Fifty-eight
years after the unification of Telangana and Andhra region, the Lok Sabha
separated them by dividing the state of Andhra Pradesh. After blacking out the
live coverage of the Telangana debate on Lok Sabha TV, the Hower House voted
for Telangana state in a controversial voice vote. Interestingly, both Congress
and BJP joined hands to divide Andhra Pradesh. Only the TMC and JDU staged a
walkout calling it a murder of democracy.
According to experts
the Congress which is staring at a rout in most parts of the country is likely
to win big in Telangana which has 17 Lok Sabha and 119 Assembly seats. The
Congress is expected to be decimated in Seemandhra region.
Most call it a cynical
political move and not a genuine response of the Congress to the aspirations of
the people. There is a sense of jubilation across Telangana and a sense of huge
loss and sadness across Seemandhra region.
Both Congress and BJP joined hands to divide Andhra
Pradesh. TMC and JDU staged a walkout calling it a murder of democracy.
Arguments against Telangana
- Experts argue that
Telangana may fall into the hands of Maoists like neighbouring Chhattisgarh and
Odisha. Maoists have a huge presence on its border.
- They argue that
except Hyderabad and Secundarabad, Telangana has no other developed area or
city.
- But, the pro-united
Andhra voices argue that after division Telangana will be a rich state with the
money from Hyderabad-Secundarabad and Seemandhra will suffer economically.
- They say Seemandhra
may not be able to pay even salaries and pensions with the meager income the
region generates.
In a post on
twocircles.com dated January 13, 2011, Soroor Ahmed describes Telangana state
as a recipe for disaster.
- Telangana of today
is not Telangana of immediate post-Nizam days of 1948 when the Communists
raised the banner of revolt. Nor is it Telangana of 1960s when the demand for a
separate state was raised.
- The twin cities of
Hyderabad-Secundarabad have now acquired the nickname of Cyberabad and along
with Vishakapatnam, which is in the coastal Andhra, can be also called as the
Pharmabad as a number of pharmaceutical industries have come up in the last so
many years. And in December 2009 Telangana agitation caused pharma industries
suffer a loss of Rs 500 crore.
- In the
post-industrial revolution age the coastal regions always have more economic
activities than the landlocked ones. Unless it is a national capital for
example, Paris, New Delhi, Beijing, Tehran etc all the big and important cities
of the present age are ports. They naturally emerge as export-import centres
and industrialists, for obvious reasons, too prefer to set up their plants in
its vicinity.
- Those who want
Telangana state are more inspired by the old political and emotional slogans
and appear weak in understanding the changing geo-sociological realities of the
world. Sooner or later they will learn from the failure of separate Jharkhand
and even Chhattisgarh. Both ended up becoming the Maoists stronghold rather
than benefiting the real poor people of the state. Telangana, as a part of
Andhra Pradesh, in contrast, witnessed fall in Maoists' activities, though it
has a long history of bloody struggle. Only time will tell whether the creation
of a separate state will benefit the people or the nascent state would once
again slip into the hands of ultra-Left as in the case with Jharkhand or
Chhattisgarh.
- Jharkhand, arguably
minerally the richest state in India, which was created in the name of tribals,
has now become the laughing stock of the country with no government completing
its term. Though all the chief ministers in the last 10 years of its existence
were tribals, the truth is that the condition of adivasis has hardly improved -
instead it has deteriorated.
- Another mineral rich
state of Chhattisgarh is known for all the wrong reasons: Operation Greenhunt,
the repeated daring attacks by Maoists and now life sentence to Binayak Sen.
- It is argued that
minus Hyderabad-Secunderabad region there is nothing much in Telangana. But
this holds true to other states too. Minus Kolkata there is almost nothing in
West Bengal, barring to some extent steel plants in Durgapur and Burnpur
(Asansol).
- Not only
industrially even strategically the importance of Hyderabad-Secundarabad belt
has increased in the last few decades. Along with Bangalore the twin-cities of
Telangana have suited the Defence Ministry the most and several plants have
come up.
- With north and
western India getting saturated and have come within the firing range of China
and Pakistan the Defence Ministry has decided to concentrate more in south.
- Today Telangana's
per capita income is almost equal to the coastal Andhra and more than
Rayalaseema. True agriculture land and rail and road connectivity may not be as
good as the coastal region but this fact should be kept into mind that it is a
plateau region with deep jungles.
The geographical
advantages or disadvantages would remain even if Telangana is made a separate
state.
