Require Good Leaders For Telangana

On Sunday, I went to a house warming ceremony of a relative here in Hyderabad and I was chitchatting with some of my relatives and naturally, the discussion moved to the issue of separate Telangana state. Most of my relatives present there have moved to Hyderabad from Andhra after their adulthood and they still have that penchant for a single state even though they sold off their lands there and settled down here for good.

Initially, I could able to justify separate Telangana to be carved our of Andhra Pradesh. But, when the topic moved towards the leaders, I became defensive and in the end had to admit defeat. Defeat not for separate state but who are the leaders who have the will and who can strive for the economic development of Telangana.

Of all the list of leaders who are in the picture right now, none of them are eligible enough to lead Telangana. If one person has started the separate movement because he was not made Deputy Chief Minister, other person is into this only to try to prove a point and get himself as "President" of India while other person is trying to become Governor of a State and the list continues. None of them are here for the development of the state. They are here only to cash in the sentiments of Telangana people.

Then I started looking at political parties on a whole. While the TRS, BJP and CPI are staunch pro-Telangana parties, Congress Party is in a "fighting mode" among its leaders while TDP and CPI(M) are completely against a separate state. TDP is saying that they will take "right decision at right time".

Then I started narrowing on each party. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was formed when its leader K. Chandra Sehkar Rao (KCR) was denied the post of Deputy Chief Minister by Chandrababu Naidu Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Government. Some opportunistic leaders from other parties jumped into TRS. TRS leader, Narendra (he has a RSS background and he jumped from BJP into TRS) started a militant wing thus scaring people on region wise. KCR distanced himself from this as he saw some hidden Hindu agenda and he is not ready to sacrifice important Muslim votes as almost 30% of Telangana is Muslim. Narendra broke away from this party and started a separate party. Latest update is that he is trying backhand to make a comeback to his parent party, the BJP. People consider TRS as more militant and violent since its inception. TRS leaders are said to be open boozers which doesnt give a good name to the party.

BJP is the first national party which supported separate Telangana in their National Executive Meeting held at Kakinada (Coastal Andhra Pradesh) couple of years back. All their leaders are unanimous on the separation and they did their ground work really well. Their problem is they have only one legislature representing them in the 292 strong AP Assembly and they need to work hard in that direction. This party looks to have a better opportunity than other parties. Their parent, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is pretty strong in Telangana. If they want to push Telangana, then they need to start conducting meetings and awareness campaigns to keep the momentum till the assembly elections slated next year.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) is only strong in couple of pockets in Andhra Pradesh and it cannot play a very important role in pushing for Telangana.

The less said about Congress Party is the better. Recently, Telangana political heavy weights went to New Delhi for an audience with Sonia Gandhi (Congress Party President). She kept them waiting for a whole week inspite of the fact that some of the leaders worked with Congress since the days of Nehru and Indira Gandhi. They had to come back to Hyderabad fuming (??). After lot of pestering, she allowed them audience last week and reports said that she gave a class to them and told them to stop bickering and talking about Telangana as it would give a negative impact on the prospects of Congress in the next elections. These so called leaders have now started fighting among themselves.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo, Nara Chandrababu Naidu rules it with an iron hand and doesnot let anyone to be second in command. There is no second rung leadership in the party and he never allowed dissidence in the party. While he balks about Democracy outside, he never let it happen inside his own party. Devender Goud, the TDP leader from Telangana had recently started to talk about Telangana. He is one of the most senior leaders of TDP. He was severely criticized by leaders from Andhra and Raayalaseema regions and even Naidu took a class of him. Internal democracy is completely put down in TDP and one day, it would only explode.

The Communist Party of India (Marxists) are against smaller states. They worry that if they support small states, someday, they have to give away Gorkhaland - part of West Bengal state which is ruled by the communists with an iron hand past couple of decades. They are not ready to give away their strong hold.

Before we expect a separate state, we need a good Leader to Lead us. The leader has to come out with a plan of action after achieving Telangana. Achieving Telangana is not a difficult task. What lay ahead is how to make sure it survives and beat the critics claims that separate Telaganites would eat rocks from the Deccan Plateau.

Till then, asking for Telangana (leave alone demanding) looks to be like shooting ourselves in the foot.

Second SRC ?? No Way !!

With the recent media reports, looks like the wily politicians are really not interested in the feelings and aspirations of 40 Million people from the region of Telangana.

The ruling Congress Party made a deal with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (Party established solely to fight for a separate Telangana State) regarding the formation of Telangana State. While politicians from Congress Party say the deal states that Telangana would be formed only after the recommendations of Second State Reorganization Commission (SRC) while the politicians from TRS say that the deal states Telangana would be formed before the next state assemble elections, slated in 2009. But, till now none of the parties have made the copies of the deal public. Deal or No Deal, politicians are fooling people.

