Telangana Movement : The Demand of a Separate State

 *blogged by Arithy   EE10B005*

Latest Updates on Telangana Movement as on 7th November 2011

• Congress MLA and former minister Komatireddy Venkata Reddy observing an indefinite fast in his native Nalgonda district in support of separate Telangana demand was forcibly shifted to a hospital in Hyderabad on Sunday.

 

• The Supreme Court will examine a batch of PILs urging it to restrain the Centre from carving out a separate Telangana state and ensure that normal public life was not affected on account of the agitation.

 

• Protests in support of the separate Telangana and against it continued in Andhra Pradesh today. Statehood supporters held protests  like cycle rallies, sit-ins at various places in the region.

 

• Congress lawmakers and leaders from Telangana region have decided to boycott the ‘AP Formation Day’ celebrations on November 1, the day on which the state was carved out in 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act.

 

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on board of the special plane commented that resolving Telangana issue will 'take time'‎.

 

• The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), is estimated to have lost about Rs 211.44 crore due to the agitation in the Telangana region.

 

• In spite of mounting pressure from the Telangana activists, political JAC and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), senior Congress leader and Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy is unlikely to resign from the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet.

 

• The Telangana Joint Action Committee has called a bandh in Hyderabad.  Protesters have now shifted their focus on putting pressure on elected representatives and ministers in the Congress government to resign.

 

Authors Note on the Issue

Well, let me ask you the same question. What is your view on this ongoing 'Telangana issue'? ...Why should I care about that...This is the kind of attitude in some of the people. Since this is purely a problem of Andhra Pradesh, it is  quite possible that people from Tamil Nadu or Karnataka may not even have heard of 'Telangana'! Understanding the problems and having the perspective of the case in neutrality is very essential in resolving things. That is why I started to blog on this topic. Yeah, I'm not from Andhra nor I live in Telangana. Decisions in democracy are taken by the representatives of you and me...We do have a major part in decison making processes. We do have the power to analyse, understand, think, process and judge the issue. Why not exercise it, give others the correct scenario of what's happening and be a part of the team of the 'Common Man's Voice'. I can strongly feel that you wanna have a third person's perspective on 'Telanagana Movement'. Then, what are you waiting for...? Follow my blog and stay updated on the current hot issue of Telangana. It is argued that literacy rate of Telangana is less and the people from the rest of Andhra have an edge over them in job opportunities. They proclaim to have been discriminated and underdeveloped because of the indifferences. The need for a new state in Andhra Pradesh could be a politically influenced drama or the need of the hour to stop anymore discrimination to the people of Telangana.

We should be reminded of the fact that this kind of bifurcation of a state is not new in Indian democracy. Recently, India created three new states- Uttaranchal (from Uttar Pradesh), Chattisgarh (from Madhya Pradesh), and Jharkand (from Bihar). Why can't we have Telangana (from Andhra Pradesh) now?  How are the newer states doing? Uttaranchal tough in its terrain by geography has made significant progress in setting up industries. Chattisgarh has opened new universities and better job opprtunities for the locals. It has made a tremendous progress in getting electricity to remote villages. Jharkand with abundance in raw materials including coal has set up its own industries and made better economic growth than ever before. Creation of Telangana has wide avenues of development. Some of the projected benefits are discussed as follows :

• 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 the rest of Andhra. In the new state, more jobs opportunities could be created for the locals.      

So why can't Telangana make its  progress. What is the problem with this Telangana in particular? Some of the reasons are discussed below :

• The remain reason is because of the fact that Hyderabad, the current capital of Andhra Pradesh being a part of Telangana. In the rest of the three new states, their capitals were newly created. But here, in this case, creation of Telangana might cause Hyderabad to be lost. Hyderabad is a prime economic centre both in IT indusutries as well as in MNCs. The new capital for rest of Andhra would be smaller and could cause a deep decline in the state's  economic growth.

• The creation of new capital for the existing state is a challenge by itself. It includes the house of legislatures and representatives, municipal offices, new connectivity through road, rail and air transport. 

