Telangana is back in the headlines with a bang once again with MPs and legislators, belonging to the region, from virtually all political parties including the ruling Congress party, tendering their resignation in what seems to be a desperate bid to force the Centre to bring in a law for the creation of a separate state in the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament. Several Ministers in the state Government too have put in their papers, rejecting the mediation by the party high command.
The en masse resignations were followed by a 48 hour bandh, call for which was given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee to put pressure on the Centre to concede statehood. Offices, educational institutions, shops and business establishments remained shut and several bus and train services were cancelled.
The emotive Telangana issue has been like a volcano erupting off and on. Unfortunately, all political parties have all along been maintaining inconsistency on the issue and kept changing their stance according to their electoral convenience.
There has also been an attempt to compare the demand for Telangana with similar demands for smaller states across the country and fears have been raised time and again that conceding to the demand would open a pandora’s box and the country could ill afford creation of so many smaller states.
While smaller states may be administratively more convenient and give greater say to the local populace in matters of governance, states such as Jharkhand, where independent MLAs like Madhu Kora became Chief Ministers and amassed wealth vastly disproportionate to their income, showed the inherent fragility of polity in the newly carved out utopias often touted as the ultimate panacea for misgovernance and maladministration in large states.
However, the demand for Telangana, comprising the Telugu speaking portions of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad, has been there right since the time of nation’s independence. Except for the Telugu language, there was and is very little in common between the peoples of Telangana and other regions of the state namely Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra.
To begin with, Telangana was never under direct British rule, unlike the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, which were part of British India’s Madras Presidency..
It may be recalled that the States Reorganization Commission (SRC) , appointed in 1953, to study the creation of states on linguistic basis, was not in favour of an immediate merger of Telangana region with Andhra state, despite their common language.
The Commission found that the people of Telangana had several concerns including a less-developed economy than Andhra, but with a larger revenue base, which people of Telangana feared might be diverted for use in Andhra.
In fact, the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was initially skeptical of merging Telangana with Andhra State, fearing a "tint of expansionist imperialism" in it. He compared the merger to a matrimonial alliance having "provisions for divorce" if the partners in the alliance cannot get on well.
Finally, the new state of Andhra Pradesh came into being on November 1, 1956 with assurances to Telangana in terms of power-sharing as well as administrative domicile rules and distribution of expenses of various regions.
However, the honeymoon did not last long with the people of Telangana expressing dissatisfaction over the implementation of the agreements and guarantees., made at the time of the state’s merger.
According to proponents of a separate state, Telangana is not only the largest of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh state, covering 41.47% of its total area and inhabited by 40.54% of the state's population but also contributes about 76% of the state's revenues, excluding the contribution of the central government.
They also cite perceived injustices in the distribution of water, budget allocations, and jobs. They allege that Budget allocations to Telangana are generally less than 1/3 of the total Andhra Pradesh budget. There are also allegations that in most years, funds allocated to Telangana were never spent. According to the proponents of separate statehood, only 20% of the total Government employees, less than 10% of employees in the secretariat, and less than 5% of department heads in the Andhra Pradesh government are from Telangana.
Following widespread protests last year, the Centre had announced a five-member committee on Telangana headed by retired Justice B N Srikrishna to look into the issue.
But instead of coming out with a strong recommendation, the Committee, in its report, offered six options ranging from maintaining the status quo to creation of a separate state with the contentious Hyderabad as a Union Territory as also acceptance of the demand for carving out a separate state with Hyderabad as its capital in toto.
Continuing with its dilly dallying tactics, the Centre sat on the recommendations, resulting in the present crisis.
With United Andhra contributing the highest number of MPs to its kitty, the Centre is hesitant to take a decision on the issue. With the charismatic YSR no more around and his son Jaganmohan Reddy threatening to undermine the party’s base in Seema-Andhra, the party’s options are limited.
