Politics of Convenience

Past week has been very eventful in Indian politics as well as Andhra Pradesh politics.

Indian Politics:
As the Communists have decided to withdraw support to the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for going ahead with Nuclear Deal with the Americans, Congress political spin masters have started looking for support from political parties who have supported them in the past.
Noted among them is Mulayam Singh Yadav led Samajwadi Party with a net of 39 Loksabha Member of Parliamentarians.


A wily and cunning politician, Mulayam Singh Yadav is a very well known Anti-Hindu being pro-Muslim as there is a huge population of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. It is a well known fact that Muslims enmasse vote to his party and Hindus hate him for firing and killing hundreds of Karsevaks during the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. He was a darling of the Communists but he is also known for hopping alliances from supporting the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party to supporting the Communists and the Congress.

Till two weeks back, there were war of words between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress and now it seems they are patching up for political survival. Good to see the Congress true colors.

Andhra Pradesh Politics:

The Telugu Desam Party is beset with leaders queuing up for other political parties. While senior leader, Devender Goud left the party for the sake of forming a separate political party fighting for Telangana, other leaders have gone out to join yet to be formed political party of Mega Star Chiranjeevi. There is an almost huge rebellion to happen in TDP and Naidu is fighting for his political survival. At the same time, Telangana Rashtra Samithi head, K.Chandra Sekhar Rao is also fighting for his political survival as he lost too many seats in the recently concluded by-elections.

TDP is a party known for its stance against a separate Telangana State. After 8 years, Naidu had a one-to-one talk with KCR. Political pundits say there is going to be a pact between both the parties "IF" Naidu supports a separate Telangana. This would be a dramatic political decision which would have far reaching implications.

Naidu sees Chiranjeevi as a probable politician who is going to challenge his political survival while KCR sees Devendar Goud as one.

Let's keep a close watch on more developments that is going to happen in the name of democracy !!

Stubborn Politicians

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Supremo, Nara Chandrababu Naidu is taking a tour of the entire state naming his tour as "Mee Kosam" (For You) and trying to connect with ordinary citizens of the state - which he had not done during his 9 years of rule. During his rule as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he concentrated more on the cities and completely ignored the plight of farmers thus facing a wrath of villagers and losing power to the Congress Party.


Presently, he is touring Vizianagaram District and yesterday, a small village, Devupalli was the stage for the Supreme Polit Bureau Meeting of TDP. Generally, the high level meeting takes place at its head quarters in Hyderabad. The urgency of the meeting was due to various statements by the members of polit bureau on the issue of separate Telangana State. While Devender Goud, who belongs to Telangana wants the party to issue a statement supporting the separate state, other members like Yenamala Ramakrishnudu, Yerram Naidu (belonging to Andhra Region) and K.E.Krishna Murthy (belonging to Raayalaseema Region) vehemently opposing the separation.

The meeting was held in a luxurious bus that Naidu is using for his "Yatra". While the formation of separate is gaining momentum and almost all the political parties are supporting it, TDP and CPI(M) are the only two political parties who are not able to tap the sentiments of Telangana people.

While Naidu, in a press conference after the meeting agreed that "Telangana sentiment is there in people", he once again repeated his regular quote that "TDP will take a decision after due deliberation and right decision at right time".

I think right time is running out as the next general elections are just 6 months away. It is time politicians shelve their stubbornness and take the sentiments of people seriously.

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.