Firstpost eBook OnTelangana

8/22/2019 Firstpost eBook OnTelangana

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It took five decades

but Telangana is born


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Table of contents

India gets its 29th state

Telanganas creation will take 6 months: Heres how it will work 04

History lessons for Telangana: Congress will win but TRS may lose 06

Logic of Telangana is sound: Why India needs 50 small states 08

Why Telangana raises more questions than answers 11

Can Andhra Pradesh reinvent itself after losing Telangana? 13

Why the Telangana struggle wont end with statehood 15

From 1948 to 2013: A brief history of the Telangana movement 17

The politics of separation

Why Telangana does not justify Gorkhaland and Bodoland 20

Why Omar Abdullah is so strongly against the creation of Telangana 22

Telangana: People, netas want small states, not for same reasons 24

Telangana effect: GJM calls indenite bandh in Darjeeling from Saturday 27

Joy and anger: reactions to Telangana

The long wait from 1948-2013: An old Telangana activist speaks 30

Telangana supporters celebrate after ve-decades of struggle 32

Telangana: Cos welcome end of uncertainty, but warn of pitfalls 34

Andhra: Ministers confront Kiran Kumar, as protests take violent turn 36

Telangana: Cong MLA from Vishakhapatnam resigns 38

Modis open letter on Telangana: Cong has betrayed for 9 yrs,it cannot be trusted 39

The battle for Hyderabad

Will Hyderabad become the next Chandigarh? 43

Cong ministers demand new Andhra capital in Rayalaseema region 44

Telangana effect: Brace for a rise in Hyderabad property prices 45
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India gets its 29th state


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Telanganas creation will take6 months: Heres how it will work

Creation of the new Telangana state will take close to

six months that involve a number of steps, includingadoption of state re-organisation bill by Parliament

by a simple majority.

PTI, Jul 30, 2013

New Delhi: Creation of the new Telan-gana state will take close to six monthsthat involve a number of steps, includ-

ing adoption of state re-organisation bill by

Parliament by a simple majority.

Contrary to the perception that a Constitutionamendment bill is required, the bill to be adopt-ed by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha does not needa two-thirds majority as is the case when a Con-stitution amendment is required to be adopted.

At a Union Cabinet meeting, which is expectedto be held tomorrow, an in-principle approval islikely to be given for creation of a Group of Min-isters (GoM) comprising Ministers of Home,Finance, HRD, Health, Irrigation, Power, En-

vironment and Forests, Railways and DeputyChairman Planning Commission to go into theeconomic issues on creation of the new state.

The Home Ministry will submit a note to theUnion Cabinet for creation of Telanagana onthe basis of the proposal received from the stategovernment. The entire process will take at least

40 days.

The Union Home Ministry will prepare anothernote for the Union Cabinet with Re-organisa-

tion bill on the basis of the recommendationsand suggestions of the GoM requesting theUnion Cabinet to approve the State Re-organi-sation bill and to recommend to the President torefer the Bill to the legislature of the state.

Andhra Pradesh State Legislature will also haveto pass a resolution that a separate state of Tel-angana be formed.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance will appointan expert Committee to recommend measuresfor smooth transition in terms of nancial man-agement and viability of the reorganised state.

In view of the normative economic factors thatwould operate in the remaining state of AndhraPradesh consequent upon formation of Telan-gana state, a dedicated unit will be set up in thePlanning Commission to deal exclusively withthe re-organised state under the direct charge ofthe Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission.

The unit will ensure that, with the help of betternancial management and adequate devolutionof funds from the Centre, multifaceted develop-ment of the region takes place, especially withrespect to core infrastructure.

After the second Cabinet meeting, the PrimeMinister would recommend to the President

that the draft Bill be referred under Article 3of the Constitution to the State Legislature fortheir views to be given within 30 days.


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The President would then refer the Bill to theState Legislature. Both the Andhra PradeshLegislative Assembly and Legislative Council

will then consider the Bill and give their viewswithin 30 days.

The recommendations of the State Legislaturewill be incorporated into the draft Re-organisa-tion Bill and vetted by the Law Ministry.

A third note will be prepared with draft Re-organisation bill vetted by the Law Ministryand sent to the Union Cabinet for approval for

introduction in Parliament.

Soon, a notice will be given for introduction ofthe Reorganisation Bill in Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha. After introduction in both Houses ofParliament, the Bill has to be passed by a simplemajority.

After being passed by both the Houses of Parlia-ment, the Bill will be sent to President for hisassent and the new state Telangana will comeinto existence.


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History lessons for Telangana:Congress will win but TRS may lose

As Congress makes a killing, Kiran Kumar Reddy

and K Chandrashekar Rao should read historyand ponder their fate.

Sanjay Singh Aug 1, 2013

After initial belligerence, Andhra PradeshChief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy hasmade a complete about turn over the

creation of a separate Telengana state. Reddyseem to be doing what Lalu Prasad Yadav did 13

years ago when then NDA government decidedto bifurcate Bihar and carve out Jharkhand.Over my dead body, a deant Lalu then said

but soon allowed a resolution for the creation ofJharkhand to be moved in the Bihar assemblyand also have it passed.

Reddy is doing the same after threatening toresign over the destructive decision, he now

wants to abide by the party high command deci-sion and move on.

Kiran Kumar Reddy (KKR) is a loyal Congress-man and was picked by Congress president So-nia Gandhi to be the chief minister of the statein the aftermath of a towering YSR Reddy. Buthistory is not on his sided. His ministers and

MLAs are quitting but thats not an issue here.Before the 29th state of the Indian Union comesinto existence in the next few months, he shouldreect on the historicity of the creation of the26th, 27th & 28th states of the Indian Union

Chhattisgarh out of Madhya Pradesh, Uttara-khand out of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand outof Bihar. All three were created on varying datesin November 2000.

It is interesting that none of the three chiefministers who presided over the parent state Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh, RajnathSingh in Uttar Pradesh and Rabri Devi in Biharretuned to power after the bifurcation of theirstates. All three went on to lose the next elec-tions, as and when it was held in their respec-tive states.

Andhra Pradesh will go to the polls in April-May 2014, coinciding with the parliamentary

elections. Kiran Kumar Reddy will need morethan simple luck or hard work of party workersto return to power. What looks certain, at leastfor now, is that he is destined to the have his-tory repeat for him as did for the three abovementioned chief ministers. But he knows that ifhe keeps party high command in good humor,he can still have a good career in the party evenif the game is lost out for him in the home state.

Equally interesting is the fact that those whocreated history by being the chief ministerof these three new found states Ajit Jogi inChhatisgarh, Nityanand Swami in Uttrakhandand Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand also did notreturn to power.

Another critical angle to the creation of statesthrough long standing agitation, is that theparty which toils, sweats it out, and spills blood

becomes marginalized to the extent of becomingirrelevant when their efforts bore fruit and thestates were created.

Uttarakhands kranti Dal became completely ir-


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relevant in state of Uttarakhand. In Jharkhand,the party which led the movement JharkhandMukti Morcha did not remain the force it once

was. Though after lot of permutation and com-bination its leader Hemant Soren was able torecently form a government with Congress,RJD and Independents, he and his party nolonger command the clout that his father ShibuSoren akka Guruji had in this tribal region whenhe led the struggle for separate statehood. InChhattisgarh there was not much of a popularmovement, a Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha and aparty in Gondwana has not been heard of sincethe state was carved out.

So the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) hadbetter watch out. It may not have a bright futureahead. Its leader Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar

Rao (KCR) will be faced with three possibili-ties become irrelevant like the UKD, or oatlike JMM at times aligning with Congress, attimes with the BJP, or even merge with the Con-gress as Digvijaya Singh suggested.

After Congress decided to create a new state,his agenda and credit has been hijacked by theGrand Old Party and as such the TRS has hadnothing to offer, unless the Andhra Pradesh

Reorganisation Act prepared by the Congressministers at the centre goof it up and give hima handle to yet again rake up wounded pride orthe issue of injustice. There are many who be-lieve that a K Chandrashekar Rao led TRS couldgo with Congress through either merging oraligning with it due to simple political logic andemerging arithmetic on the ground.

Like the then BJP leadership of 2000, the Con-gress high command has good solid reasons tocreate Telangana. The party has cut its losses,

which it would have otherwise grievously suf-fered if it had not bifurcated Andhra. The partymay still loose badly in the 25 parliamentaryseats of the parent state Andhra Pradesh, butcould gain signicantly in the 17 seats of theTelangana region.

The Congress high command shrewdly timed itsdecision coming closer to assembly and par-liamentary elections and in the process elimi-nating challenges from all rival political partiesin the Telangana region. YSR Congress, whichhad been creating a buzz is completely irrel-evant in Telangana due to its vociferous opposi-tion to the creation of this state, the TDP was

neither here nor there, a party without positionand thus not to be trusted by the people in theregion, the TRS will have the goodwill but willlose the political agenda to go to the elections,the BJP which has been championing the cause

will be seen as a friend, and generate somecondence but does not have grass root organi-sational capacity to take on the Congress.