• The talk about making Hyderabad a Union Territory is also not a good idea. Every other Union Territory of India has been declared so because of its clearly defined history and its inabilty to join the nearby state due to historical background. For example, Pondicherry was declared a UT because it was under the French rule while the rest (Tamil Nadu) was under the Madras Presidency of the British.

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Overview of Telangana Issue

Telangana Movement is organised by a group of activists to support the formation of a separate state of Telangana from the existing Andhra Pradesh. The movement turned into a big public issue in the late 2009 and its still continuing till date. Hunger fasting, roads and rail blocks, shop shut downs have become the powerful tools of these activists who include scores of college students from Telangana region. The political parties that strongly support the idea of  Telangana are Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), Nava Telangana Praja Party (NTPP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), etc. The all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) started relay hunger strikes and threatened the resignations of all legislators on 28 January, 2010 demanding that the Centre take adequate steps to consider the division of Andhra Paradesh. On 3 February, 2010 the government announced the five-member Srikrishna Committee on Telangana that would look into the issue. But till date, the issue remains as an  unsolved  crisis.

Historic Perspective of Telangana Region

Telangana is a region which is a part of the present day Andhra Pradesh in India. The Telangana region comprise of 10 districts: Adilabad, Hyderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy, and Warangal. The Musi River, Krishna and Godavari rivers flow through the region from west to east. Andhra Pradesh State has three main cultural regions of which Telengana is a one part and others includes Coastal Andhra region on the east and Rayalaseema region on the south.

Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE to 220 CE) originated from the lands between the Godavari and Krishna Rivers. The region experienced its golden age during the reign of the Kakatiya dynasty, a Telugu dynasty that ruled most parts of what is now Andhra Pradesh from 1083 to 1323 AD. Ganapatideva was known as the greatest of the Kakatiyas, and the first after the Satavahanas to bring the entire Telugu area under one rule. Telangana came under the Muslim rule of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century, followed by Bahmanis, Qutb Shahis, and the Mughals. As the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate in the early 18th century, the Muslim Asafjahi dynasty established a separate state known as Hyderabad, the current capital of  modern Andhra Pradesh. Later, during the British Rule in India, the Coastal and Rayalaseema regions came under the Madras Presidency. While, the Telangana region was still a prominent princely state.

When India became independent from the British Rule in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad wasn't willing to unite his kingdom of estwhile Telangana/Hyderabad regions with the Indian territory. He wanted a separate princely state status for his kingdom. The Government of India annexed Hyderabad State on 17 September 1948, in an operation by the Indian Army called Operation Polo. When India became independent, Telugu-speaking people were distributed in about 22 districts, 9 of them in the former Nizam's dominions of the princely state of Hyderabad, 12 in the Madras Presidency (Andhra region), and one in French-controlled Yanam.

The Political influence on Telangana Movement  

In December 1953, the States Reorganization Commission was appointed to study the creation of states on linguistic basis. The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was not in favour of an immediate merger of Telangana region of with Andhra state, despite their common language. The main reason behind this is that the literacy levels in Telangana regions were less compared to that of its counterparts in Andhra, namely Rayalaseema and Coastal regions which were under the control of British Madras Presidency. It was feared that the joining the regions would give an edge for non-Telangana people in job opportunities. Considering the situation, Andhra state assembly passed a resolution on 25 November 1955 to provide safeguards to Telangana. The agreement provided reassurances to Telangana in terms of power-sharing as well as administrative rules and distribution of expenses of various regions.

In December 1968 Osmania University students organised a rally to protest against discrimination in government jobs against Telangana people.This agitation came to an end in September 1972 with the merger of Telangana Praja Samithi with Congress. Various political parties were formed on a platform of pursuing for separate statehood for Telangana region, including the Telangana Praja Samithi party in 1969. In the 1990s, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised a separate Telangana state if they came to power. A new party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), was formed in 2001 with the single-point agenda of creating a separate Telangana State with Hyderabad as its capital.

