An Interview on Telangana

The following is a conversation based on a set of questions asked by a Bangalore based American freelance journalist, who was interested to know about the Telangana movement and publish her findings and commentary to a wider audience. With thanks to her, I wish to share with others here in this blog post.

1. How would you describe the Telangana independence movement? Why do you support Telangana?

The term Independence may be misleading because the struggle here is for a new state, within the Indian Union. Telangana, earlier called Hyderabad State was a separate state (1948 – 1956), in the post-independence India. Some districts of the Hyderabad State were bifurcated and merged with Maharashtra and Karnataka; while the Telangana districts, which formed a major part of the then Hyderabad, were merged with Andhra and Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956. This merger was against the will of the people of Telangana and the recommendations of the first States Reorganization Committee. The reason for the opposition of merger among majority of Telanganites was primarily because there was a huge gap in between the regions in terms of Education and Wealth. While the Telangana people being subjects of the Nizam’s rule, had far less educational opportunities and were taught in Urdu medium, for the few privileged who went to schools. The Andhra counterparts being under the British had a formal English education and were experienced with the parliamentary system of administration. Also, while the state of Nizam was very wealthy, the people were not. And this amounted to the gap in the wealth of Telangana (state) being much higher than that of the Andhra, which was suspected to be looted by opportunists and the cunning leaders from the Andhra region . In order to protect the interests and address the concerns of the people of Telangana, there was a Gentlemen’s Agreement, a conditional basis, for the merger of the state. This agreement included about eight points, and none of them were honored. The fear of Telangana people came true, with the merger of the regions and the exploitation continued. The plundered Telangana now, seeks justice and demands for its separation from the Andhra dominated political and public administration in the present state of Andhra Pradesh.
To conclude, this fight for Telangana statehood has been there since the inception of the state of Andhra Pradesh and has been conveniently ignored by the successive governments at the State level as well as at the Central level.

The movement for Telangana is imbibed with a strong wish for self-respect, cultural identity, and fair opportunity. At large to the Indian nation, this movement speaks about democratic values, constitutional rights and a just society.
And in the current phase of the Telangana movement, all the communities, all ages, men and women- millions of people have come together, like never before, to question the Government, formed by the Congress party with a promise to carve the Telangana state, in the 2004 (UPA) manifesto and promised yet again in the 2006, 2009 elections and has cheated the people over and over again. This is the time for Telangana, the 29th state of India, to be formed, and restore the democratic and constitutional rights for the people of Telangana. Every Telanganite aware of the history and broken promises, will support the current agitation for Telangana whole-heartedly and so do I.



2. If Telangana received independence, what would this mean for you/your family/friends?

For starters, with the new state administration, closer to the will of people of Telangana, there will be a better share of funds and the rightful resources for the newly formed state. Personally my family in my hometown of Warangal, and several others will get regular drinking water, which right now in summers, is a pressing problem; the rural parts of the district will get irrigated water, a share that was due for over six decades.
Warangal, as a historic capital of the Kakatiya Dynasty, will get its due share of development, - in infrastructure, industry, commerce and agriculture. And the youth of Warangal, including some of my cousins and friends would get an opportunity to go back to the hometown and explore new avenues, thus building a stronger community.
The artificial boom in the real-estate, mostly controlled and run by the powerful Andhra leaders and forceful or deceitful land-grabbing in and around Hyderabad will be put a check to, and many of my relatives and friends living in Hyderabad can afford buying homes.
We all can hope that there will not be another farmer suicide reported in the local newspapers. Wherever I go, I will have my cultural identity that I am from Telangana. I do not have to see the language, the culture, the literature of Telangana insulted and the history of Telangana being neglected again in the academia, and media, including the news channels and movies. The list can go on. However, the major benefit will be in terms of the completion of irrigation projects and utilization of water resources, which will enable the Telangana farmers to cultivate their barren lands again.

3. What is your opinion on the politics involved in the fight for an independent Telangana? Do you support any political parties? If yes/no, why?

Ultimately, the formation of a state is a political process. So, it is important that the political parties, including the ruling party play the cards right and respect the people’s opinion and initiate the constitutional process of formation of the state of Telangana, which is to make a resolution in both houses of the Parliament at the Central level. The agitation at the grass roots level is to make the elected representatives realize and remember their promises to the Telangana voters and pressurize them to take needful action.
I personally am not inclined to any specific political party, in their general idealogies. I would prefer to vote for the best among the individual contestants from my constituency. However, to choose among the existing parties and based on their stand on the Telangana issue, I would support the only party which is not only in favor of Telangana, but also has a singular agenda of Telangana formation, which is the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Although, in the past, the party did not always behave according to the aspirations of the people of Telangana, most of the time, it did not waver from one end to the other, like the Congress and Telugu Desam did.

4. Over the past 6 months many youth have died for Telangana. What role do these suicides play in the fight for Telangana? Are they an important part of the struggle? Do you feel that pro-Telangana politicians have taken advantage of these suicides to move forth their cause?

