Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
The carving out of Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana state out of it is welcome, as it is the fulfilling of a long-standing demand, The regional feeling of discrimination under the present dispensation had been very palpable, and so deep as to precipitate scores of suicides committed to project the cause of Telangana. People of Telangana region were brewing with discontent at what they perceived as injustice meted out to them for decades by the richer and more powerful Andhra region.
Andhras on the other hand were, and still are, bitterly opposed to the idea of bifurcation of the state, The Congress members of the Government and the party hailing from Andhra region say that it is bitter poison that the High Command is asking them to swallow, but swallow they have to in the party interest. The decision was momentous leading to an emotional overflow of supporters for and against Delhi's political skills this last fortnight were not much in evidence. Far from calming tempers and working for an amicable split up, it has managed to deepen the rift between Telangana and the rest of the state.
The splitting of Andhra Pradesh marks the first time in India's post-Independence history that a "linguistic state" has been proposed officially to be divided. Contrary to speculation that the new state could be named Rayala Telangana, including a couple of districts of Rayalaseema, the districts that will be part of the new state will be, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal besides Hyderabad. At the moment the idea is to have 10 districts in Telangana but it will be for the Group of Ministers to consider demands for inclusion of more area Out of 42 Lok Sabha seats and 294 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana is likely to have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 Assembly seats. It will have a population of 40 million.
The movement for Telangana has rolled on for decades with peaks and troughs of popular upsurge. The announcement of the creation of Telangana reflects the end of that long journey and the beginning of a fresh set of wrangles over the shaping of the new state. It was quite apparent that short term political calculations by a nervy Congress party ahead of next year's elections have governed Tuesday's announcement more than grander visions about the restructuring of Indian political or economic life. Nehru had previously opposed such a scenario for fear of creating inward-looking states that would imperil the consolidation of Indian nationhood, and even encourage separatism. Since Nehru, language did become a dominant pillar of regional political community.
The regionalisation of Indian politics in the last few decades is a story that is firmly rooted in these linguistic states. India's enduring unity has been a consequence of linguistic accommodation We also saw a a new generation of statehood demands in the late 1960s and early 1970s made on the grounds of regional inequality, a statehood movement that has moved beyond language as a basis for political community. Across the Hindi belt, the deepening politicization of lower castes made it harder to hold together large states that had previously been bastions of upper-caste and class dominance.Thus the creation of new states has been embedded in the decentralization of political life.
Rather than promoting the break-up of India, the ability of the central government to create new states has in many - though not all - cases helped to accommodate regional aspirations. Andhra state, the first entity formed on linguistic basis, was created in 1953 from out of the erstwhile Madras presidency with Kurnool as the capital. With the passing of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, there was a merger of Hyderabad state and Andhra state to be called Andhra Pradesh from November 1, 1956. Andhra Pradesh now has a population of over 8.5 crore.
In more recent years, several new states have been created in the Hindi belt where language has not been a major issue. Punjab and Haryana were divided too (although religion, as well as language - Punjabi and Hindi - was at stake in the latter instance) In 2000, the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were created in regions with sizable tribal populations, and following a decades-long movement for a tribal state in Jharkhand. The hill state of Uttarakhand was also created in the Himalayan districts of Uttar Pradesh. India, with 1.2 billion population, currently has 28 states while the United States with a population of 300 million has 50. Clearly, there is room for more states in a republic of a billion plus.
In December 2009, the then Home Minister Shri P Chidambaram announced the commencement of the process for statehood to Telangana only to be withdrawn hastily. The Congress party then sought to buy time by creating another committee on the question of Telangana. But, it remained indifferent to the collapse in administration, political violence and the unfortunate specter of suicides by youngsters of Telangana. Meanwhile, governance came to a standstill in Andhra Pradesh.