In the 2004 Assembly and Parliament elections, the Congress party promised a separate Telangana State and the TRS had an electoral alliance in the Telangana region. Congress came to power in the state and formed a coalition government at the centre with TRS. Later, In September 2006, TRS withdrew support from the Congress-led coalition government because of the failure of fulfilling the promise to create a separate Telangana state. The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), founded by Telugu Matinee cinema actor Chiranjeevi in 2008, supported Telangana statehood. But later, the PRP leader joined Congress withdrew his idea of  separate statehood in 2011.

On 29 November 2009, TRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) started a fast-unto-death, demanding that the Congress party introduce a Telangana bill in Parliament. This is considered to be the turning point in the political arena of Telangana Movement. He was soon arrested. Student organizations, employee unions, and various organizations joined the movement. On 9 December 2009, Union Minister of Home Affairs P. Chidambaram announced that the Indian government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state. On 23 December, the Government of India announced that no action on Telangana would be taken until a consensus was reached by all parties. Rallies, hunger strikes, and suicides continued throughout Telangana to protest against the delay in bifurcating the State. The all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) started relay hunger strikes and threatened the resignations of all legislators on 28 January, demanding that the Centre spell out its intentions and create a timetable for change. On 3 February, 2010 the government announced the five-member Srikrishna committee on Telangana that would look into the issue, with a deadline of 31 December 2010.

Srikrishna Committee Report

The Srikrishna committee on Telangana submitted its report in two volumes to the Home Ministry of India on 30 December 2010. In an all-party meeting on 6 January 2011, the Home ministry made the 505-page Srikrishna committee report public. The Report came up with six possible solutions to Telangana Issue. After going into all aspects of the situation as well as keeping in view the local, regional and national perspective, the Committee considered that the following solutions/possible options may offer the best way forward :

1.   To maintain a status quo :     

Consider the demand of a separate state of Telangana as problem of law and order and it be handled by the state government without the intervention of the Centre. 

2.   Bifurcate the state into Seemandhra and Telangana with Hyderabad being a Union Territory :                                                                              

Over the years migration has completely changed the demographics of the city and the total number of people from other regions and from outside the state residing in the metropolis is very substantial and estimated to be more than one third of the population of the Greater Hyderabad Metropolitan area.

3.     Bifurcate the state into Rayala-Telangana and Coastal Andhra regions with Hyderabad being an integral part of Rayala-Telangana :

The economic analysis of the state which has shown that Rayalaseema is the most backward of the three regions. It is dependent on Telangana for water and irrigation resources and values its access to Hyderabad for employment and education. There is also greater social homogeneity between the two regions.

4.   Bifurcate the state into Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged Hyderabad Metropolis as a separate Union Territory :                      

Being the main software centre of Andhra Pradesh it also accounts for 15% of the national IT exports. Besides, infrastructure and real estate are the other key growth areas in Hyderabad.The extended Union Territory will comprise 67 Mandals, 1330 Villages, 12430 sq.km area.

5.   Bifurcate the state into Telangana and Seemandhra as per existing boundaries with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra to have a new capital :                                       

This option implies accepting the full demands of a large majority of Telangana people for a separate state that will assuage their
emotional feelings and sentiments as well as the perceived sense of discrimination and neglect.

6.   Keeping the State united by simultaneously providing certain definite Constitutional/Statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region :         

Unity is in the best interest of all the three regions of the state as internal partitions would not be conducive to providing sustainable solutions to the issues at hand. In this option, it is proposed to keep the state united and provide constitutional/statutory measures to address the core socio-economic concerns about development of Telangana region. This can be done through the establishment of a statutory and empowered Telangana Regional Council with adequate transfer of funds, functions and functionaries in keeping with the spirit of Gentlemen's Agreement of 1956.  

Authors Conclusion

Well, after this elaborate discussion, here comes the most important question. Is it worth creating a new state of Telangana? For such a query, the answers are purely controversial and unreliable in calculations. It seems like only time can answer such a question....