The Congress has done it on such a way that

it emerges as a champion of granting the longstanding aspirations of the people,also agree-ing to drop the initial idea of including thetwo districts of Rayalseema in the new state ofTelangana. The 2014 elections in Telangana,parliamentary and assembly could just be the

way for Congress. The poll surveyors have a taskclear cut out for them.


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Logic of Telangana is sound:Why India needs 50 small states

The logic behind the creation is sound. But the logic

leads to the creation of more states, including more

city-states with greater economic powers.

R Jagannathan Jul 31, 2013

Yesterdays Congress decision to allow anew state Telangana to be carvedout of Andhra Pradesh has a simple logic

behind it: electoral math. If Telangana had notbeen announced, Congress would have beenwiped out in both the Andhra and Telanganaregions in 2014. The announcement thus is amatter of self-preservation.

If this wasnt the case, Telangana could al-

ready have been a reality by now, for the rstannouncement on it was made as early as on9 December 2009 by no less a person than PChidambaram, then Home Minister. That he

reneged on the promise in less than two weekstells another story. That it took three-and-a-half

years and a full-edged peoples agitation forthe Congress to make yet another announce-ment on Telangana tells the story even moreclearly.

However, the politics of the decision need notdetain us here. The simple point is that it is agood decision even though it has been arrived

at through a process of self-serving logic. Goodintentions can sometimes lead to bad results (asBJPs India Shining campaign did in 2004) anddubious intentions sometimes result in good


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decisions. Telangana is a case in point.

The rst thing to emphasise is that Telanganais not the end. Once you accept the logic ofsmaller states, you have carry it through: weneed smaller states and India could conceivablyhave at least 50 states, including city-states. InMaharashtra, it should mean not just Vidarbha,

but Mumbai as a charter city, a city-state withits own rules.

Nor does the logic of smaller states end withtheir mere creation. We dont just need smallerstates, but more empowered states. Smallerstates without greater economic and consti-tutional empowerment can amount to noth-ing. Its like giving a hungry man a plate withno food on it. The ultimate reasoning behind

smaller states is empowerment. India needs tobecome an Empowered States of India ESI, tobe short and not just a Union of States, as theConstitution says without giving states enoughpowers.

Lets start with the importance of small rst.

First, smaller states mean key decisions will betaken closer to the ground. Just as Delhi should

not take decisions on food security for Chhat-tisgarh, Mumbai should not decide what is goodeven for Vidarbha, where farmer suicides have

blotted the landscape endlessly. Solutions toVidarbha lie closer in Nagpur.

Second, administering large and diverse statesis more complex and probably inefcient as

well, though there can be economies of scale insome ways. Size cuts both ways. But it stands to

reason that politics can be much more focusedwhen the administrative area and populationare of manageable proportions. Just as XXL sizecorporations become bureaucracies, XXL statesare inherently inefcient.

Indian states are simply too big for their owngood. Even after the creation of Telangana asthe 29th state, the average Indian state will have42 million people though actual sizes vary

widely from the 200-and-odd million of Uttar

Pradesh to states such as Arunachal, with just afew thousand people scattered all over.

The European Union, with as many states as

India currently (28), has an average per-countrypopulation of 18 million. The 50-state USA hasan average state population of just 6.25 million.

While we need not compare apples and oranges,the short point is that smaller states bring therulers and the ruled closer to one another physi-cally and emotionally and in a democracy thatis a very good thing.

Third, a key reason why smaller states are bet-ter is that smaller states reduce diversity. Andthat too is a good thing. High diversity makesfor complex political and administrative calcu-lations. The whole point of creating linguisticstates in the 1950s was that they would improveadministrative efciency. Consider how difcultit would have been to administer the Bombay

Presidency with at least two major languages(Marathi and Gujarati), or the Madras presiden-cy (with four major linguistic groups to manage Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam).

The logic now needs to extend downwards. Di-versity is not only about language but economicand cultural diversity too. Coastal Andhra has adifferent economic culture compared to Telan-gana. Vidarbha is different from Marathwada

and western Maharashtra or coastal Maharash-tra or Mumbai. Resources cannot be efcientlyallocated when there is so much diversity sincethe power structures so created will hijack themfor their own ends.

Smaller states will not eliminate political orpolicy paralysis, but they will ensure that excessdiversity is not the reason for such paralysis.The story of Indias current political logjam

where regional powers try to block or hijackcentral resources for their own ends does notbear repetition in the larger states.

The other point about smaller states is empow-erment. Once again, the case of Telangana isinstructive.

Unlike Vidarbha or North Bengal or Jharkhand(which was carved out of Bihar), Telanganasproblem is not distance from the power centre

(Hyderabad is bang in the middle of Telanga-na); it is a complete disconnect with the powerstructure that paid obeisance to politicians fromthe richer coastal districts of Andhra.


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How did the development needs of one of thepoorest regions of Andhra (Telangana, exclud-ing Hyderabad) get ignored despite having thepower centre right there?

The answer is capture of the power centre byAndhra elites with little commitment to Telan-gana. It is an open secret that Andhra politi-cians and business families own huge amountsof land in Hyderabad. The late YSR, who wasopposed to Telangana, and his son Jagan Mo-han Reddy, are both linked to covert land grabs.

One of the reasons why Telangana has been sodelayed is that Andhra politicians with benamiland holdings had to seek ways to reduce theirexposure to Telangana and invest it in the re-maining parts of Andhra which will now see a

land price boom. Ongole, which is considereda possible new capital for the rump state of

Andhra Pradesh, is already seeing a land pricerise, with the government itself having bought30,000 acres.

The logic of smaller states also needs to beextended to the idea of empowered city-states.The reason: cities are now giant administra-tive centres with their own requirements. The

Mumbai metropolitan region, for example, hasa population of 18 million equal to the averageEuropean Union country.

Mumbai cannot be administered by politicianswho get elected from outside the city. Metrosneed a more corporate type of governance struc-tures to operate successfully, and the currentsituation, where the elected city governmentlacks the power to even sack the municipalcommissioner (which only the state governmentcan do) shows why the city is so poorly adminis-tered. The elected representatives thus focus onmaking money since they cant do much aboutgovernance. Even Delhi cannot have its law andorder run by the Union home ministry.

In India, UP is t for splitting into four states(Mayawati even passed a resolution to this ef-fect, but once again, that turned out to be anelection gimmick), Andhra, Maharashtra andKarnataka into three, Gujarat into two (with

Saurashtra and Kutch being sliced off), TamilNadu and Kerala into two each, and Kashmirinto three (Valley, Jammu and Ladakh). Plusthere is a case to create charter cities startingprobably with Mumbai. The remaining met-ros can follow once the Mumbai experiment

works. New city-states can also be created fromscratch, and the new Andhra capital, wherever itis, provides a great opportunity for experiment-ing with new city governance structures.

The logic of Telangana necessarily leads to moresmaller states, and more empowered city-states.


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Why Telangana raisesmore questions than answers

Between Hyderabad, Seemandhra, Congressstrategising and tension across the state, the

creation of Telangana is raising more

questions than answers.

Usha Turaga Revelli, July 31, 2013

N

o one knows who coined the word See-mandhra to indicate the non-Telanga-na regions of Andhra Pradesh. But, the

leaders of those two regions certainly would nothave anticipated that the Seemandhra spectre

would loom so large and so quickly upon themas it did on Tuesday.

The peoples demand for a separate Telanganahas been long and unceasing for the last 60

years which, after much ebbing and owing,seems to have found its culmination in the 30July announcement.

The Congress party swung back and forth inthe last three and a half years since it rst an-nounced the initiation of the process of stateformation in December 2009, but nally fell topolitical expediency.

It is not a political decision, said DigvijayaSingh, in charge of AP Congress affairs, while

announcing the outcome of the UPA and CWCmeetings which unanimously resolved to formTelangana. A laughable claim since the timingof the announcement is unmistakable, and the

haste with which the issue has been handled isclearly not without an electoral design.

It is clear that the Congress wants to win at leasthalf of the 33 seats it had won in the 2009 pollsin the State, an objective that gained strengthfrom the recent, not-so-bad show put up by theparty candidates in the rst two phases of thepanchayat elections.

Also noteworthy is the political strategizing thatthe party started a few weeks back by grant-ing Cabinet berths in the latest reshufe to two

of the most hardcore united Andhra leaders,Kavuri Sambasiva Rao from West Godavari andJD Seelam from Guntur and then making themresponsible for reigning in the ferocious localleaders in their respective areas.

It is also hard to discount the other push factor the BJP. Considering that the BJP presidentmade repeated statements that the NDA willform Telangana if it comes to power and thatNarendra Modi, who will visit Andhra Pradeshnext month, is likely to make a denitive state-ment, the Congress leadership appears to have

been compelled to take a denitive decision.