But the timing of the acceptance of the Telangana demand by the Congress-led UPA government at this juncture lacks transparency in decision making. In the wake of the sequence of events, the Congress Party has done in the last few days what it shied away from doing in the last 9 years- to work overtime on a decision over Telangana. Now, at a time when there are only a few months left before the people of this country vote again, the Congress Party is rushing to announce Telangana. This raises serious concerns on the seriousness and intentions of the Congress.
As Narendra Modi points out, the election oriented announcement has been made under stress without doing the necessary home work. There is no consensus even within the party. Unlike capital cities that became shared capitals by virtue of being on the border between two states, Hyderabad becomes a shared capital despite being located well within Telangana. Thus, this does not justify the logic of sharing a capital albeit for a short duration. This leaves scope for operational difficulties. , How practical is it for a state to have a capital that does not lie neither within its boundaries nor along its borders? People of Andhra Pradesh and Rayalseema do not welcome this decision on Telangana. What assurances have been provided to them so as to assuage their anxieties and to take them on board? No political roadmap" to create this consensus among the people.
And this comes at a time when Hyderabad as an investment destination has suffered. The state capital, Hyderabad, is a mega-city deeply connected to global flows of capital and people. Hyderabad sits geographically in the Telangana region, but its connections to the rural hinterlands of the region are strained. After statehood comes the hard task of choosing new political leaders, building new administrative structures, raising revenues, and negotiating with the central government. Beyond the goal of statehood lie multiple interests and visions which will need to be accommodated. The state of Andhra Pradesh has slipped. The state once considered the rice bowl of India has seen agricultural slides making it a state with high farmer suicides. It is clear that the creation of Telangana has been prompted by short-term electoral manoeuvrings.
As has been done now, the establishment of Telangana would set off more unrest.. Another fear is that leftist guerrillas who operate in parts of the proposed Telangana state will become further emboldened. It might open a Pandora's box and is likely to spur debates about the merits of creating more states in other regions, as well as to bequeath administrative challenges for the inheritors of statehood in both parts of the reorganized state of Andhra Pradesh.
TELANGANA, CONRESS PARTY'S ELECTION GAMBLE?
The carving out of Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana state out of it is welcome, as it is the fulfilling of a long-standing demand, The regional feeling of discrimination under the present dispensation had been very palpable, and so deep as to precipitate scores of suicides committed to project the cause of Telangana. People of Telangana region were brewing with discontent at what they perceived as injustice meted out to them for decades by the richer and more powerful Andhra region.Andhras on the other hand were, and still are, bitterly opposed to the idea of bifurcation of the state, The Congress members of the Government and the party hailing from Andhra region say that it is bitter poison that the High Command is asking them to swallow, but swallow they have to in the party interest. The decision was momentous leading to an emotional overflow of supporters for and against Delhi's political skills this last fortnight were not much in evidence. Far from calming tempers and working for an amicable split up, it has managed to deepen the rift between Telangana and the rest of the state.
The splitting of Andhra Pradesh marks the first time in India's post-Independence history that a "linguistic state" has been proposed officially to be divided. Contrary to speculation that the new state could be named Rayala Telangana, including a couple of districts of Rayalaseema, the districts that will be part of the new state will be, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal besides Hyderabad. At the moment the idea is to have 10 districts in Telangana but it will be for the Group of Ministers to consider demands for inclusion of more area Out of 42 Lok Sabha seats and 294 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana is likely to have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 Assembly seats. It will have a population of 40 million.
The movement for Telangana has rolled on for decades with peaks and troughs of popular upsurge. The announcement of the creation of Telangana reflects the end of that long journey and the beginning of a fresh set of wrangles over the shaping of the new state. It was quite apparent that short term political calculations by a nervy Congress party ahead of next year's elections have governed Tuesday's announcement more than grander visions about the restructuring of Indian political or economic life. Nehru had previously opposed such a scenario for fear of creating inward-looking states that would imperil the consolidation of Indian nationhood, and even encourage separatism. Since Nehru, language did become a dominant pillar of regional political community.