                                                                                                               
                                                                                                      - Arithy.
                                                                                                               EE10B005

Book Review

Book Review of Battleground Telangana

By: Kungshuk Nag

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 978-93-5029-074-3

About Author

Kingshuk Nag has been journalist with the Times of India for the last eighteen years. Presently, he is the resident editor of the Hyderabad edition of the newspaper. He is the recipient of the Prem Bhatia award for his coverage of the Gujarat riots of 2002. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Double Life of Ramalinga Raju: The Story of India's Biggest Corporate Fraud.

Table of Contents

1. An Insoluble Problem
2. The Creation of Andhra Pradesh
3. The First Agitation
4. Paradigm Shift: NTR, Naidu & YSR
5. Cultural Heterogeneity
6. The State of Economy
7. TRS and the Electoral Battle for Telangana
8. Ten Days to Telangana
9. Taking a U-Turn
10. Caste, Political Parties & Telangana
11. Small is Beautiful: Is Hong Kong Model the Panacea?

Overview

In the preface of the book, he starts off by giving two contrasting examples of the two very different type of people whose interests are conflicting. He kicks off the book by giving the example of the current C.M. Of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Kiran Kumar reddy who hails from the Rayalaseema region but grew up in Hyderabad. For people like him, creation of Telangana means losing his home where he grew up and where all his childhood memories are contained. On the other hand, he says that for every KKR, there are thousands atleast like Srinivas, Lakshmi and Razia. Brought up in a lower-income quarters of Hyderabad or the harsh terrain of Telangana, prosperity and opportunities have eluded them in life. The prospect of a new state holds out an array of hope for them. They feel that in their 'their' independent Telangana state there will be jobs and prosperity for everyone and theirs will be a land where milk and honey will flow. By this kind of desctription, we can assume that he sympathises more with the second kind of people.

The book then takes a deep dive in the history to look upon the subtle reasons that has lead the India's third largest state in this state of peril. After discussing all the historical and political aspects of the issue, he then proposes a possible solution inspired from the Hong Kong model. Apart from that he strongly asserts that the current Status Quo maintained by the government is not at all the right way to deal with the burning issue and that some definite action must be taken as soon as possible to end this presumably never-ending chaos.

Review

1. Aim of The Book: The basic aim of the writer is to give the reader complete information about the background and development of the burning issue that has become a bone in the neck especially for the people of Hyderabad and the rest of Andhra. He analyzes all the cultural differences and political developments carefully and then tries to give solution for the problem by considering the facts and historical events.
2. Writing Style: Writing style is a quite formal but accurate. It very well conveys the message that it wanted to and the only drawback i can think of is that it's gets boring in the middle. The first two chapter and the last two chapters will apeal to an ordinary reader because it makes the reader think and engages him. But the seven chapters in the middle are so technical and factual that one feels sleepy the same way we all used to feel in our history classes.
3. Plus Points: Leaving the writing style and likability of the book apart. One thing that i really liked about the book is that the author underwent a huge pain in order to completely understand and get his facts straight in order to write a book on the issue. Usually when such a huge issue comes up, almost anyone who knows to write comes out with his verdict before he completely understand the issue himself. Hence it can be said that the author of this book is not only a good & famous journalist, but also a sensible and mature writer. If you ever come across this book, the first thing according to me that you will notice is the in depth description of every minute detail. In short, great book for someone who's researching or wants a concise and complete description of the dreaded Telangana Issue.
4. Negative Points: Surprisingly the points that go in favour of the book are the ones that simply goes against it. Actually it depends on the one who's reading it. For example, as i stated earlier, this book is great for someone who's researchig on the topic. But if you are the kind of guy/girl who likes a bit informal tone and wants to have some fun while reading it then this book is definitely not for you. I bet that you'll be bored to death while reading it because it feels like as if you're reading a 200 page long newspaper report.

Reviewer's Note

After reading the fourth point you might be thinking that to buy this book is perhaps not the greatest idea on the planet. Well, it was not meant to scare people off. All I was trying to do was to emphasize the point that it's not a novel that you would like to read to kill some time. But at the same time if you're genuinely interested in the issue and have a desire to find out some more then probably it's one of the finest book out in the market on this sensitive topic.

Reviewed By: Ranjit Nair

Roll No: EE10B032