The people of Telangana are taken for a ride by the Congress and TRS parties. It is to be noted that TRS is the only party which has brought the issue of separate Telangana out into the public domain after a gap of 30 full years but oflate, the leaders of the party are not keeping up their words. If they want to show their real commitment for Telangana, all the MLA' and MP's from TRS should resign their positions immediately to show unity and also to exert pressure on the Central Government.

At the same time, all the other parties which have committed for a separate state, like the BJP and CPI have to do the same. The main opposition party, TDP is still in a make belief world of their own thinking that the separate Telangana movement would fizzle out as happened 30 years back. But this time, the sentiments of the people are high. Leaders have to understand the sentiments of the people and act accordingly. Ignoring the sentiments would only help the extremists.

It has to be noted that when Potti Sriramulu died during a hunger strike in Chennai for the formation of a separate Andhra State, he did that only to enable Telugu speaking areas of Madras State to be carved out to form Andhra State. Later, Hyderabad State was merged with Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh. This was done against the wishes and aspirations of the people of Telangana as they are culturally different from Andhras. Even the first SRC mentions that Hyderabad State has to be separate but the politicians from Andhra who are dreaming of a Visalandhra forced the decisions.

It is time for the parties to think broadly and take a decision before they commit for second SRC. This time round, the people of Telangana are not going to sit idle as they lost full faith in the promises of the politicians !! They are demanding for Telangana - NOW !

Telangana - Now Is The Right Time

Looking at the sudden increase in the interest of the political parties, I was wondering when are we going to get a separate Telangana State carved out of Andhra Pradesh State, which is as big as England.
I kept wondering the reason for a state as big as England and all the three parts (Andhra, Raayalaseema and Telangana) claiming to be backward.
We have stayed together almost 60 years and all the three parts of the state are poor. So, what is the need to be together when everyone is not happy.
Best way is to separate - peacefully.

Why are the politicians from the other parts of the state not ready for a split ?? They are afraid that their area of importance is going to decrease and their bargaining power would take a beating with the central government regarding the Central Government funds.

Some Facts regarding Telangana:


The area of Telengana is 1,14,800 Sq Kms.
Telangana represents 42% of the total area of the state and is home to 40% of its total population.

Telangana comprises 10 districts of AP:
Adilabad
Hyderabad
Karimnagar
Khammam
Medak
Mehboobnagar
Nalgonda
Nizamabad
Ranga Reddy
Warangal

History of Telangana:

Telangana region has been ruled by many great dynasties like Sathavahanas, Chalukyas, Kakatiyas, Mughals, and the Qutubshahis. As the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate in the early 18th century, the Muslim Asafjahi dynasty established a separate state known as Hyderabad. Later Hyderabad entered into a treaty of subsidiary alliance with the British Empire, and was the largest and most populous princely state in India. Telangana never under direct British rule, unlike Coastal Andhra and Raayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, which were part of British India's Madras Presidency.

Andhra Pradesh consists of three distinct regions, namely, Andhra, Raayalaseema and Telangana. Andhra and Raayalaseema were part of Madras province of the British empire. For approximately 400 years, Telangana was part of Hyderabad State, an independent kingdom ruled by Muslim Qutub Shahi and Asafjahi (Nizam) dynasties.

Hyderabad state has parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra in it - until they are merged with those states.
Remaining part of Hyderabad state is merged with Andhra State, thus forming Andhra Pradesh in 1956.
The slang of Telugu spoken in Telangana is very different from the rest of the state.
Telangana Telugu is a mixture of Telugu and Urdu.
The culture and traditions of Telangana are quite different from that of the rest of the state.

The Nizam was the world's wealthiest person during the time of independence.
Lot of Hindus are forcefully converted into Islam with a sword at their neck and Urdu was made official language.
During the time of Independence from British, thousands of Hindus were massacred by their Muslim rulers, thus forcing the Indian Army to perform a "Police Action" on the Nizam forces and liberate Hyderabad.

