Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Dec 9 and blame game on Telangana


High on emotions, low on pragmatism
Two years have passed since the Union Home Minister had made that fateful announcement on Telangana on December 9, 2009. Since then political and social events have overtaken the Telugu society in such a profound manner that the state is still struggling with the intractable issue.

Separate state supporters understandably feel cheated that the Centre failed to keep up its commitment. They underline the fact that the statement was made in the floor of the Parliament. They see a conspiracy by vested interests of Andhra origin for the promise getting stuck in a bottomless pit.

But a dispassionate review of the events leading to the announcement and subsequent developments probably gives us an idea of what led the UPA government to renege on its assurance. The December 9 statement is of course crystal clear:
“The process of forming the state of Telangana will be initiated. An appropriate resolution will be moved In the state assembly.”

When Chidambaram made this rather straightforward statement, he was clearly under the impression that there was a general political consensus among all parties. The reason for this belief was the minutes of the all-party-meet sent to him earlier.

Technically speaking, however, there was no unanimity on the issue of division of state since ruling Congress, MIM and Lok Satta did not give their clear opinion on the issue, while CPM actually opposed the division. But what seems to have weighed in the mind of the Centre was TDP’s ready acceptance to the proposal.
But when TDP went back on its stand, and other parties, including Congress and PRP, coming together against the announcement in Andhra region, all hell broke loose. It was then that the Centre seems to have understood the complexity of the ground situation. The December 23 statement was self-explanatory on this count:
“However, after the statement, the situation in Andhra Pradesh has altered. A large number of political parties are divided on the issue.”

Since then, the T advocates have been blaming the Centre in general and Chidambaram in particular for the change in stand. They continue to refer to December 9 statement in isolation. However, the Home Minister himself clarified on the apparent contradiction:

“When you refer to my statement on December 9, 2009, you should kindly also refer to the December 23, 2009 statement.”

It might be true that Andhra and Rayalaseema politicians came in the way of division of the state immediately after 2009 statement. But since then, a whole lot of factors played a role in the Centre not going ahead with the formation of separate Telangana.

They include the difficulty in forging a consensus, finding a basis for further division of linguistic states, apprehensions over the political fall-out for the Congress in the state and the fear of opening of a Pandora’s Box with such a decision.

However, the hardcore Telangana activists continue to harp on the ‘betrayal’ of the Centre and the ‘conspiracy’ of Seemandhra capitalists’. Such caricaturing of the situation might help political mobilization for the cause and even help TRS  keep the T-pot boiling till next elections, but such a construction of the developments is twice-removed from reality.

As Chidambaram repeatedly said on the issue, the agenda for now could only be to “deliberate on the mechanism and lay down a road map for the consultations.” That can take place only when charged atmosphere cools down and political parties play down emotional content and focus on pragmatic solutions to the issue.

Once bitten hard, the UPA government is twice shy.

December 8, 2011

Headline grabbing protests futile



The Telangana agitation has spawned a variety of protest forms in a bid to sustain the tempo and achieve the stated goal. While some of them are welcome additions to the exercise of democratic rights in support of demands, a few others threaten to disrupt the functioning of society for all times to come.

I am not even talking about ‘general strike’ and the various road blockades resorted to by activists supporting the separate state cause. I am referring to a tendency – a dangerous one at that – to appropriate every space, even when it is inappropriate, for their cause to the discomfiture of all the others.

The other day, Hyderabad 10K run was organized in the city. The Times of India report headlined the report, “T protestor disrupt 10K run”.

It goes on to say, “About 400 students from Osmania UniversityTelangana protest and other educational institutions from the city joined the event wearing black badges and shouted pro-Telangana slogans in support of separate statehood demand. The students’ protest was over “police repression” against them.
The run that kicked off from People’s Plaza was disrupted for about 20 minutes by the sloganeering students who were later apprehended by police.”

Now the idea to participate in the run to register their protest is novel. What those who are passionate about their demand could have done is to wear T-shirts with their slogans and participate along with the others. They could have attracted the attention of others and served their cause, instead of being considered as ‘nuisance’ by the others.

Imagine every other every group with its legitimate and not so legitimate demands henceforth starting to disrupt every occasion and every platform for ‘justice’. An MRPS or a teachers’ organization can do the same thing and indiscriminately indulge in disruptions for their cause.

A host of local groups have been agitating in north coastal Andhra over various proposed projects that they fear would uproot them from their land and livelihood. Their protests have never been disruptive and always democratic. Such reasoned acts of protest actually let people empathize with the cause.

Of course, it is on the governments to be sensitive to such democratic expressions of protest and be responsive for finding a way out; lest, every group should probably resort to the kind of gimmicks that I mentioned above. Such acts only cater to newspaper headlines, and nothing else.

November 29, 2011

4.5 Cr People of Telangana – Where are they?

Almost every Telangana leader mentions the figure of 4.5 cr. It is supposed to be the entire population of the region wanting division.  Political leaders of all hues as well as many self-styled senior journalists and intellectuals take to the figure at the slightest provocation.

If it is a correct figure, then the population of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema put together should be less than 4 crore, considering the population of the entire state is 8.46 cr, according to 2011 census.

But as usual, facts are slightly different. Anybody can google to find the real figures. They are the following: Telangana – 3.52 cr (35286757), Andhra & Rayalaseema – 4.93 cr (49378776).

Separately, Coastal Andhra – 3.41 cr (34193868), Rayalaseema – 1.51 cr (15184908).

Remember that among T districts, Ranga Reddy (5296396) has the highest population, followed by Mahbubnagar (4042191) and Hyderabad (4010238). Given that Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad have a large number of people from other states and from other regions within the state, the actual T population will be lesser than the figure mentioned above.

Then why is it that everyone without exception in Telangana drums up this factually incorrect figure? Why is it no intellectual or academician from the region set the fact right? Will such an inflated figure help the cause in any way!

November 22, 2011 7:10 am