The regionalisation of Indian politics in the last few decades is a story that is firmly rooted in these linguistic states. India's enduring unity has been a consequence of linguistic accommodation We also saw a a new generation of statehood demands in the late 1960s and early 1970s made on the grounds of regional inequality, a statehood movement that has moved beyond language as a basis for political community. Across the Hindi belt, the deepening politicization of lower castes made it harder to hold together large states that had previously been bastions of upper-caste and class dominance.Thus the creation of new states has been embedded in the decentralization of political life.
Rather than promoting the break-up of India, the ability of the central government to create new states has in many - though not all - cases helped to accommodate regional aspirations. Andhra state, the first entity formed on linguistic basis, was created in 1953 from out of the erstwhile Madras presidency with Kurnool as the capital. With the passing of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, there was a merger of Hyderabad state and Andhra state to be called Andhra Pradesh from November 1, 1956. Andhra Pradesh now has a population of over 8.5 crore.
In more recent years, several new states have been created in the Hindi belt where language has not been a major issue. Punjab and Haryana were divided too (although religion, as well as language - Punjabi and Hindi - was at stake in the latter instance) In 2000, the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were created in regions with sizable tribal populations, and following a decades-long movement for a tribal state in Jharkhand. The hill state of Uttarakhand was also created in the Himalayan districts of Uttar Pradesh. India, with 1.2 billion population, currently has 28 states while the United States with a population of 300 million has 50. Clearly, there is room for more states in a republic of a billion plus.
In December 2009, the then Home Minister Shri P Chidambaram announced the commencement of the process for statehood to Telangana only to be withdrawn hastily. The Congress party then sought to buy time by creating another committee on the question of Telangana. But, it remained indifferent to the collapse in administration, political violence and the unfortunate specter of suicides by youngsters of Telangana. Meanwhile, governance came to a standstill in Andhra Pradesh.
But the timing of the acceptance of the Telangana demand by the Congress-led UPA government at this juncture lacks transparency in decision making. In the wake of the sequence of events, the Congress Party has done in the last few days what it shied away from doing in the last 9 years- to work overtime on a decision over Telangana. Now, at a time when there are only a few months left before the people of this country vote again, the Congress Party is rushing to announce Telangana. This raises serious concerns on the seriousness and intentions of the Congress.
As Narendra Modi points out, the election oriented announcement has been made under stress without doing the necessary home work. There is no consensus even within the party. Unlike capital cities that became shared capitals by virtue of being on the border between two states, Hyderabad becomes a shared capital despite being located well within Telangana. Thus, this does not justify the logic of sharing a capital albeit for a short duration. This leaves scope for operational difficulties. , How practical is it for a state to have a capital that does not lie neither within its boundaries nor along its borders? People of Andhra Pradesh and Rayalseema do not welcome this decision on Telangana. What assurances have been provided to them so as to assuage their anxieties and to take them on board? No political roadmap" to create this consensus among the people.
And this comes at a time when Hyderabad as an investment destination has suffered. The state capital, Hyderabad, is a mega-city deeply connected to global flows of capital and people. Hyderabad sits geographically in the Telangana region, but its connections to the rural hinterlands of the region are strained. After statehood comes the hard task of choosing new political leaders, building new administrative structures, raising revenues, and negotiating with the central government. Beyond the goal of statehood lie multiple interests and visions which will need to be accommodated. The state of Andhra Pradesh has slipped. The state once considered the rice bowl of India has seen agricultural slides making it a state with high farmer suicides. It is clear that the creation of Telangana has been prompted by short-term electoral manoeuvrings.
As has been done now, the establishment of Telangana would set off more unrest.. Another fear is that leftist guerrillas who operate in parts of the proposed Telangana state will become further emboldened. It might open a Pandora's box and is likely to spur debates about the merits of creating more states in other regions, as well as to bequeath administrative challenges for the inheritors of statehood in both parts of the reorganized state of Andhra Pradesh.
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