Merger of Andhra and Telangana Regions:

The States Reorganization Commission (SRC) set up by the government of India in early 50s to examine the question of reorganization of states of the country was, in fact, not in favour of merging the Telangana region with the then Andhra state. Para 382 of States Reorganization Commission (SRC) said "..opinion in Andhra is overwhelmingly in favour of the larger unit, public opinion in Telangana has still to crystallize itself". The concerns of Telanganas were manifold. The region had a less developed economy than Andhra, but a larger revenue base (mostly because it taxed rather than prohibited alcoholic beverages), which Telanganas feared might be diverted for use in Andhra. They also feared that planned dam projects on the Krishna and Godavari rivers would not benefit Telangana proportionately even though Telanganas controlled the headwaters of the rivers. Telanganas feared too that the people of Andhra would have the advantage in jobs, particularly in government and education. Para 386 of States Reorganization Commission (SRC) said "After taking all these factors into consideration we have come to the conclusions that it will be in the interests of Andhra as well as Telangana area is to constitute into a separate State, which may be known as the Hyderabad State with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961 if by a two thirds majority the legislature of the residency Hyderabad State expresses itself in favor of such unification."

The central government decided to ignore the SRC recommendations and established unified Andhra Pradesh on November 1, 1956. However, a "Gentlemen's agreement" provided reassurances to the Telangana people.

Grudges of Telanganas:

* Telangana is less developed compared to Andhra.
* Rivers like Krishna and Godavari flow through Telangana, but the water from the dams are sent to Andhra.
* Because of less literacy and backwardness of Telangana people, most of the new jobs, postings in government and education are given to people from Andhra.
* Except for common language, the people of Andhra and Telangana have different dialects, histories, cultural systems, different food habits


Separate Telangana Movement:

In the following years after the formation of Andhra Pradesh state, however, the Telangana people had a number of complaints about how the agreements and guarantees were implemented. Discontent with the 1956 Gentlemen's agreement intensified in January 1969 when the guarantees that had been agreed on were supposed to lapse. Student agitation for the continuation of the agreement began at Osmania University in Hyderabad and spread to other parts of the region. Government employees and opposition members of the state legislative assembly swiftly threatened "direct action" in support of the students. This movement also know as Jai Telangana movement led to widespread violence and deaths of hundreds of people and students of this Telangana region. Approx. 360 students gave their lives in this movement.

Although the Congress faced dissension within its ranks, its leadership stood against additional linguistic states, which were regarded as "anti-national." As a result, defectors from the Congress, led by M.Chenna Reddy, founded the Telangana People's Association (Telangana Praja Samithi). Despite electoral successes, however, some of the new party leaders gave up their agitation in September 1971 and, much to the disgust of many separatists, rejoined the safer political haven of the Congress ranks.

The emotions and forces generated by the movement were not strong enough, however, for a continuing drive for a separate state until 1990s when Bharatiya Janata Party, promised separate Telangana state if they come to power. But BJP could not create separate Telangana state because of the opposition from its coalition partner, Telugu Desam Party. These developments brought new life into separate Telangana movement by year 2000. Congress party MLA's from Telangana region, supported the separate Telangana state and formed a Telangana Congress Legislators Forum. In another development, a new party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (or TRS) is formed with single agenda of separate Telangana state, with Hyderabad as its capital.


Present Talk of SRC:

Most of the political parties are now pitching for a separate state but in different ways.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Communist Party of India want outright separate state, other parties like the governing Congress Party wants a State Reorganization Commission (SRC) to be established by the Central Government and then decide on the future of Telangana.
The opposition Telugu Desam Party is not ready for Telangana and they say that they will take a decision at "right time".
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) are also against Telangana for their own reasons.

It is high time politicians respect the aspirations of the people of Telangana. The demand of Telangana was made in 1952 but was considered not feasible and then shelved. In the late 60's, a huge political agitation took place but it was successfully put down by the state government.

Even though the agitation started off with economic problems in the background, now it has become more sentimental in nature.

It would be of everyone's good if we separate peacefully !!

Role Of Andhras in Hyderabad:

The people who are most worried with the formation of Telangana are the Andhras who have migrated to Hyderabad City after it is made capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Taking advantage of the Capital City, they established industries, started educational institutions and were imposing their style of language.
One way, they paved for the development of the city and the other way, they are trying to enforce their traditions on the region.
People who have migrated from Andhra and settled in Telangana are called as "Mulkis".

Benefits Due To Separation:

* Right now the coal is mined and electricity is produced in Telangana but most of it is supplied to Andhra region, while districts of Medak and Adilabad have four hours of electricity during the day during summer. In the new state, these districts will be fed with electricity.
* The rivers of Krishna and Godavari flow through Telangana, and the dams are in Telangana, but the canals carrying the water go to Andhra. In the new state, there would be new canals bringing water to the arid regions of Telangana bringing in prosperity to the farmers and local population.
* Most of the jobs, in government and education, are filled up by people from Andhra. In the new state, these jobs will go the local population.

With the above benefits in mind, it is for the welfare of the country that a separate Telangana state is formed - NOW !