Saturday, December 12, 2009

Telangana : One more state in Indian Union















[Hyderabad]

It was said that Sardar Patel – the first home minister of Independent India – integrated more than 560+ states in to one entity and formed Indian Union – world’s largest democracy, second biggest country by population. The partial assimilation of Kashmir to Indian Union still cost numerous deaths in one of the most dangerous border ever existed in the world.

After the independence of India, Telangana remained a separate state till 1956; it then merged with Andra on linguistic lines and formed Andra Pradesh. Debate is still going on whether creating states on linguistic lines is good or not, many argued for creating states based on the flexibility in administration (Due to language criteria we ended up with many big and small states). But in a country like India which has hundreds of languages, and where people consider language as sacred as religions, I think the former is a good choice.


















 The battle for Telangana is not new; numerous movements went on in 60’s and 70’s. Then in 2001 the movement was back with the creation of TRS (Telangana Rashtriya Samithi) by Chandrashekar Rao. But after the General elections he became minister in First Manmohan cabinet and the demand was put in cold storage for next five years. In the recent elections (2009 General Elections) TRS and its alliance only got two seats in Lok Sabha and mere 10 seats in State Assembly. Congress, which doesn’t even include the formation of new state in her manifesto, did exceptionally well.

Everyone may thought that the demand will be on cold storage for the near future. But it didn’t happen. Rao started his fast demanding new state, students of Thelangana region also joined in the protest. The demand for a new state reached in the root levels, it was no more in anyone’s hands. Students even send an ultimatum to the government. In the end Union government approved the demand.

But if centre is decided to create a new state, do it as soon as possible. Don’t put it in beaurocratic red tapes. Here in this case AndraPradesh state assembly have to adopt a resolution, boundaries have to be drawn, administrative networks have to be created, offices have to built, union cabinet have to approve the resolution and then the parliament have to enact the law. If this took long time then it will only result in the stagnation of the development plans in the whole state, and destroy the cordial relation between the people of Talangana other part of AP.

It also opened a Pandora’s Box of problems, the first one is regarding to the capital Hyderabad, will it be the sole capital of Talangane or another Chandigarh? One of the most important issues is the water sharing agreements of Krishna and Godavari. Will it solve quickly or become another Kaveri or Mullaperiyar? What GOI will do with the nine pending demands for new states? Finally from where the money will come for building the new state?

If the creation of new state will result in the improvement of living conditions of people in the region, the cost can be justified. I hope it will not become another treasury for politicians and beaurocracy. I hope that the students who were in the forefront of fighting for the new state will also be in the front end of nation building. The bright students have to join politics, one of the oldest professions, and eradicate the corruption and bring in efficiency to the system.

Sajeev

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