionary measure.

In Chittoor district, except buses going to the temple town of Tirupati, all other services remained cancelled.

In Vijayawada, former Mayor Mallika Begum and a few other leaders were taken into custody by the police as they tried to hold a protest.

“We warn the Centre that they should not make any hasty announcement. We will conduct our next meeting in favour of United Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad also,” TDP MLA D Umamaheswara Rao said.

The JAC has called for a rail roko in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on Tuesday, to coincide with the crucial meeting convened by the Centre to discuss the Telangana issue in New Delhi.

The Telangana JAC has also called for rail and rasta roko on Tuesday in Telangana region.

Avatar becomes fastest film to hit $1 bn mark

James Cameron's science-fiction epic Avatar had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark.

No 1 for the third-straight weekend, 20th Century Fox's Avatar raised its domestic total to $352.1 million after just 17 days. The film added $133 million overseas to lift its international haul to $670 million, for a worldwide gross of $1.02 billion.

Avatar opened two weekends earlier with $77 million, a strong start but far below dozens of other blockbusters that debuted as high as $158 million. But business for other blockbusters usually tumbles in following weekends, while Avatar revenues barely dropped over the busy Christmas and New Year's weekends.

"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," said Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston.

"Here's what's happening: I think everybody has to see Avatar once. Even people who don't normally go to the movies, they've heard about it and are saying, 'I have to see it.' Then there's those people seeing it multiple times."

Avatar was Cameron's first film since 1997's Titanic, the biggest modern blockbuster with $1.8 billion worldwide.

Cameron now is the only filmmaker to direct two movies that have topped $1 billion. Along with Titanic, the others are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at $1.13 billion, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at $1.06 billion and The Dark Knight at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

With Avatar closing in on No 2 film The Return of the King, Cameron is in striking distance of having the two top-grossing movies globally.

Avatar has had a price advantage over those other billion-dollar movies. About 75 per cent of its domestic business has come from theaters showing it in digital 3-D presentation, those tickets typically costing a few dollars more than admissions for the 2-D version.

Finishing at No 2 for the weekend was Robert Downey Jr's crime caper Sherlock Holmes with $38.4 million. The Warner Bros. film lifted its domestic total to $140.7 million after 10 days in theaters.

In third place was 20th Century Fox's family tale Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel with $36.6 million. It raised its 10-day total to $157.3 million.

The top-three movies, along with solid holdovers that included Universal's It's Complicated at No. 4 with $18.7 million, steered Hollywood to a big start to 2010 after a year of record revenue.

Hollywood finished 2009 with $10.6 billion domestically, easily surpassing the previous record of $9.7 billion in 2007, according to Hollywood.com.

Factoring in today's higher admission prices, the year was strong but not a modern record-breaker for number of tickets sold.

According to Hollywood.com, domestic admissions came in at 1.42 billion in 2009, the most in the last five years, though well below the modern record of 1.6 billion in 2002.

In Hollywood's glory years of the 1930s and '40s, before television eroded the movie audience, estimated movie attendance ran as high as 4 billion some years.

Studios began 2010 with a headstart over last year. Overall revenues came in at $230 million, up 50 percent from New Year's weekend in 2009, when "Marley & Me" was No. 1 with $24.3 million.

Like Titanic 12 years ago, Avatar has fairly clear sailing now that the holidays are over. Hollywood is entering a slow season, when fewer big movies arrive and competition is lighter.
Titanic lingered as the No. 1 film for months leading up to the Academy Awards, where it won 11 Oscars, including best picture and director.

Avatar also proved a critical favorite with strong Oscar potential. Cameron broke new ground in combining live-action, digitally-enhanced performances, visual effects and 3-D presentation to immerse viewers in his futuristic tale of humans and aliens on a distant moon.

"Leave it to James Cameron to do this. To not only set the technical world on fire, the visual world on fire, but also the box-office world on fire 12 years after Titanic," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday

Students arrested for ragging, released on bail

All the 18 students of the premier KEM Medical College's Physiotherapy programme, who were arrested by the Mumbai Police for ragging some of their juniors at a hostel party on Saturday got bail on Monday morning.

Freshers complained of ragging by their seniors, the college called an emergency meeting and decided on a strict punishment.

Cases have been registered against them under Sections 341 & 504 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Maharashtra Anti-Ragging Act. The police claim the students have already confessed to the committee.

"They have tortured the freshers mentally and physically, but they have not hurt them in any way. They will be produced in court on Monday," said Vikram Patil, Senior Police Inspector.

On Saturday the freshers were invited by their seniors to their hostel room where they were forced to enact sexual positions.

One of the ragged students complained to a relative, a senior Mumbai Police officer who informed the hospital. The hospital's anti-ragging committee immediately swung into action and within 24 hours, the senior students were arrested.

If convicted, these students may be jailed for 2 years and dismissed from college. Also, they will not be able to study in any other institution for 5 years.

Families of the victims say the ragging has left their children shaken.

"Earlier our son used to say that how senior medical student ragged him for wearing jeans, so I bought him some formals. So far I have not met him, but he was very scared when he called up and asked us to visit the hospital," said Meghraj Jivnani, parent of a ragged student.

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Telangana is bound to be a state, says KCR

The pressure is building on the Centre to act on Telangana. Tuesday is the crucial all party meet where the Centre will try to thrash out a consensus but the battle lines are clearly drawn. The man at the fore of the Telangana struggle, K Chandrasekhar Rao (also known as KCR), is in Delhi where he will be meeting various leaders.

The new Andhra Pradesh Governor Narsimhan is also in Delhi to meet the home minister.

Speaking to NDTV shortly after he landed in Delhi KCR said that he was sure Telangana would be a separate state soon.

"These kinds of tactics are common when other states were formed. These are diplomatic decisions, which the government of India has taken, nothing more, nothing less," said I will stay back after January 5 meeting.

Who stands where

Let's now take a look at where the political parties stand with respect to statehood for Telangana
The Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are a divided house
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the party spearheading the Telangana movement, the BJP and CPI are for a separate Telangana state
Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party and CPM are for a unified Andhra Pradesh
While the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is against a separate Telangana
Meanwhile, Joint Action Committee of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions have called for a bandh on Monday ahead of the January 5 meeting in Delhi. State Road Transport Corporation has cancelled approximately 300 buses in the two regions.