The Congress also does not want the TRS, BJP or other regional parties to take credit for creation of a separate state. Having realised that the creation of Telangana was inevitable and a matter of time in the wake of consensus on the issue among all parties and sharp division within its own rank and file, the resignation of Congress Ministers, MLAs and MPs is being seen by political observers as a last ditch stage managed attempt by the Congress party to hijack the movement and retain at least part of its fast dwindling strength south of Vindhyas.
With only 38 MLAs and a wafer thin majority in Kerala, a discredited ally in Tamil Nadu, a near wipe out in Karnataka in the wake of BJP’s continued winning spree in Assembly and civic polls and a fast eroding base in Andhra thanks to Jaganmohan Reddy and a weak state leadership, Congress, it seems, sees a last straw of hope in Telangana.
Thus, the Congress men’s sudden penchant for Telangana has apparently more to do with realpolitik than the sentiments and aspirations of the people of the region. Whatever be the political compulsions, it is high time the people of Telangana get to realise their long cherished dream with the people of Seemandhra being adequately compensated for the loss of Hyderabad and having no bitterness for their brethren.
*******************************************************************************************
Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
An Agenda for the New State Governments
Now that the first Assembly elections after the last Lok Sabha elections are over, the outcome in Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra clearly shows that the honeymoon period of the UPA is still on. While poll analysts and observers would get into the usual voter share and percentage calculations, the fact remains “Joh jeeta wo Sikandar” Critics of the Congress have attributed the party’s victory to a divided Opposition while the BJP has sought to hide its defeat by blaming the Electronic Voting Machine describing it as the ruling party’s Election Victory Machine. Had that been the case, the Congress could have easily engineered a landslide for Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana. Howsoever hard it may try to convince the people that the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena was backed by the Congress, the Opposition will have to concede that it was Bal Thackeray’s a la Dhritrashtra decision to anoint his politically novice son over his winnable and hugely popular nephew that is at the genesis of the problem. And if Congress has taken advantage of this split, then that is what politics is all about. What other qualification does Maneka Gandhi or her son Varun have to justify their positions in the BJP except for their surname ‘Gandhi’.
The fact remains that an incumbent Government has been returned to power for the third consecutive term in Maharashtra and for the second tenure in Arunachal and Haryana. Certainly, the Government might have done something for the people to gain their confidence for the first time. Say, the Prime Minister’s Vidarbha package, the NREGS with all its shortcomings and the fact that the Government acted swiftly, replaced the Chief Minister in the state and the Home Minister at the Centre and ensured that there has been no major terror incident any where in the country after the November 26 Mumbai attacks last year. The infighting within the BJP’s top leadership has disillusioned the people no end with the saffron party, the Shiv Sena had nothing new to offer except the parochial Maratha Manoos slogans, whose patent is now with Raj Thackeray. The people are increasingly getting fed up with the negative agendas of the political parties. They want the Opposition on the streets in their neighbourhood to fight for them and not fighting amongst themselves on television and print media.
Having retained the people’s mandate, the Congress too should not rest on laurels or past glory. They will have to deliver. More than anything else, in Maharashtra, the Government should put an end to the spate of suicides, which refuses to abate even after the announcement of special economic packages. Where is the money being spent? Is it reaching the needy and deserving or are the middlemen making hay while the sun shines? What about agricultural infrastructure and remunerative prices? What about private, non-institutional loans taken from money lenders at a much higher interest rate for purposes other than agriculture yet equally important such as education and marriage of children? The suicides are a blot on our existence as a civilized welfare state. It is a cruel joke and mockery on the very idea of a super power India. It is the fodder on which violent movements like Naxalism sustain.
Secondly, the Congress-NCP Government should rein in the burgeoning strength of the likes of Raj Thackeray and their lumpen elements. The way people from North India were beaten up and a noted film director was forced to change even references to the city as Mumbai as against Bombay virtually at stick point, is a sad and sorry comment on the state of affairs in Maharashtra. While it is true that local talent, where available should be given the fullest opportunity, no civilized state can allow its citizens to be beaten up for seeking a dignified life and means of livelihood. Moreover, Congress should also establish beyond doubt that it had no secret understanding with the MNS by going tough against any anti-national and illegal action by Raj and his goons. Not that there are no other problems, but these two are foremost.
