Telangana Agitation - Hyderabad going to boil again?

Indefinite strike for separate Telangana begins - The Hindu

There was a time, when the unbelievable rise of Hyderabad mesmerized everyone. The City of Pearls, which is also the sixth most populous city in India, quickly became one of the major IT Hub and Pharmaceutical capital of India. Indeed Hyderabad was in a dream run. Unfortunately, now the issue of Telengana looms over the prospectus of her future and growth.

Telengana movement was started long time back, it may be one of the oldest running movement in India for the creation of a separate state. Over the course of time Telangana movement saw many ebb and flows. But last time time continued for a long time, which resulted in Central Home Minister P Chidambaram announcement in December 2009. According to which the central Government would start the process of creating a separate state after the introduction and passage of a resolution in Andra state Assembly. After Chidambaram's  promise K Chandrashekhar Rao ended his 11 day old fast. As it was opposed by Seema- Andra region this promise didn't materialized other than the creation of Srikrishna Committee. Anyway Srikrishna Commission helped government to buy some time and there by pacify the people.

Srikrishna commission report too didn't help the problem to move in the direction of a solution. Agitation, strikes, rallies, bandh etc, continued with more or less strength and paralyzed the city which eventually resulted in the loss of crores of rupees in revenue. If things are going on this way - without any definite action either from Andra assembly or from the central government - it will not take much time for the business to relocate to other cities. After all who want to shut down their business every now and then?

This is the time for the political parties to think and act above their individual likes and dislikes. As both the state and centre are headed by the same party - Congress is in a better position to take a definite step to end the stalemate. There is no doubt that the MLA's from the coastal region will face difficulties in supporting the demand for separate Telangana. At the same time Central government may not want to see themselves as imposing their own will. But this is the time for a someone to take a decisive action.

Here comes the idea of a political consensus and cooperating with the opposition. If the government is waiting for everyone to arrive at a common point - it is not going to happen. So maximum they can do is to  create a political consensus with in the state and act accordingly. Now almost two years are over after the promise of P Chidambaram. We spent too much time on simply ignoring or playing down the seriousness of the issue. It is possible that after sometime the popularity of the agitation may go down, people may go back to normal condition, but under suitable environment it will again come to the surface and start hunting the city.

Ending the agitation is very much important for Hyderabad too. Uncertainty may force the investors to search for another city. Prolonged agitations may cause disturbances even among the enterprises which have long time relationship with the city. Considering the gravity of the situation, its important for the central government to give more attention towards the problem stop it from becoming a hot potato. I don't want to see the book title 'The rise and fall of Hyderabad' in the stands. 

Sajeev