It was very unfortunate that the youth have killed themselves in this movement. And the primary reason for behind these suicides is the political failure of the representatives from the region both at state and at centre. While the youth, the students primarily have taken to roads, sacrificing their time and education, and risking their careers, because the state government had been abusive of the legal system and arrested many students under various cases, the politicians remained elusive and have not stepped down from their immorally comfort zones to support the activism on the ground. This led to a huge disappointment to the young minds, and some with emotional surges, got disheartened and succumbed.
In a humanitarian perspective, these suicides are very untoward and unfortunate. If we step into the shoes of some of these young people, who have committed suicides, we can only imagine, that their rational was to pressurize the politicians; however the rational was unfound, untrue and incorrect. They have believed that in committing such acts, they are helping the people’s movement.
About 300 people have lost their lives, in this movement. Even to imagine these suicides have a part in the movement, leave alone important, is to be naïvely inept and inappropriate. Rather, the movement and the emotional conflicts in the movement played some part in the suicides. The only take-away from this saddening phenomenon is to understand how deep rooted the cause and the sentiments of Telangana are in the minds of the young, even intelligent.
I am angered more by the inaction of most of the politicians, when they did not speak up when their parties have exploited and cheated the people, than the advantage they have taken over in the movement. I am depressed by their corrupt nature, attributed to which, they have grossly insulted the people and their sentiments.


5. Do you feel that Telangana can gain independence peacefully, through political negotiations? Do rioting and bandhs help Telangana's cause?

If only political negotiations could have delivered Telangana, my generation could have seen Telangana back at least in 2004, when Congress formed the UPA government with other parties. Both the State and Centre were ruled by the Congress and their allegiance was with TRS. If the political parties and politicians had the good will, there would not have to be a need for a massive movement.
So, having learnt the lessons, it is only through Civil Disobedience, that people can express their discontent and demand their democratic will. The people have been patient and have voted in the past elections, believing yet again, the politicians who have cheated them.
Non-violent protests, and constitutional and democratic demonstrations and meetings and dharnas among many other ways a very important form of activism to reach the ears of the deaf administration.
Through the peaceful means of Satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi helped achieve freedom to India. In the same lines, now the people of Telangana are doing the Satyagraha for a better India. It is this spirit and valor of Telangana people, which had thrown the tyranny of Nizam out of Hyderabad.
We only hope that some day, even years after the Telangana state is formed, this movement is remembered and continue to inspire generations after generations to be socially conscious and ensure that the government remains righteous and just and fair.

Random News

October 25, 2008, "Janam tho Mukhyamanthri" Program:
1) Wakf board property dispute attributed to 2000-2003 allocations to Infosys, Polaris, ISB etc by TDP in Manikonda Village. Congress merely continued to issue land in that area and suddenly out of nowhere this Wakf land property issues had arised.
2) 4% increase in the reservations to minorities...imporved employment and literacy, not an appeasement, a need and govt's responsibility.
3) CM on the farmer's pleas in the Milk and Dairy sector, says, "the involvement of Govt and Coop societies as partners is very essential, else the farmers will get eaten away by Private firms". (irony with Tata Nano project)
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Tarak: Conflict of statements on who will be the next TDP CM: Balayya or CBN? Oct 25.A fight within the TDP agents in Guntur : Oct 26
Are these related?
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J C Diwakar Reddy Oct 26, 2008:- Telangana people also want a Samikhyandhra- No pressure on Cong for 2009 elections- YSR will become CM again for the Samaikhyandhra State
***************************************************************************************************************************October 26, 2008:Manmohan Singh stretches his hand of friendship towards the LeftYechuri rejected: - nuclear deal is wrong - claims because of the left's intervention in various govt policies the economic system had not totally collapsed.
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Congress New Leader Jayasudha

Film stars turning into politicians has become very common today. Following the footsteps of Superstar, Megastar, the female leads of yester-year Telugu cinema are now taking up a new step towards the "social service" through politics. Jayasudha, was the most recent to join the bandwagon of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy's State Congress.
One has to question the authenticity of the so-called public service which every actor/politician quotes. In this context, it may be worthwhile to look at an example in Jayasudha's recent interview to a Telugu News Channel.
Firstly, the interviewer asked Jayasudha about the "change" in her political ideology when she supported Telugu Desam some years back and now joining Congress. Instead of answering the question in a manner that most politicians would be expected to say, the actress instead took it very lightly and said that she supported TDP at that time because her colleague Jayaprada was in the party then. How much of that answer should the people who look up to the politicians should digest is left for them to judge during elections.
Another question that came up was what was her "plan" if she was to become a leader, and the answer came very very dumb and disappointing. The actress said she never planned and if she plans, it usually does not work. She went on to say that she believes in God and He would plan accordingly and proudly quoted something from the Bible.
Well, as long as it is your career, or any personal stuff, Jayasudha madam, it is okay if you leave it to God to plan, but once you chose politics, you need to be a leader who shares plans for the people in order to serve them. In a democracy, it is the people who are Gods.
Is it because of the actress' sensibility or glamour that she was asked to join the party or was it because of some other reason that Sonia and YSR would be pleased with from Jayasudha's personal beliefs is a question, that no interviewer would perhaps ask, given the "pseudo-secular" campaign the Congress often sings of.

-S.P.

Oct 19, 2008.

Disclaimer

This is my own personal journal, mostly on the events and possibilities in the political scenario in present day India as well as a history of political India.
My main motive of writing this journal is to improve my own understanding and searching for the Truth in the system.