Congress actions to prod the TRS about itsmerger promise even as it stole K Chan-drasekhar Raos thunder with the suddenannouncement, and the underlying need toneutralize Jagan Reddy and a hassling Chan-drababu Naidu in the run-up to the 2014 polls,

also show that the decision is nothing but politi-cal.

The response to the announcement is guarded


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and skeptical, including from the Telanganaquarters themselves. Mutual mistrust contin-ues, with both the TRS as well as the coordina-tor of the Telangana Joint Action Committee(JAC) calling for caution until the Bill is passed.Some people may have burst a few crackers butthe ofcial celebrations will be only after the Billis passed, said Rao.

The CWCs decision was not be easy, said Digvi-jaya Singh. What lies ahead for the party andthe Government is no picnic either. Many is-sues are sticky and promise to make the path tostatehood a walk on burning coals.

The biggest and the foremost issue is Hydera-bad.

Hyderabad will remain the common capital for10 years, a move that indulges the Telanganacamp, a fact acknowledged by KCR who has al-ready started calling for investments in the cityfor more jobs for Telangana youth.

However, common claims notwithstanding, thegeo-location of Hyderabad, which entails trav-elling through Telangana districts, is bound to

be irksome for people from other regions. The

Hyderabad-based Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen(MIM), which has been opposing bifurcationand has been leaning toward Rayala-Telangana

which can bring in more Muslim votes, is ex-pected to make strategic moves to assert itselftoo.

What is equally worrying for the Congress isthe spate of resignations from its ranks, whichalready began with senior MP Rayapati Sam-

basiva Rao and the chairman of its 20 pointprogramme committee Tulsi Reddy leading theway. Then the maverick Vijaywada MP Lagada-pati Rajgopal, understandably wearing a darkscowl, threatened ominously that it is not allover.

He inadvertently conrmed the suspicions ofthe Telangana people that there may be many aslip between the cup and the lip, and there wasdanger of a repeat of the 2009 Chidambaram

episode.

The funniest part though was the scramble totake credit for the new state. While the TRS

chief thanked everyone from the poets to paper-boys for making his dream come true, the Con-gress leaders struck a sagacious and benevolentpose, basking in their latest surge of power. TheBJP claimed that its back-end operations didthe magic.

Curiously enough, although it has been the onlyparty that has always stuck to the two-statesformula, the response that the BJP got from theTelangana people in the recent Panchayat elec-tions was inhospitable to put it mildly. The TDPis mostly stunned into silence, an echo of itsposition in 2009, though some of its Telanganaleaders claim some slice of the glory.

The YSR Congress party is merely muttering inprotest for now and is more concerned with the

dissent brewing in its own backyard.

Reports are pouring in from the Rayalaseemaand coastal districts of angry protests and

violence, but whether the anger is organicallysustainable is the question. And the red corridortheory that has been oated by a section of thepolice ofcers in the state seems to have been

brushed aside by the Government.

The drama will unfold for real in the monsoonsession of Parliament, but the Group of Min-isters that will be set up on the issue may havesome bearing on it. And then, there is the de-mand for a separate Rayalaseema that is slowlyfuming with a senior IPS ofcer resigning. In-cidentally, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy,Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jaganmohan Reddyare all from the Seema region.

The campaign for the 2014 elections is going tobe by far the most interesting this State has everseen. The leaders from the Seemandhra region,

who had become rather complacent in the re-cent months, are now set to raise a fresh battlecry, but it remains to be seen whether the pre-

ventive strategies that the Congress may haveplanned will subdue them.

Since there is still no clarity as to who shouldlook for their political stakes in which part, it

will be strategic politics that will take prece-dence over long-term development goals. Mean-

while, people in the three regions of the presentAndhra Pradesh will continue to be at a loss.


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Can Andhra Pradesh reinventitselfafter losing Telangana?

The issue of forming the new state was as much

about identity as about compatibility.

Akshaya Mishra Jul 31, 2013

So the decision has been taken nally.Telangana was probably never destinedto be part of Andhra Pradesh. Common

language the raison detre for the creation ofstates in India was not glue strong enough tokeep different parts of the state together. The

UPAs decision today, endorsing the separatestate of Telangana, is only acknowledgementof this reality. The issue was as much aboutidentity as about compatibility and neither wassatised by the existing situation.

While announcing the formation of Telangana

after a Congress Working Committee meet,party general secretary Digvijaya Singh said thenew state would comprise 10 districts and Hy-derabad would be the joint capital for 10 yearsfrom the date of the formation of Telangana.

A new capital for the Seemandhra region willbe developed eventually. The move was earliercleared by the UPAs coordination committee.The nuances of the process of separation are

not in the public domain yet, but the decisionshould offer those spearheading the separatestate movement some sense of closure.

Also, it addresses the issues of identity and

compatibility. The hunger for a separate iden-tity among the people of the region was evidentat the time of Independence. It took OperationPolo from the Indian Army for the annexationof the princely state of Hyderabad the geo-graphical spread of which roughly corresponded

to the present day Telangana region in 1948.

There was massive local resentment in 1956when the region was merged with presentday Andhra Pradesh. Not many among politi-cal gures, including Jawaharlal Nehru, wereconvinced fully that the merger was tenable oreven justied. Now that the separation has hap-pened, it should not surprise those familiar withthe history of the demand for statehood.

The creation of Telangana is certainly a blow,economic and otherwise, to the other regions of

Andhra Pradesh. It accounts for close to 75 per-cent of the states revenues, almost the whole ofits coal reserves and 45 percent of its forestedarea. Besides, a major portion of the catch-ment areas of rivers Krishna and Godavari lie inthis region. After the bifurcation of the state it

becomes the upper riparian state which comeswith its distinct advantages.

And, of course, theres the big Hyderabad ques-tion. If the city, the hub of economic activitiesin the state, goes to the new state, the other partof Andhra Pradesh state is left with virtuallynothing. Hyderabad accounts for 55 percent ofthe states revenues and 65 percent of the Uniongovernments revenues.

It is also a huge investment destination for peo-

ple from the Rayalaseema and coastal regions.The formation of the new state threatens to

jeopardise a lot of lives. But Hyderabad, givenits geographical location, cannot stay separatefrom the new state.


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Passionate reactions are expected and there willbe a serious political price to pay, not only forthe Congress and other parties too. The Con-gress has avoided the folly of adding two Ray-alaseema districts to the new state. And theresno clear signal on how is it going to benet fromthe decision electorally, unless of course, theTRS decides to merge with it.

A lot of work still needs to be done, particularlyin the area of division of resources and water-sharing arrangement, and it might take a year

more for the new state to be ofcially formed.The Seemandhra region, which has a reason tofeel cheated, could actually gain from the divi-sion. The business and construction activitiesassociated with the new capital city could giveits economy a llip.

Surely, the end of this unnatural coexistencecould only be good for both sides in the longrun.


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Why the Telangana strugglewont end with statehood

The victory should not be measured only by

the statehood gained, but by getting theregion developed.

Mahesh Vijapurkar Jul 31, 2013

We had fakirs in their black robes, ahuge steel clapper in hand, seek-ing alms with the cry, Jo dega, uska

bhala; jo nahi dega, uska bhi bhala! (He whogives the alms, good wishes to him; he whodoesnt, to him too!) In Hyderabad, we also hadsaffron robed mendicants who, like the fakirs,made it a point to put back a few grains in thegivers hand from the alms given so the generos-ity doesnt wipe him clean.

There was, apart from the beggars, yet anotherkind. These would tug a bull, caparisoned,nicely ornamented with cowries. They were likefortune tellers. Asked a question, they wouldeither nod a yes or a no, unambiguously. If thehead went side to side, it was a no. A verticalmovement was a yes.

My ve-year-old cousin, Keshav, one day askedthe bull when it stopped in front of his home inLalagudi, Secunderabad, Kya, Telangana hoga kya? It nodded a clear yes and the little fel-lows joy couldnt be contained. By then, what

was a set of statement by a few student leadersand politicians had become a widely expressed

desire. That explains an innocent boys keeninterest: everyone was talking about it.

That bulls nod took nearly four decades tomaterialise, though, of course, from now on,given the capability of the political machinery tointroduce subterfuges and plan sabotages, a slip

between the cup and the lip cannot be forth-rightly ruled out. The sudden decisiveness doesspeak of an electoral consideration in an elec-tion that could be a toss-up; no poll of the moodhas painted the Congress and UPA-II in goodhues so far.

It all started in 1968-69, roller-coasted for four

decades and a half, and took innumerable lives.Equitable distribution of development gains,conceded when the Telangana slice of the Ni-zams Hyderabad State consented to merge

with linguistic Andhra was not delivered. Whensurplus agricultural wealth from the deltaic re-gions of Andhra the estuarine parts of Pennar,Krishna and Godavari rivers began to arrivein Hyderabad, the differentials became visible.