- The argument that
people from other regions - and not Telangana - dominate Andhra Pradesh does
not hold much water. The creation of separate Telangana is no guarantee to stop
this phenomenon. Gujaratis still have a sizeable presence in Mumbai's business
world even after the creation of two different states 55 years back.
- Setting up another
states' Reorganisation Commission is one thing but creating smaller states with
small Assemblies is likely to create more political instability. Horse-trading
of MLAs in smaller states, even like developed Goa, is much easy than the
bigger ones, where much larger sum is involved to buy two-thirds legislators.
- Telangana's problem
is that the demand for separate state has risen from the political centre of
power of the state - Hyderabad - and not from far-off regions like Jharkhand
and Chhattisgarh in case with Bihar and Madhya Pradesh respectively. And unlike
in these two states Telangana has divided different castes and communities. For
example, some Muslim organisations, such as Jamaat-e-Islami too, have supported
the creation of Telangana.
- What is often not
understood is that after the creation of Telangana, outfits like Shiv Sena
would come up in the new state to chase the outsiders and minorities out on the
plea that they are exploiting the local people. Herein lies the real threat of
such movements.
Arguments for Telangana
BJP MLA and thinker G
Kishan Reddy makes a strong case for Telangana state. In an article he argues.
- The Fazal Ali
Commission was set up to re-organize the states of the Indian Republic was
against the merger of Telangana and Andhra. Its recommendation to go about creating
states on linguistic lines, indirectly paved the way for the creation of Andhra
Pradesh. Andhra was formed from the northern districts of the erstwhile Madras
state and the southern districts of the erstwhile Hyderabad state -- though the
committee itself did not advocate such a merger and was against it.
Now, 58 years later,
the very concept of the creation of states based on linguistic lines has become
passé. We need to look for fresh parameters for the creation of states, and
that has to be based on holistic development on economic and social lines for
better administration and management. This fact has been proven with the
creation of Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand from Bihar and
Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh.
- Two issues that seem
to be at the centre of the contention between the two regions of Andhra Pradesh
is the future of Hyderabad and the repercussions in terms of the sharing of
river waters from the completed and planned irrigation projects after the
division of the state. Any entity, political or otherwise, that is able to find
pragmatic solutions to this conundrum would not only earn the respect of the
people of the state but also help set a precedent in the matter of contentious
State divisions in the future.
 |
| Prof. Jayashankar |
In an article in Telangana.com Dr Jayashanker argues in favour Telangana. He says:
"The demand for a separate state of Telangana isn't new. Telanganites have
very clearly expressed their opposition a decade before Andhra Pradesh was
formed. They reasoned that in a united Andhra Pradesh they will not get
justice. Even after five decades, this demand is continuing. The reason for
this is the experience of past 48 years that justice will not be done to
Telangana and belief that it will continue to be denied to Telanganites in
united AP. Telangana demand is a peoples' movement born out of their problems.
Are all the people robbed unabatedly, continuously for the 48-years and raising
their voice again, unemployed political leaders? Who are the unemployed
political leaders? Are they the farmers that have been suffering for lack of
drinking water, irrigations water, and cuts in electric supply? Are they the
workers who lost their livelihood due to lack of new industries, and closure of
existing industries? Are they the unemployed youth whose job opportunities are
hijacked by outsiders? Are they the innumerable people who have been labelled
and suppressed as terrorists because they raised their voice for Telangana?
When people are subject to robbery and injustice and take to the streets, it is
natural for leaders to enter the fray. Just because out of power politicians
support Telangana statehood, does it stop being peoples' movement? In any
movement, politicians in and out of power join in. Some even deceive and
attempt to side line the movement, but they can't stop the movement. Movements
continue until justice is served to the people. The educated that are the
pillars of this movement aren't unemployed. They aren't even after employment
for themselves.
He also dismisses the
arguments that smaller states are detrimental to India's progress. He
says" "Out of the 35 states currently in India (28 states and 7
central possessions), 70 per cent are smaller than Telangana. Telangana's
population is 30 million plus. There are 25 states that are smaller than
Telangana. If these 25 don't cause national unity issues, why would creation of
a larger state be any dangerous? Backwardness of Telangana is a major reason
for the Telangana state demand but not the sole reason. All ten Telangana districts
have same historical background, geographic closeness, cultural commonality,
language unity, and mutual understanding among the people. These factors are
all foundation for unity of thought. Never did the people of Telangana
districts express a desire or sentiment to be separate from the rest of the
districts directly or indirectly. There isn't an opportunity for such either.
In our country there are some other backward districts in various states. Are
they all demanding a separate statehood? It is meaningless and baseless
argument.
