This decision by the Congress is seen as a desperate political move, which is facing a severe challenge in the run up to the next year’s general elections. Andhra Pradesh, being the largest contributor of seats to the Congress enables the Congress-led coalition to remain in power. By creating Telangana, Congress has ensured that all the votes from Telangana would invariably go to the Congress and would allow Congress to maintain its position intact in the state.
Created in 1956 as a result of reorganization of Indian states, all the Telugu speaking regions were clubbed into one state - Andhra Pradesh, which incidentally is also one of the largest states in India, covering an area of 27,5068 sq km and has a population of nearly 87 million. Right from the creation of Andhra Pradesh, the people of Telangana felt ignored and discriminated and have protested for almost a century for a separate state, spanning 42% of the state’s area and consisting of over 38 million people.
Out of the regions that made up Andhra, Telangana was the poorest and the least developed region, comprising a large share of scheduled castes and tribes, the weakest sections of the Indian society. Progress and development in Telangana was dismal and dreary due to feudalism and Nizam rule, leading to a situation wherein the other regions of Andhra Pradesh prospered and were much better off than Telangana, where poverty levels mushroomed than in other parts of the state.
The people of Telangana feel that they have been discriminated for too long. The farmers in Telangana are starved of water, where ironically one of the largest dams has been constructed, but most of the water is channelized to other parts of the state for irrigation and industrial use. Inadequate health amenities, lack of employment and education opportunities and decades of negligence are other plaguing reasons why Telangana lags far behind schedule.
So, why did the Congress delay this issue for long? One of the main reasons for the delay is that, though the people in Telangana wanted their own state for better governance and administration, the people of Andhra, as such, were adamant on keeping a united Andhra, because they felt that fragmentation would lead to a weakened government in all aspects. Incidentally, the chief minister N Kiran Reddy, has hinted about resigning if Telangana was created. Similarly, the current government as well as the ministers from Andhra Pradesh is against this split and are quite unhappy about the decision taken by the UPA.
The decision to bifurcate the state and create Telangana will indeed have a major impact all over the country, considering there have been salient cries for such movements across the country – the Nepali-speaking populace for Gorkhaland, Vidharbha state in eastern Maharashtra, creation of Greater Nagaland, Bodoland and now recently, Kodavaland for all the Coorgis are just a few of them.
While the creation of Telangana would enable the Congress government to win few seats in the next year’s general elections, it has definitely opened “Pandora’s box of troubles” for the current as well as the future government to be installed after the elections. Few such problems would be setting up administration and having Hyderabad as the common working capital for the next 10 years, water and power sharing and many others. So, are the bifurcation of the state and the creation of Telangana a vote of bank politics and political gamble by the Congress? Would it indeed lead to improved governance and administration? And, what other implications would arise with Hyderabad being the common working capital for the next 10 years? These are some questions to which, I doubt, even Congress would have answers to !!!!!