As for Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda was saved by a whisker. His Haryana No 1 was more like NDA’s ‘India Shining’, more on hype, less on substance. Again, like NDA’s disastrous 2004 experiment, an overconfident Hooda went to the hustings, several months in advance. Spending crores on advertisements and propaganda without work at the ground level is the best recipe for defeat. The ever increasing labour unrest, lawlessness of caste Panchayats and the ever widening sex imbalance are major areas of concern for the state.
Last but not the least, Arunachal. Both the voting percentage and the vote was for India and against China. The people want to be part of India. But that patriotism should not be taken for granted. They also want development. Both the Centre and the re-elected state Government should ensure that not a single youth would ever feel that he or she would be better off in China than India. We cannot afford another Kashmir on our North Eastern frontier.
The fact remains that an incumbent Government has been returned to power for the third consecutive term in Maharashtra and for the second tenure in Arunachal and Haryana. Certainly, the Government might have done something for the people to gain their confidence for the first time. Say, the Prime Minister’s Vidarbha package, the NREGS with all its shortcomings and the fact that the Government acted swiftly, replaced the Chief Minister in the state and the Home Minister at the Centre and ensured that there has been no major terror incident any where in the country after the November 26 Mumbai attacks last year. The infighting within the BJP’s top leadership has disillusioned the people no end with the saffron party, the Shiv Sena had nothing new to offer except the parochial Maratha Manoos slogans, whose patent is now with Raj Thackeray. The people are increasingly getting fed up with the negative agendas of the political parties. They want the Opposition on the streets in their neighbourhood to fight for them and not fighting amongst themselves on television and print media.
Having retained the people’s mandate, the Congress too should not rest on laurels or past glory. They will have to deliver. More than anything else, in Maharashtra, the Government should put an end to the spate of suicides, which refuses to abate even after the announcement of special economic packages. Where is the money being spent? Is it reaching the needy and deserving or are the middlemen making hay while the sun shines? What about agricultural infrastructure and remunerative prices? What about private, non-institutional loans taken from money lenders at a much higher interest rate for purposes other than agriculture yet equally important such as education and marriage of children? The suicides are a blot on our existence as a civilized welfare state. It is a cruel joke and mockery on the very idea of a super power India. It is the fodder on which violent movements like Naxalism sustain.
Secondly, the Congress-NCP Government should rein in the burgeoning strength of the likes of Raj Thackeray and their lumpen elements. The way people from North India were beaten up and a noted film director was forced to change even references to the city as Mumbai as against Bombay virtually at stick point, is a sad and sorry comment on the state of affairs in Maharashtra. While it is true that local talent, where available should be given the fullest opportunity, no civilized state can allow its citizens to be beaten up for seeking a dignified life and means of livelihood. Moreover, Congress should also establish beyond doubt that it had no secret understanding with the MNS by going tough against any anti-national and illegal action by Raj and his goons. Not that there are no other problems, but these two are foremost.
As for Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda was saved by a whisker. His Haryana No 1 was more like NDA’s ‘India Shining’, more on hype, less on substance. Again, like NDA’s disastrous 2004 experiment, an overconfident Hooda went to the hustings, several months in advance. Spending crores on advertisements and propaganda without work at the ground level is the best recipe for defeat. The ever increasing labour unrest, lawlessness of caste Panchayats and the ever widening sex imbalance are major areas of concern for the state.
Last but not the least, Arunachal. Both the voting percentage and the vote was for India and against China. The people want to be part of India. But that patriotism should not be taken for granted. They also want development. Both the Centre and the re-elected state Government should ensure that not a single youth would ever feel that he or she would be better off in China than India. We cannot afford another Kashmir on our North Eastern frontier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
