Had it been for sports and tennis in particular, it would have been described as the best and longest rally of volleys in recent times. We are precisely referring to the Telangana tussle and the UPA’s ‘spoil-sport’ in it. After the issue was tossed between state and Centre and back and forth, the ball is now once again in Delhi’s court.

Deepening the suspense further to the frustration of true Telangana aspirants, the UPA government is breathing life into another committee to resolve the issue through negotiations. The Congress core committee which met at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence on Friday evening reacted positively to this proposal.

But in stead of involving politicians, the meeting felt the committee should be headed by a former Supreme Court judge to take the process of negotiations forward. The names of a few retired judges were also discussed in search of a candidate, amicable to both Telangana and Andhra regions.

It was decided to give a final shape to the idea during an extended meeting of the Congress Working Committee on February 6. The Congress high command wants to tread cautiously on the issue in view of the sensitivities involved. The party also wants to give a final shape to its ‘T’ strategy during this meeting hoping that peace and normalcy would be restored in the state by then. The core committee is of the view to postpone the formation of the committee if tension and violence continues in the state.

In fact, the idea of a new panel was already discussed and agreed upon in principle after Chidambaram’s meeting with state’s political parties in the first week of January. It was cleverly made public at a time when the state’s attention was glued to the violence against Reliance outlets following a TV5 story.

With or without the new committee, it is only obvious that the Congress wants to delay things further. What this could mean to KCR’s TRS and the Telangana JAC, will be known in the days to come. For the aam aadmi, does it mean, more agitations, many more bandhs and lot more hardships in store? Let’s hope not!!!