It was not, however, that economics alone thatstarted or sustained this anger at having beenclubbed into the same pot with another group,

which was so culturally different. Though theyspoke the same language, Telugu, they weremarkedly different at the same time. The into-nation, Urdu peppering it liberally, the festivals,the customs which had drawn from the rulerculture made them out to be immiscible. Theeconomic reasons made it easy to articulate ademand for a divorce.

The hitherto docile, even laidback communitiesof the locals began to see the people from thecoastal areas and the Rayalaseema districts as


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settlers, an unfortunate term. And they saw cul-tural invasion and economic domination. They

were, as time showed however, not too far fromthe truth at all. But neglect of the backwardregions continued despite assurances of cor-rectives, and political control remained mostly

with those the locals saw as outsiders.

Neglect and a feeling of being short-changedtogether can be an incendiary mixture, andpolitics and politicians tend to emphasise theseperceptions. The students rose as one, OsmaniaUniversity became the hub. As a student of oneof its constituent colleges, I was a witness tothe initial reluctance. G Mallikarjun, who later

became a railway minister, got a cold receptionwhen he canvassed our full participation ifneed be, to take to the streets.

But like in all stirs, there is an impassioned,committed, no-holds-barred-minded core andit was true of the Telangana agitation thatis how it is referred to by all concerned evennow but the rest who may have supported it,even silently, found the period between 1969-71traumatic. The students were at the forefront ofit, examinations were delayed, and it ended withthe loss of an entire year and doubts about the

quality of graduates of Osmania University.

There was the anger of the dispossessed, withmemories of the feudalism that coursed throughTelangana, raised and nursed during the Ni-zams rule. They feared a potentially anotherefdom. As a scholar, Mohan Guruswamy wroteelsewhere, Jawaharlal Nehru (had) assuagedthem (during merger into AP) somewhat withsafeguards but they remained on paper and

the people of Andhra gained ascendancy overHyderabads and Telanganas social and eco-nomic life.

Telangana has been a region where a markedbloody Communist apprising against the Ni-zams feudal arrangement to the extent of beingan armed rising predating the Naxalite move-ment. Each time a new set of safeguards failedto achieve the purpose, the fears of further sub-

mission to Andhras gained strength. They sawthen, and they do even now, how investmentsowed into Hyderabad and mostly around itand the nine other districts remained stagnant.

That is a justication for the persistence ofthe stir which saw new politicians emerging tolead it from Chenna Reddy then to K Chan-drashekar Rao now, even though the latter is

blatantly raising his own political family with aplace for his son, nephew and daughter and

will be till Telangana is signed, sealed and de-livered. But there will also be a lament for thelost years. The delay is the thing; the delay onlystrengthening the resolve.

The views of my friends and contemporaries ofthe late-1960, early 1970s makes are interest-

ing: one, that like Chenna Reddys championingof the cause was mainly because of his cravingfor ofce, which could be seen among all cur-rent proponents of the cause; two, trauma ofseeing violence seeping in, loss of respect forlaw when buses were burnt at random, neverseen earlier; Hyderabad is not the same; likeall cities, a melange, chaotic, but thriving.

None of those who were around at the com-

mencement of the long-drawn agitation wouldwant to concede that it is all over bar shouting,even when the state is formed. The expecta-tion is that the political leadership would not betempted into mere venal politics but work forsecuring the progress denied. Even today, a dis-trict headquarters in Telangana is more or lesslike it was four decades ago, devoid of facilities,employment, and aspirations are going to behigher than then.

Perhaps a decade is all the new states leader-ship would have to sort out imbalances. That,if done, would be satisfactory, or else, the bullmay return, as it would, to the china shop. The

victory should not be measured only by thestatehood gained, but by getting the region

where it ought to have been: if not entirely pros-perous to start with, at least, less inequitable.


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From 1948 to 2013: A brief history

of the Telangana movementFollowing is a brief history of Andhra Pradesh

and chronology of the movement forTelangana state.

PTI, Jul 30, 2013

Hyderabad: Following is a brief historyof Andhra Pradesh and chronology ofthe movement for Telangana state:

*The region, now being called Telangana, was

part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state which wasmerged into the Indian Union on 17 September,1948.

*Central government appointed a civil serv-ant, M K Vellodi, as the rst Chief Minister ofHyderabad state on 26 January 1950. In 1952,

Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was elected ChiefMinister of Hyderabad state in the rst demo-cratic election.

*Andhra was the rst state to be carved out(from erstwhile Madras state) on linguistic

basis on 1 November, 1953. It had Kurnool town(in Rayalaseema region) as its capital after thedeath of Potti Sriramulu who sat on a 53-dayfast-unto-death demanding the new state.

* The proposal for amalgamation of Hyderabadstate with Andhra state came up in 1953 and thethen Chief Minister of Hyderabad state, BurgulaRamakrishna Rao, supported the Congress cen-

tral leaderships decision in this regard thoughthere was opposition in Telangana region.

* Accepting the merger proposal, Andhra as-sembly passed a resolution on November 25,

1955 promising to safeguard the interests ofTelangana.

* An agreement was reached between Telan-gana leaders and Andhra leaders on February20, 1956 to merge Telangana and Andhra withpromises to safeguard Telanganas interests.

A Gentlemens Agreement was then signedby Bezawada Gopala Reddy and Burgula Ram-akrishna Rao to the effect.

* Eventually, under the States Re-organisationAct, Telugu-speaking areas of Hyderabad statewere merged with Andhra state, giving birthto the state of Andhra Pradesh on 1 November,1956.

* The city of Hyderabad, the then capital of Hy-derabad state, was made the capital of AndhraPradesh state.

* In 1969, an agitation began in Telanganaregion as people protested the failure to imple-ment the Gentlemens Agreement and othersafeguards properly.

* Marri Channa Reddy launched the TelanganaPraja Samiti espousing the cause of a sepa-rate state. The agitation intensied and turned

violent with students in the forefront of thestruggle and about 300 of them were killed in

violence and police ring that ensued.

* Following several rounds of talks with lead-ers of the two regions, the then Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi came up with an eight-point plan


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on April 12, 1969. Telangana leaders rejectedthe plan and protests continued under the aegisof Telangana Praja Samiti.

* In 1972, Jai Andhra movement started inAndhra-Rayalaseema regions as a counter toTelangana struggle.

* On September 21, 1973, a political settlementwas reached with the Centre and a 6-point for-mula put in place to placate people of the tworegions.

* In 1985, employees from Telangana regioncried foul over appointments in governmentdepartments and complained about injusticedone to people of the region.

The then Telugu Desam Party government,headed by N T Rama Rao, brought out a Gov-ernment Order to safeguard the interests ofTelangana people in government employment.

* Till 1999, there was no demand from anyquarters for division of the state on regionallines.

* In 1999, Congress demanded creation of

Telangana state. Congress was then smartingunder crushing defeats in successive electionsto the state Assembly and Parliament with theruling Telugu Desam Party in an unassailableposition.

* Yet another chapter opened in the struggle forTelangana when Kalvakuntla ChandrasekharRao, who was seething over denial of Cabinet

berth in the Chandrababu Naidu government,

walked out of TDP and launched TelanganaRashtra Samiti on 27 April, 2001.

* Following pressure applied by TelanganaCongress leaders, the Central Working Commit-tee of Congress in 2001 sent a resolution to thethen NDA government seeking constitution ofa second States Re-organisation Commission tolook into Telangana state demand, which wasrejected by the then Union Home Minister L K

Advani saying smaller states were neither vi-

able nor conducive to integrity of the country.

*TRS started gradually building the movementfor a separate state.

* Congress forged an electoral alliance with TRSby promising to create Telangana state.

Congress came to power in 2004, both in thestate and at the Centre, and TRS became part ofthe coalition governments at both places.

*** Protesting delay in carving out the separatestate, TRS quit the coalition governments in thestate and at the Centre in December 2006 andcontinued an independent ght.

* In October 2008, TDP changed its stance anddeclared support for bifurcation of the state.

* TRS launched an indenite hunger-strike on29 November, 2009 demanding creation ofTelangana. The Centre budged and came out

with an announcement on 9 December, 2009that it was initiating the process for formationof Telangana state.

* But the Centre announced on 23 December,2009 that it was putting Telangana issue on

hold. This fanned protests across Telanganawith some students ending their lives for a sepa-rate state.

The Centre then constituted a ve-memberCommittee on 3 February, 2010, headed byformer judge Srikrishna, to look into statehooddemand. The Committee submitted its report tothe Centre on 30 December, 2010.

* Telagana region witnessed a series of agita-tions like the Million March, Chalo Assemblyand Sakalajanula Samme (general strike) in2011-12 while MLAs belonging to different par-ties quit from the House.

* With its MPs from Telangana upping theante, Congress made Union Home Ministry toconvene an all-party meeting on December 28,2012 to nd an amicable solution to the crisis.


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The politics of separation


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Why Telangana does not justify

Gorkhaland and BodolandTelangana should not open a pandoras box

of new state demands.

