Telangana Sentiment

I had written a blog on this Telangana issue a couple of years back in my old wordpress.com blog site and some friends responded with their comments also. Now, as years roll by, it seems a different perception of the issue is there among all political parties and ofcourse in me too. Almost all parties are ‘thinking’ about it seriously now as the elections are approaching and they cannot escape but to take a stand now. Now whether they support for separate Telangana state or not, almost everybody is on the same page now and agrees to one point: “There is Telangana ‘sentiment’”. Ofcourse, after listening to Telangana people (also some NRIs of Telanga region here in US), even I too admit that there is ‘Telangana sentiment’…. :-).

Though all are agreeing about Telangana sentiment, there is no common solution to this issue. YSR has been claiming that development of the region would solve the issue. It seems Congress strategy of putting on hold for a long period may not work (as it happened earlier... I think one or two decades ago). Now every party is forced to reveal its stand on this issue.

In my earlier blog, I had strongly protested about the concept of a separate Telanga statehood because of the following reasons:

• It may ruin the unity of same language (Telugu) people.
  
• Hyderabad, being the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, was given more concentration and prominence than any other city or town, especially during former CM Chandra Babu Naidu’s regime. Not just MCH’s funds, state funds were mainly concentrated for Hyderabad’s development, rather than entire state’s development. Now, the other regions (Andhra and Rayalaseema) will lose Hyderabad if Telangana state is formed.
  
• Much contribution for the development in Hyderabad was done by many non-Hyderabadis, whether they are politicians or industrialists. Naturally many people across the state came and settled here for a long time as it is the capital city. Now with the controversial GOs like 610, many government officers of Rayalaseema and coastalAndhra regions have to leave Hyderabad.

Though the above reasons remain the same, it seems the Telangana people’s sentiment also cannot be denied completely. But it is not a good idea to divide the country/state wherever development is less. In fact, even Rayalaseema region (to which I belong) also doesn’t have much development. Atleast Telangana started getting good projects for the past two or three years because of this continuous agitation and movement, but Rayalaseema’s situation remains the same (except CM YSR’s home district Kadapa). But it is high time to take a decision instead of continuous nagging and nuisance by parties like TRS. Unfortunately, some political parties and their associated organizations survive by indulging and provoking people in the name of caste, religion, and region (in this case, region).

Though both supporters and those who oppose separate Telangana statehood use the word ‘Telangana’, it is evident that the main fight is for Hyderabad. If Hyderabad is not part of Telangana, I don't think the non-Telangana region people bother about this. Anyway, if the separation is inevitable, it has to be done without delay (so that atleast the new capital starts getting the development) or the movement for it has to be stopped. (Ofcourse, stopping the movement is not possible in our democracy and moreover some parties and organizations are surviving and expecting power and more income in the coming years through separate state.)

I observed the uniform development in USA and the development is not just concentrated on capital cities alone. In fact, the smaller cities are made as capital cities for development. (For eg. I was surprised to know that the capital city of California is not Los Angeles or San Francisco but a not so popular Sacramento.) If the uniform development is there in A.P. (and in entire India) also, I think this issue would not be there. Now in India urban population (but not rural) is growing like anything, as almost all educated people try to settle in cities and towns only. All metros are getting crowded . Atleast now because of this issue, the present governments and even companies (esp. in A.P. and Karnataka) started concentrating on other cities and towns. I think it's a good beginning.

Acronyms and terms used (esp. for non-A.P. readers):

MCH: Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad
TRS: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (party)
YSR: Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy (Present Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh)
Telangana: A region of Andhra Pradesh which is in the northern part of the state. The prominent districts in this region are Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar etc. The other two regions in A.P. are Coastal Andhra (which include Vizag, Vijayawada etc.) and Rayalaseema (Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur and Chittor districts).
610 G.O.: The G.O. 610 is to keep the local people in services mainly and transfer the non-locals to their native places. This G.O. became controversial as many settled government servants were given transfer orders to their native places. There are strong protests to exclude Hyderabad from this G.O., as people from across the state came to Hyderabad (as it is the capital city of the state) and settled there.