On Telangana

Well, its been quite long since my last post. I guess those of my friends who said I won't be as regular were right. But none the less, better late than never.

I have been wanting to write about the Telangana issue for quite some time & I realize that the post is also very late. But as I said.. better late than.... :)

Andhra Pradesh = Andhra Pradesh + Telangana

Why do residents of Telangana want a separate state? Don't they know how much they gain by sharing the resources with Andhra Pradesh? Don't they have any clue how difficult life would become for them surviving as a separate state altogether?

Well, if you think of it, there are many residents of Telangana who truly believe that they should be given a separate state & believe me, they are neither affiliated to nor influenced by any political party. This did not spring up all of a sudden. The problem was there since the very beginning. Here is a brief on how it started & why it has scaled up to these levels.

How did it Start: Telangana was declared a separate kingdom at the time of independence. Telangana, like 17 other princely states, was merged with the India by a force called Sardar Patel. In 1953, Telangana was merged into Andhra Pradesh as one single. This was much against the wants of the residents of Telangana & understandably so. Not only were they deprived of their independent princely state status but also not given the status of a separate state. The revolt then was suppressed by both power (of Sardar Patel) & the joy of uniting under one roof (India).

But.. boss that was 1953, 56 years ago. The people who wanted an independent state then are either dead or in the waiting list; & children, today, care for nothing but their dying parents' money, leave alone their aspirations for a new state. These aspirations were kept alive by our political parties.

Reasons for Scaling up: Very few people know that there was a similar revolt, demanding a separate state of Telangana in 1969 which was moderated by the, then CM of state, P.V. Narsimha Rao. Here, Congress was the one fighting to keep the state united.

Much to the contrary, the revolt in 2000 was sparked by MLA's of the Congress party itself from Telangana. They formed a separate party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to protest against the then coalition government formed by BJP along with TDP (Telugu Desam Party). As is usual, BJP had come to power promising a separate state for Telangana as they did for Jharkhand & Chhattisgarh, but failed in this case because they did not get the support of TDP, their supporting party in the government.

Thus, in the form of BJP, TRS & Congress, the hopes of the citizens, for a separate state were kept alive for 57 years with Congress backing off in 2006. The Congress Party is still not in favour of a separate state.

If you think of it, the residents of Telangana have a point:

Telangana is the largest single region of the three regions of AP, covering 41.47% of its total area, is inhabited by 40.54% of the state’s population, contributes about 76% to the state’s revenues (excluding central government contribution).

But, if everybody follows the same criterion then all the metros should demand for a separate country as their economy on paper is more than self sufficing. The people of Telangana should also realize the importance of synergy effect. Telangana is what it is because of the cooperation from the other parts of AP. Probably, the people realize it also, but the politicians will not let the realization popularize. After all, this is one horse which always wins them the race.

I just hope that the no. of states does not increase.. its difficult to keep a track you know.. :)

Cheers!!