Arlene Chang Aug 1, 2013

New Delhi: A day after the Congress

Working Committee acceded to thedemand to divide Andhra Pradesh,

experts say that Telangana is a unique case anddoes not offer justication for others seeking aseparate state.

Following the Telangana decision on Tuesday,politicians like Mayawati and groups like theBodoland Peoples Front and the Gorkha Jan-mukti Morcha (GJM) have revived their de-mand for separate states. While Mayawati hassaid that Uttar Pradesh should be split into foursmaller states, Hagrama Mohilary of the Bod-oland Peoples Front met with home ministerSushil Kumar Shinde, intensifying their demandfor Bodoland. The GJM has also called for a 72-hour bandh in Darjeeling.

Prof. DL Sheth, Honorary Senior Fellow andformer Director of the Centre for the Study ofDeveloping Societies (CSDS) in Delhi said thatthe creation of Telangana was bound to have

wide ramications and add to instability in thecountry for the way it has happened.

The state per se will be viable economically and

also for administrative process. But, Im againstthe way in which it has happened for narrowpolitical calculus reasons, Sheth said. This willcertainly open more doors to increased de-mands for many more states.

However, each demand has to be dealt with itsown merit, said KG Suresh, senior fellow andeditor at Vivekanand International Foundation,a Delhi-based think-tank. Just because we havecreated Telangana, doesnt mean that every-one demanding a state should get one. Politi-cians wanting a state for their own motivations,should not be entertained.

Both Suresh and Sheth support the creation of

smaller states but urge caution in recognisingsuch claims.

I understand decentralization where we muchhave small viable states, but this is not a good

way to do it. The formation of states has to beseen on each ones merit, a second reorganiza-tion commission should be formed to look intothis issue and there must be various consulta-tions and discussions by the government beforeany state is formed, Sheth told Firstpost.

Suresh argues that Telanganas claim to state-hood was strong for several unique reasons.For one, Telangana was on its own before beingmerged with Andhra Pradesh in 1956. The deci-sion to grant it statehood is not a bifurcationor the carving of a new state, it is a demerger,said Suresh. Moreover, the demand for state-hood enjoyed strong grassroots support and not

just politicians with ulterior motives.

When Telangana was merged with the state ofAndhra in 1956 to form Andhra Pradesh, spe-cic provisions and allocations were given to


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Telangana. But these provisions got diluted overthe years and the people there got disenchant-ed, he said, adding, Over 75 percent of the rev-enue of the state came from Hyderabad origi-nally part of Telangana, yet, only 1/3 was spenton Telangana. Even in government employmentpeople from Telangana were far and few.

This is a mass level movement and so to thatextent the demand for Telangana is justied,Suresh said.

Other claims to statehood may be popular, butthey are not as strong for other reasons.

As far as Gorkhaland is concerned, we cannotgive in to the demands of everyone without as-sessing the fallout of it. Ok, a group of Nepalese

immigrants have settled in an Indian regionover generations and they have now start de-manding a separate state. But by that logic, to-morrow Bangladeshis in Assam will begin doingthe same. So we have to look at each case andnot open a pandoras box in dealing with thisissue, Suresh. said

He is also sceptical about Mayawatis proposalto divide Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati for her ownconvenience has asked for splitting the state.These kinds of demands dont have a legacy ofproblems, its only for the politicians conven-ience, Suresh said. Sardar Patel worked veryhard to integrate India, we cannot go back tosplitting it into 500 provinces, he said.


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Why Omar Abdullah is so stronglyagainst the creation of Telangana

In Jammu and Kashmir, a similar demand to

create a new state of Jammu has been sustainedfor years, while Ladakh has been seeking

Union Territory status.

Sameer Yasir, July 31, 2013

When asked about the creation ofTelangana, Chief Minister of Jam-mu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah,

warned that creating a separate state in the

backdrop of an agitation was a dangerousthing. However, his concern over the formationof separate states may not extend to the wholenation, but just a particular agitation in his ownstate.

Speaking yesterday to reporters in Srinagar,

Abdullah said that the decision of creating theseparate state of Telangana could act as incen-tive to those agitating for similar demands fromother parts of the country.

He made no attempt to conceal his fears thatthe move may bolster a similar demand fromthe Jammu region.

An impression is going out that an agitation

can lead to creation of a new state, be it in Bun-delkhand, Maharashtra, Gorkhaland or in ourstate. What will you tell people of Jammu agi-tate for seven or eight years and you will get aseparate state? he said.

The decision by the Congress party endorsingthe creation of Telangana as the Indias 29thstate came after years of street protests, hungerstrikes and even suicides by the activists seeking

the separate state.

In Jammu and Kashmir, a similar demand tocreate a new state of Jammu has been sustainedfor years, while Ladakh has been seeking UnionTerritory status.

On 16 July, Jammu-based party, the JammuState Morcha, even submitted a memorandumto the Prime Minster Manmohan Singh and

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. The partywhile supporting the creation of Telangana,demanded the splitting of Jammu and Kashmirand the creation of a separate Jammu state.

The party cited the prosperity and economicdevelopment of smaller states, and said they

were governed much better in comparison tothe larger states.

The carving out of a new Jammu state out of

the present Jammu and Kashmir is an extreme-ly genuine and viable demand of the people ofJammu region, Varinder Gupta, Chairman ofJammu State Morcha told Firstpost.

We have infrastructure and economic viabilityneeded for a separate state. And most impor-tant of all, the discrimination meted to us by theKashmir politicians would end, he said.

The Jammu State Morcha (JSM) rst came intolimelight during the 2008 unrest in the state. Itplayed a major role in the economic blockade ofthe Kashmir valley by aiding the closure of thenational highway.


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However, the party has been around for a littleover a decade. The party was originally oated

by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh when itsleaders met in Kurukhsetra and passed a reso-lution in support of a separate Jammu state in2000.

At the time, the BJP and its state unit werehesitant to come out openly in support of divid-ing the state on communal lines. It eventuallyovercame its hesitation,and the BJP engagedin a seat sharing agreement with the JSM forthe 2002 assembly elections for all 37 seats inJammu region.

The decision proved to be a costly one for theBJP, with the JSM dividing its votes in places

where it elded its own proxy candidates. Both

the parties won only one seat each. The partywas subsequently wound up by the RSS, only tobe revived by Jammu University professor andthe present Chairman of the party, VarinderGupta.

Parties backing a separate Jammu had managedto build up enough pressure during the 2008

Amarnath land row to result in support fromother groups. The moderate faction of the All

Parties Hurriyat Conference and Muslim socialoutts said that they had no objection to someHindu organisations being granted their de-mand of a separate Jammu state.

In a meeting in Srinagar, the Hurriyat had saidthe demand was acceptable if a separate state

was carved out of the two and a half districtswhich had a Hindu majority.

However, political analysts in valley arent infavour of the JSM and say if the state were to bedivided on the basis of religious lines, it would

be a disastrous and dangerous decision.

The division of the state on the religious lineswould undermine the thousands of years ofKashmiriyat where people from every religionhave lived in serenity and tolerance. It wouldundermine the secular character of the state,

Ajaz Ahamd, a political science lecturer, at theuniversity of Kashmir told Firstpost.

But the increasing demand for a separateJammu state is not restricted to smaller partieslike the JSM alone. In 2010, the then Congresshealth minster, Sham Lal Sharma, demanded aseparate Jammu state while sharing the stage

with the J&K Congress chief Saifuddin Soz.

Some people ask for greater autonomy, oth-ers for self-rule and arouse separatist feelings.If they parrot these slogans then it better for

Jammu to seek statehood, said Lal. Jammu isself-reliant and can sustain on its own.

Balwant Singh Mankotia, a vocal JKNPP law-maker from Udhampur district told weeklymagazine Kashmir Life in a 2012 interview that

voices in favour of a separate state of Jammuwere gaining momentum.

Presently, we feel that in Jammu, voices in

favour of a separate state are gaining momen-tum. Our party is trying to pacify the thingsby saying that the state should not get divided.

But if the discrimination which is going onand the aspirations of both the regions are nottaken seriously, the day is not far when theseparation voices supporting two state theorywill get stronger and stronger,he said

Whether the formation of Telangana becomes a

reality or not only time will tell, but in Jammuand Kashmir, the people are already bracing forits repercussions in the conict-ridden state.


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Telangana: People, netas wantsmall states, not for same reasons

Reasons why people and political parties support

division of states are very different.

FP Staff Aug 1, 2013

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, in a bidto justify the division of Andhra Pradesh,said that the bifurcation of a state was as

heartbreaking as the splitting of a family.

However, he added somberly, When the time

comes, it has to be done.

The irony of Singhs emphasis on an appro-priate time cant be overemphasized, but, thegreater irony in Singhs statement probably liesin the fact that he chose to align two disparateand disagreeing groups of people as one fam-

ily. While the analogy might be proof of Singhspenchant for patriotic rhetoric, it indicates howpoliticians dismiss history when it is conven-ient.

