If Only Jeff Davis Had Gone On A Hunger Strike . . .

While India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Copenhagen, the real power behind the throne, Sonia Gandhi (leader of the Congress Party) agreed to permit part of the large Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to secede. Well, not from India but to form the new state of Telangana. Thing is, no one at the national level thought to ask the current state government what it thought of the idea. News report indicate significant civil unrest: see the Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Telangana-move-splits-AP-parties-on-regional-lines/articleshow/5324589.cms

Apparently the ongoing hunger strike by the leader of the secessionist party turned the trick on the easily flummoxed leaders in Delhi. For some reason I don't think Abe Lincoln would have been too upset had Jefferson Davis tried the same trick.