He also rubbishes the
arguments that the people who speak the same language can't have two states. He
says: "If one language, one state is the norm, why do we have 9-Hindi
speaking states? Next to Hindi, Telugu is the most spoken language in India.
What is wrong with having two states that speak Telugu? Some people claim that
Telangana Telugu isn't the proper Telugu. Some others say it isn't even Telugu.
Why should these people that make fun of Telangana language and ridicule its
culture should be objecting if Telangana is separate state?"
A brief history of Telangana battle
The Telangana struggle
has been a long battle and it finally may come to an end soon. Here's a brief
look at the Telangana story so far.
Telangana is a region
comprising 10 of Andhra Pradesh's 23 districts. Originally, the region was a
part of the erstwhile Nizam's princely state of Hyderabad. In 1948, India put
an end to the rule of the Nizams and a Hyderabad state was formed. In 1956, the
Telangana part of Hyderabad was merged with the Andhra state.
The Andhra state had
been carved out of Madras Presidency in 1953 after Potti Sreeramulu's agitation
for Telugu statehood. The people from Telangana were against merger with Andhra
as they feared job losses. That is because education levels and development in
Andhra were better than in Telangana
There were cultural
differences too. Under Nizam's rule, the culture and language in Telangana bore
influences of North India. In 1969, the Telangana movement intensified under
the leadership of Marri Chenna Reddy and the Telangana Praja Samithi. There was
widespread violence and over 350 protesters were killed in police firing and
lathicharge.
However, the movement
could not last long as Chenna Reddy went on to merge his party with Congress
and was eventually made chief minister by Indira Gandhi. In 2001, the movement
revived once again when K Chandrasekhar Rao quit the Telugu Desam and formed
the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. In 2004, the Congress joined hands with Rao, promising
separate Telangana but later backtracked. In 2009, Chandrashekhara Rao's fast
unto death forced the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to announce the
creation of a separate state of Telangana.
The Centre appointed a
commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, BN Srikrishna, to
look into the matter of bifurcation. The commission submitted its report in
December 2010 and it was rejected by the TRS. The late chief minister YS
Rajashekhara Reddy's son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's decision to quit the Congress
to launch his own outfit YSR Congress Party once again revived the Telangana
debate.
The Congress's
diminishing fortune in Andhra Pradesh is the main reason behind its decision to
bite the Telangana bullet.
The Recent History or Timeline
2009 - KCR goes on a
fast unto death. The then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram announces creation
of Telangana state.
Government of India
appoints Justice BN Srikrishna Commission.
Justice BN Srikrishna
Commission submits its report on December 31, 2010.
TRS rejects the report
and continues its mass agitation.
2012-2013 - MPs and
MLAs from Telangana mount pressure for a new state. MPs and MLAs from
Seemandhra oppose. Congress Core Committee decides on Telangana. Union Cabinet
clears the Bill. Sent to AP Assembly. Assembly debates the bill for over a
month. Finally, rejects it on January 30.
The Lok Sabha clears
Telangana Bill by a voice vote on February 18, 2014.
The Rajya Sabha to
debate and vote the Bill on Thursday.
The Telangana tangle
Andhra Pradesh -
Districts 23
Telangana 10
Andhra 13
Within Andhra
Coastal Andhra Pradesh
9
Rayalaseema 4
Telangana
Hyderabad, Adilabad,
Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and
Warangal
Seemandhra
Coastal districts - Srikakulam,
Vizianagaram, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna,
Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore
Rayalaseema districts
- Kadapa, Kurnool, Ananthapur and Chittoor
Telangana
119 Assembly seats
17 LS Seats
Seemandhra
175 Assembly seats
25 LS seats
Telangana
Area: 1.14 Lakh sq km
Population: 3.52 crore
(2011 census); 41 pe rcent of AP state population
Naxal hotbed
Mostly barren land
Accute power shortage
Law & order could
be a big problem
Hyderabad is the only
major developed & industrialized district
Seemandhra
Area: 1.60 Lakh Sq km
Population: 5 crore
(2011 census); 60 per cent of AP state population
Well developed, better
infrastructure
Has a long coast
Has many major
developed and industrialised cities
Has vast natural
resources
Has better road and
rail transport
Naxals have a marginal
presence
 |
| Protests at Charminar,Hyderabad |
The bone of contention – Hyderabad
Population: 70 Lakh
Hyderabad has always
been the centre of Telangana
Seemandhra does not
want to give up its right over Hyderabad
Telangana people say
it is non-negotiable
Telangana was the
Centre of Nizams state of Hyderabad
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Sunday, October 19, 2014
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