Most people in Andhra Pradesh and others whotook interest in the states politics are acutelyaware of the fact that people from the 10 dis-tricts that comprised Telangana were never a

willing part of Andhra Pradesh. Also, had it not

been for Congress bleak future in the polls, theparty may not have shifted gears so soon on theissue of a split.

Evidently, the reasons why people want sepa-

rate states and why political leaders oppose orback them are vastly different. Heres a roughlist of reasons why there are several statehooddemands in India and why politicians selective-ly back them.

1. Language is not always the most im-portant unifying element

Several of the statehood demands have risenfrom states whose boundaries were redrawn in1956 as a part of the drive to reorganise stateslinguistically. The move was made by the gov-ernment of India based on the assumption thata common spoken language would also meancultural similarities and hence would make gov-ernance easier.

However, what the government overlookedthen, was the fact that language was not theonly aspect of cultural bonding between severallarge communities of people. The biggest ex-ample of the same is probably Telangana and

Andhra, which was merged to make AndhraPradesh. Kingshuk Nag, in an editorial on TheTimes of India, traces the roots of the demandfor a separate Telangana and points out that

though Andhra and Telangana spoke slightlydifferent versions of the same language Telugu,they were economically and sociologically twodisparate communities of people. Nag writes:

Coupled with this cultural disconnect were thedifferent endowments of the two people. Underthe Madras presidency during British rule, thepeople of Andhra were educated in English, butthe Nizams state that governed the Telangana

region used Urdu as the medium of instructionand administration.

Consequently, Hyderabad, which originally be-longed to Telangana turned into a seat of power


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and prosperity because it was a biggest town-ship in the region. The people from Andhra

who thanks to sophisticated irrigation systemscreated by the British prospered from agri-culture and migrated to Hyderabad and boughtlarge properties.

Being adept at English, they also landed govern-ment jobs. On the other hand, the people fromTelangana were left out of this developmentspin thanks to their lack of wealth, skills andEnglish educations because of the years spentstruggling under the Nizam.

The demand for Telangana, for its people,therefore stemmed not just from a clamour forethnic glory. It was also an effort to reclaimeconomic opportunities and political voice that

passed by them following the merger.

A close look at the stir to separate Vidarbhafrom Maharashtra, reveals similar strains ofstrife. In an article called Why Vidarbha State,

writer RL Pitale, points out that Vidarbha wasmade a part of Maharashtra with the promisethat each part of the state will be paid attentionequally. Pitale writes about the joining of eightMarathi-speaking states from Madhya Pradesh

to Maharashtra:

It was hoped that people speaking the samelanguage will form cohesive units for rapidand balanced development. But the history ofeconomic development of Maharashtra duringthe last 50 years has proved otherwise. Someareas, especially Vidarbha, have been system-atically neglected.

Pitale says, that though a Expert Committeeheaded by Prof. V.M. Dandekar was formed in1983, it took the Maharashtra government ten

years to take notice of its ndings, which in-dicated severe government and political igno-rance.

The Vidarbha Statutory Development Boardwas formed in 1994 to make sure that the re-gions development is not neglected. Nearly,two decades on, Vidarbha is one of the most

poverty-stricken districts in the country withsevere drought, high number of farmer suicidesand a fast disintegrating cotton growing indus-try. So when voices rose demanding statehood

for Vidarbha, they pointed at the Maharashtragovernments lopsided political priorities andasserted that a separate state will not leave

Vidarbha at the mercy of Maharashtra. The re-gion, argued people, would then witness holisticdevelopment.

2. Ethnic pride

The Gorkhas trace their origins to forefathers inNepal. They captured large territories in NorthEastern India in the eighteenth century andgradually became a part of India.

The demand for a separate Gorkhaland sur-faced back in 1980s and has sporadically gainedstrength. An article titled Why Gorkhaland?points out that the Gorkhas demand for a

separate state stem from their systemic exclu-sion from Indias largely majoritarian politicaldiscourses.

The Gorkhas have been repeatedly labelled asoutsiders and their population being small,also denied a strong political voice. Alliances

with national parties have always proven trickyas their demands have been given wind as and

when it suited the bigger political entities in the

country. Explaining the reason why Gorkhlanadis needed, the article points out:

The demand for Gorkhaland is basically aquestion of the Gorkha Indian political iden-tity- as the specter of alien ness, foreign-ers and evictions continues to hunt the

Indian Gorkhas even today. Why did leadersin the past like Deputy Prime Minister Valla-bhbhai Patel doubt our sincerity and patriot-

ism or for that matter Prime Minister MorajiDesia call our language a foreign language?Even today, responsible leaders in Bengal likeSri Ashoke Bhattacharjee and writers like SriSumanta Sen irresponsibly label us outsiders.

This desire to see their political voice as one thatcarries weight in the dominant narratives in thecountry drives a movement like the Gorkha-land movement. The stark ethnic disparity, theunequal development between the rest of the

Bengal and the areas that fall under Gorkhlaadlend strength to a movement like this one.

3. Why politicians support divisions


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The newest states in India Jharkhand, Chat-tisgarh, Uttarakhand were created after thecentral governments succumbed to demands ofagitating communities of people.

While the division of Chhattisgarh from Mad-hya Pradesh was done on caste lines with upperclass Brahmins and Kurmis leading the strug-gle, Jharkhand was formed with the view ofall-round development for the tribal populationof Bihar who were being neglected by the stategovernment.

Uttarakhand comprised the Kumaoni Garhwalpopulation of Uttar Pradesh who felt their cul-ture was distinctly different from the rest of UPand hence they were most left in the cold whenit came to development plans in the state.

The three states were created in 2000 by theNDA government which was then in power inthe country. Given that the political currents

were still undecided about which direction tohead towards, it was a clever decision by theBJP to play to the galleries and allow the forma-tion of the new states, thereby pleasing a agi-tated electorate.

The Congress then, like the BJP now, joined thechorus, playing on the Vajpayee governmentsinitial reluctance to grant the separate state-hood demands. The Congress, with its allies,came to power in the very next electoral seasonin 2004 and not opposing the split of states evi-dently paid off. Harihar Swarup had noted in aneditorial back then:

Sadly, even the Congress(I), with long experi-ence in governance, was swayed by populismand fell in line with the BJP without realis-ing the long-term fallout. The Congress(I) is

paying the price. The largest and most stableCongress-ruled State, Madhya Pradesh, hasbeen split, and Chattisgarh, though ruled bythe Congress, has become fragile for it thethreat both within and without.

The Economic Times had noted that as faras electoral math goes, the Congress mighthave just bolstered their prospects in AndhraPradesh by separating Telangana. The latter, itnoted, has a two percent more Muslim popula-tion a voter base that has been the most loyalto Congress. ET had reported:

Sources said the population of Muslims in Tel-angana would go up by 2% while that of dalitswould also increase if Kurnool and Anan-thapur districts are made part of Telangana.The minorities and SCs are part of traditionalCongress votebase and the party feels it wouldhelp its political cause.

While there are a plethora of reasons that col-our statehood demands in the country, there is

little difference in why political parties seek thedivision of states. Or even oppose them. TheNDA, back in 2000 tried to make a quick head-

way ahead of the Congress by creating threeindependent states. The Congress, it seems, isfollowing the same rule book this time to saveits government at the Centre.


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Telangana effect: GJM calls indenitebandh in Darjeeling from Saturday

If there can be a Telangana state then why not a

Gorkhaland? We are demanding that our 107-year-old

legitimate demand (for a separate state) be fullled,

GJM general secretary and spokesman

Roshan Giri said.

PTI, July 31, 2013

Darjeeling: An indenite bandh has beencalled in Darjeeling Hills by GorkhaJanmukti Morcha (GJM) from Satur-

day to press its demand for a separate Gorkha-land state, a day after Congress and its alliesunanimously decided to create Telangana stateout of Andhra Pradesh.

If there can be a Telangana state then whynot a Gorkhaland? We are demanding that our

107-year-old legitimate demand (for a separatestate) be fullled, GJM general secretary andspokesman Roshan Giri told reporters after aparty core committee meeting here on Wednes-day.

Darjeeling was never in West Bengal. It wasunder Sikkim and Bhutan in pre-independenceIndia. Therefore, there is no question of divisionof Bengal, he said.

GJM members in Gorkhaland Territorial Ad-ministration (GTA), from which its CEO andGJM chief Bimal Gurung quit on Tuesday,

would continue for now and six members of

the party, including three MLAs from the hillswould leave for Delhi on Friday to meet theMPs of various parties and apprise them of the

Gorkhaland demand.

The six-member team would comprise Giri him-self, Trilok Dewan (Darjeeling MLA), Harkaba-hadur Chetri (Kalimpong MLA), Rohit Sharma(Kurseong MLA), DK Pradhan and Amar Rai.

