HYDERABAD, India: Police with bamboo batons clashed with crowds of protesters in southern India on Thursday as outrage over a delay in creating a new state erupted into violent demonstrations in several cities.
Hundreds of armed police patrolled the southern state of Andhra Pradesh after protesters burned dozens of vehicles overnight. Advocates of the new state staged a general strike Thursday that paralyzed much of the region.
India has faced renewed calls to redraw its administrative map since the government’s surprise decision earlier this month to give in to a senior official’s hunger strike demanding the formation of a new state called Telangana in the northern part of Andhra Pradesh.
The announcement on Telangana prompted ethnic minorities and activists seeking states of their own to begin pressing longtime grievances anew, and India found itself confronting calls for a wholesale redrawing of the map in the diverse nation of 1.2 billion.
The Telangana decision sparked joy among its supporters but fury from opponents in Andhra Pradesh, who flooded the streets, set public buses on fire and clashed with police for three days.
On Wednesday night, India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram appeared to backtrack on the issue, saying the situation in Andhra Pradesh “has altered” since his initial announcement promising the creation of Telangana.
“A large number of political parties are divided on the issue,” he said. “There is a need to hold wide-ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state.”
Soon after Chidambaram’s comments, hundreds of angry pro-Telangana protesters took to the streets, torching and damaging dozens of buses.