We are carrying out a peaceful agitationthrough democratic means for statehood ofGorkhaland. If the state government represses it

we will intensify our agitation We will con-tinue our agitation at any cost, any sacricetill we get our Gorkhaland, he said.

He termed as untrue chief minister MamataBanerjees allegation that Congress had insti-gated the Darjeeling agitation.

Congress did not instigate us The Gorkhasare very peace-loving people. But we have not

been given any recognition and no state was

given to us despite our sacrices in the variouswars. Today we have no identity nobody, notthe Centre nor the state gave it to us, Giri said.

Giri blamed the West Bengal government forcompelling Gurung to quit as GTA CEO. Thestate government did not allow GTA to functionproperly and never handed key departmentslike home and nance to it, he said.

The GJM members in GTA were ready to quitanytime, anyday as desired by Gurung, he said.

Referring to the indenite bandh call, he saidtea and cinchona factories would be allowed to


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function normally.

There would be no bandh in the hills by GJMfor two days from Thursday and students of

boarding schools and tourists, including for-eigners, should leave during the time, Giriadded.

The third-day of the Darjeeling Hills bandh byGJM on the statehood issue passed off peaceful-ly amidst patrolling by IRB and RAF personnel.

Additional security personnel were posted at thedistrict magistrates ofce, while two companiesof CRPF have been kept on standby, ofcialsources said.

Shops and markets remained closed, as did edu-cational institutions, banks, government andprivate ofces. Vehicles, however, plied as the

bandh sponsors allowed their movement.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena has called a two-daybandh in Siliguri from August one opposing theGorkhaland demand.

The party said it will prevent movement of foodstuff to the hills from Siliguri, which acts as thegateway to the Darjeeling Hills and Sikkim, dur-ing the duration of the bandh.


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Joy and anger:

reactions to Telangana


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The long wait from 1948-2013:An old Telangana activist speaks

One of Telanganas oldest activists, Burugula Narsing

Rao, spoke to Firstpost on a number of issues rangingfrom why it was important to have a separate state

for Telangana to the battle for Hyderabad

and the future of Indias 29th state.

DVL Padma Priya, Aug 1, 2013

H

yderabad: Burugula Narsing Rao be-longs to the generation of Telanganaactivists who have seen it all; from the

Razakar movement leading to the police ringin 1948, to the formation of Andhra Pradeshand the initial Telangana separation movementthrough the 1950s and 1960s, and the resur-gence of the Telangana movement of the lastdecade.

And when Telangana was nally formed, Raosays he heaved a sigh of relief.

According to him, the separation of Telanganawas an inescapable inevitability- something thatshould have happened when Indias states wererst being formed.

Hailing from a village in the Mahbubnagar dis-trict of Telangana region, Burugula Narsing Rao

was born into a political family. His uncle Buru-gula Ramakrishna Rao was the rst Chief Min-ister of erstwhile Hyderabad State and had led amovement against the Nizam for the merger of

Hyderabad State into the Indian Union.

Initially I was part of the Visalandhra move-ment which was aimed at making AndhraPradesh a separate State based on its language.I was part of it for three-four years when i feltdisillusioned by the movement as i would seerst-hand how the Telanganites were discrimi-nated by the Andhra people, he said.

Rao spoke to Firstpost on a number of issuesranging from why it was important to have aseparate state for Telangana to the battle for

Hyderabad and the future of Indias 29th state.

Why Telangana wanted a separate state

The region (Telangana) has always been anoppressed region. First, under the Nizams rule

where the majority people were ridiculed onthe basis of their language, culture and religion.The very fact that question of Telangana has

been there for so many years is a reection of

this ongoing suppression, he says pointing outthe separation of Telangana today is a perfectexample of why States with two different back-grounds should not be bought together on the

basis of language.

Even during the freedom movement, therewere many leaders who felt that both the re-gions should not be together but Congress hadmade up its mind to carve states on linguistic

basis.

Interestingly, he says one of the rst State Reor-ganisation Committee s(SRC) (Fazal Ali Com-mission) had recognised the disparities between


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both the regions culturally and economicallyand suggested that Telangana State be keptseparated from the Andhra Pradesh region fora period of ve years and that the choice should

be left to the Telangana assembly if they wantedto become part of Andhra Pradesh.

The absence of a common history between thetwo regions too is one of the reasons, accord-ing to him, why there never was any integra-tion between the two regions. While Hyderabadand surrounding districts was under the QutubShahi rulers followed by Asif Jahi, the Andhraregions were under the Kakatiya rulers.

Andhra Pradesh is the perfect example of howunless a political historical process is not rootedproperly, it will fall apart, he says.

The evolution of the Telangana move-ment

Having been part of the movement from closequarters, Rao says that the last decades Telan-gana movement was propelled by the massesand people from different quarters of the soci-ety.

In the 1960s it was the middle class, studentsand the employees who were at the forefrontof the agenda as they felt discriminated. It hadits impact on rural areas but not as much as ithas been in the recent past. The canvas now has

been much wider and has engulfed all sectionsof the society. This way the recent movementhas been very unique with everyone from doc-tors to engineers to farmers are part of it insome form or the other, he says.

The ght for Hyderabad

Ask him about the ght for Hyderabad and helaughs. What is 45 years in the history of a na-tion is not a long time at all. Nobody is askinganyone to leave. Surely, new vested interests

wont be allowed to entrench here. But the ghtseems to be purely economical.

And when Andhra leaders say development

what sort of development are they talkingabout? What have they contributed towards

especially in the case of industries which createemployment? One has to remember that Hy-derabad in 1956 had industrial infrastructureeven then. One of the biggest issues the Andhraregion faces is the lack of a city the size of Hy-derabad and this will continue to plague themin the coming years.

The Naxal issue

Despite the Home Ministry expressing concernsover naxalism, the octogenarian is of the beliefthat the concerns are overrated and misplaced.

The naxal movement is no longer as strong asit was a few decades ago. Yes, the rst armedstruggle against the Nizam was led by thosefrom Telangana and this gave rise to other

movements such as the naxal movement but thesituation is quite different now. Youngsters havemore opportunities now and the people dont

want any more tension. The last decade has af-fected those from the region psychologically andthey are now relieved and want to move ahead

with their lives.

The future of Telangana state

Rao is optimistic of the political future of theTelangana state and says that there will be po-litical stability for sure.

Going forward he feels that the new leadershipshould ensure that the promises on the basisof which Telangana was formed should be keptand delivered to the people of the region whohave fought for it for so long.

Invest in productive industries and developagriculture in the region. Telangana region hasa vast network of tanks, streams and bunds.These should be revived. Similarly, the govern-ment should develop small scale industries andcottage industries. The weaving villages of Te-langana such as Sircilla, Pochampally, Gadwaletc should be revived and supported, he says.

Mr Narsing Rao believes that Telangana hasthe potential to carve an identity for itself and

embrace its culture wholeheartedly.


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Telangana supporters celebrateafter ve-decades of struggle

Osmania University students celebrate after the announcement of the separate Indian state ofTelangana in Hyderabad on July 30, 2013. AFP

Indias ruling Congress party approved a resolution July 30 to create a new state in the southeastamid fears the decision could spark violence in the region which includes IT hub Hyderabad. AFP


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Telangana supporters cheer as they celebrate after the announcement of the separate state of Tel-angana at their party headquarters in Hyderabad. Reuters

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) party president and Member of Parliament, K. Chandra SekharRao, is greeted by supporters after the announcement. AFP


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Telangana: Cos welcome end ofuncertainty,but warn of pitfalls

Companies in Andhra Pradesh have by and large

welcomed the decision to bifurcate the state sayingthe move brings about stability, ending long

prevailing ambiguities in the region.

FP Editors Jul 31, 2013

Hyderabad: Companies in AndhraPradesh have by and large welcomedthe decision to bifurcate the state say-

ing the move brings about stability, ending long

prevailing ambiguities in the region.

The transition is expected to be smooth, as thegovernment appears to have been working onthe issue for a long time, said B Ashok Reddy,Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Indus-tries, Andhra Pradesh.

After dithering for nearly four years, the Con-gress and the UPA coalition unanimously en-dorsed the creation of a separate Telanganastate from Andhra Pradesh yesterday.

We cannot tell about the impact immediately,but the ambiguity that was there so far hasgone, Reddy told PTI.

He does not expect any problems during thetransition as committees have been formed tosort out some of the issues.

Suman Reddy, Vice-President and ManagingDirector, Pegasystems India, also was of theopinion that it is impossible to assess the long-term impact of the decision on Telangana right

now.

However, he hailed the end of uncertaintywhich should bring stability in Hyderabadsbusiness environment.

Growth and expansion from the perspective ofinfotech MNCs investing in the state had beenstalled or was relatively slow due to this issue

which hopefully will resume after the decision is

announced, Suman Reddy said.

Dasarath Reddy, President of the AndhraPradesh Real Estate Developers Associationand Primus Developers said there may be apositive impact on real estate prices in Hydera-

bad due to the formation of Telangana.

As there was suspense all these days, invest-ment ow into Hyderabad was not up to the

mark. With a clear picture emerging now, apositive sentiment will prevail and as real estateprices are cheaper in the city, activity will pickup now, Reddy said.

The chief nancial ofcer with an infrastructurecompany into construction, roads and power,has told the Economic Times that setting up of anew capital may need Rs 1 lakh crore of invest-ments. This, he expects, to be a big businessopportunity for infrastructure and construction

companies.

Smaller states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhandand Uttarakhand have shown impressive


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growth rates of some 10 percent a year and wehope both Telangana and Andhra states wouldalso deliver similar growths, he has been quot-ed as saying.

However, not all are happy. Another chief of aconstruction company fears that the bifurcation

will actually reduce the states power to bargainwith the Centre. It will be a disaster for Telen-gana and Andhra, he has warned.

Concurring with this view is BVR Mohan Reddy,chairman and managing director of InfotechEnterprises. According to him, in a presentationto the Centre the Southern region the Confeder-ation of Indian Industry had made it clear thatonly creating smaller states will not bring aboutdevelopment.

However, the biggest hurdle for both the stateswill be to deal with the mistrust that prevailsamong the business men from Telengana regionand Coastal Andhra, according to a report in theBusiness Standard.

Those in the forefront of the Telangana move-ment consider businessmen-turned-politiciansfrom coastal Andhra responsible for thwarting

their dream, the report says.

However, prominent leaders of Telengana haveassured safety to businesses owned by Coastal

Andhraites in the region.

According to the report, not before two yearswill clarity emerge on the policy front. And eve-rything is dependent on the next leadership.

A state with a vibrant city like Hyderabadrequires a modern and a matured leadership tosustain and accelerate economic development,a senior bureaucrat has been quoted as sayingin the report.

Nobody expects investment to ow into Telen-gana that quickly. And a ight capital to Andhrais not going to happen either.

We have built large manufacturing facilitieshere (Telengana) and cannot think of shiftingthem to Andhra state, a managing director ofa large pharmaceutical company with roots incoastal Andhra has been quoted as saying inthe ET report.

For the central government, however, it is anuphill task now to deal with more such bifurca-tion demand from other regions, like Vidarbha

and Gorkhaland. More years of agitations donot bode well for the economy.


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Andhra: Ministers confront Kiran Kumar,as protests take violent turn

Several Ministers from coastal Andhra and

Rayalaseema on Wednesday registered a strong

protest with CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy over the

decision on Telangana even as protests erupted in

non-Telangana regions of the state against

the contentious move.

PTI, Aug 1, 2013

H

yderabad: Several Ministers fromcoastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on

Wednesday registered a strong pro-

test with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddyover the decision on Telangana even as protestserupted in non-Telangana regions of the stateagainst the contentious move.

Several ministers from non-Telangana region,who had threatened to quit if the Congressdecided to carve a new state out of AndhraPradesh, met Reddy and at least one of them

Erasu Pratap Reddy said he had alreadysubmitted his resignation to the party.

A group of ministers including TG Venkatesh,Erasu Pratap Reddy, Ganta Srinivas and PitaniSatyanarayana met the Chief Minister in theafternoon and discussed the fallout of the partyhigh commands decision.

We (ministers and MLAs from the two regions)will meet again tomorrow and decide the course

of action, Reddy and Venkatesh said after themeeting.

Nothing has happened yet. Only the Congress

has announced its decision. We are still hopefulthat the process (to create Telangana) will notgo through, they said.

Since last night, about a dozen MLAs belongingto the ruling party from Andhra-Rayalaseemaclaimed to have resigned their seats but sourcesin the Legislature Secretariat did not conrmhaving received any such letters.

Widespread protests were witnessed in sev-eral parts of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions

with people taking to streets, organising rallies,

demonstrations and burning tyres and efgiesof UPA leaders as part of the bandh being ob-served today by different outts.

Normal life was disrupted as educational in-stitutions and commercial establishmentsremained closed and the services of state-run

Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation(APSRTC) were suspended in Kadapa, Chit-toor, Visakhapatnam and Krishna. The agitators

squatted on roads to prevent the buses fromplying.

Two people, including a home guard, reportedlycommitted suicide in Vizianagaram and Gunturdistricts protesting the move to divide the state.

At some places like Eluru, incidents of violencewere reported, with protestors attacking aprivate educational institution and governmentofces, damaging furniture and setting private

vehicles on re.

Educational institutions remained shut acrossAndhra-Rayalaseema while lawyers boycotted


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work at many places.

Tension prevailed in Anantapur district afterpolice lobbed teargas shells on Samaikhyandhraprotesters who pelted them with stones.

Hundreds of slogan-raising protesters took tostreets and pelted stones on policemen near

Arts College and other parts of Anantapur town,prompting the police to re teargas shells.

The situation is tense but under control. Wehad to re teargas shells to disperse the protest-ers following stone pelting, a senior police of-cial told PTI over phone from Anantapur town.

The protesters also allegedly damaged statuesof former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and

Rajiv Gandhi at a few places, besides ransackinga Mandal Revenue ofce (MRO) in Anantapur,he said adding the agitators also attacked ofcesof BJP with stones and tried to lay siege to theresidence of state revenue minister RaghuveeraReddy.

The police chased away the protesters at manyplaces in the town and some of them have also

been taken into custody, he said.

In Vijayawada, students gathered at squaresand held road blockades to protest the decisionto partition the state.

President of Vijayawada Chamber of Commerceand Industry Velampalli Ramachandra Rao toldPTI that commercial establishments were closedas traders supported the shutdown.

Government employees also supported thebandh call.

The Bar Association of Vijayawada appealed toits members not to attend courts.

In Visakhapatnam, Samaikyandhra studentsJoint Action Committee and various other or-ganisations held protests. Students JAC leaderLagudu Govinda, who launched a hunger strikeon the Andhra University campus last night,

said his agitation would continue till the Con-gress high command reversed its decision.

In East Godavari, two platoons of paramilitary

forces and as many BSF battalions were de-ployed as a precautionary measure even as atotal bandh was observed in the district, Super-intendent of Police Ravikumar said.

Some state-run buses were also damaged due tostone pelting following which ve activists wererounded up, they said.

Congress and TDP activists also clashed outsideTDP ofce at Gokavaram bus stand in Rajah-mundry but were dispersed later, they added.

In Guntur town, the proponents of unitedAndhra, including Congress activists, organisedrallies demanding revocation of the resolu-tion adopted by the Congress Working Com-mittee for carving out Telangana from Andhra

Pradesh.

Amid raging protests, Congress ministers andMLAs from Rayalaseema, who met this morn-ing, demanded that the new capital be locatedin the Rayalaseema region.

Kurnool (in Rayalaseema) was capital of And-hra state, but we sacriced it for Hyderabad in

AP. The state is being divided again. Hyderabad

is developed. Now, it is not clear where the capi-tal will be established. Our proposal is that weshould get the capital, because we sacriced,Law Minister E Pratap Reddy told reportersafter the meeting.

Unless the package for Rayalaseema is speci-cally told to us, we cannot accept this, he said.

We will accept the new state only if we get our

share of assured water (from river Krishna) andthe new capital, one of them said.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party president NChandrababu Naidu has asked the Centre to im-mediately constitute a committee of experts toassess the quantum of funds required to developa new capital city for Andhra Pradesh.

According to our rough estimates, a staggeringRs 4-5 lakh crore will be required to build a new

capital and comprehensively create necessaryinfrastructure. The Centre should fund this anddevelop the new capital on par with Hydera-

bad, he said.


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Telangana: Cong MLA from

Vishakhapatnam resignsP Ramesh Babu, a Congress legislator from Pendurthy

Assembly constituency in the district, has resigned

from his post to protest the Congress decision

to form a separate Telangana state.

PTI, July 31, 2013

Visakhapatnam: P Ramesh Babu, a Con-gress legislator from Pendurthy As-sembly constituency in the district, has

resigned from his post to protest the Congressdecision to form a separate Telangana state.

The MLA told PTI here today that he sent hisresignation letter to Assembly Speaker Nadend-la Manohar through fax last night.

I am for united Andhra, Ramesh Babu said,adding that he resigned from his post as he wasupset over his partys decision to bifurcate And-hra Pradesh and carve out Telangana as a sepa-rate state. The Congress and the UPA yesterday

unanimously decided to create Telangana stateout of Andhra Pradesh, a momentous decisionthat came in the face of stiff resistance fromleaders from non-Telangana region.

The Congress Working Committee, the highestdecision-making body, decided to recommendto the central government to form the 29th state

which will comprise 10 districts. Hyderabad,considered the crowning jewel of the Telanganaregion, will be the joint capital of the newly-proposed state and the other regions Rayala-seema and Andhrafor a period of 10 years. Anew capital for Andhra will be identied See-mandhra region within this period.

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