November 04, 2011

No-Go for a Separate State - II

I had posted my previous article on separation of Telanagana in a public domain, which drew many a comment. I am copy pasting the ones which spoke against my views here - comments from others in Italic and mine in normal font.
______________________________________________________________

Indu, I am in complete disagreement with your comments above on the Telangana Movement, If people STILL don't understand the prime motive behind the seperate Telangana then I feel they seriously lack basics behind Telanga Movement.
There are thousands of reasons why telangana people are aksing for seperate state and how seperate state can benefit Telangana people, first please understand them and think on the shoes of Telangana people.

Now the movement is not driven by any political parties, it is in the hands of people (workers, lawyers, students, doctors etc), it came to a situation where it is imperative to devide the state.
The early Center Govt takes the decision, the early the life's gets better in Andhra Pradesh

I ask Center govt only one question, after the anouncement of Telangana on 9th of Dec as Sonia Gandhi's birthday gift, the agitation of Samaikyandhra went for 14 days and govt lean down to issue another statement of concensus on Telangana, first of all I feel shame on central govt going down from what they annouced stating that as mistake and why do they take 65years to respond PRO to Telangana than 14 days to Samaikyandhra?
I feel Samaikyandhra Agitation should last atleast for 10-15years (atleast not like telangana 60-65 years) before central govt came back.

I go clueless when people say Samaikyandhra, can you give us a single reason why people are claiming Samaikyandra?
If Telanganites deliberately want Telangana state, stopping them with Samaikyandhra doesn't feel appropriate.

______________________________________________________________

I am not sure if you are a staunch supporter of Telangana, but the Telangana movement made sense when it was started in the 50s. But, why do people need to live separately now when everybody across the length and breadth of the country are at least trying to live together in harmony. Case in point, people in Andhra Pradesh today are not divided based on religion and language. All divisions, if any, are due to political reasons only. Seeking separation because of something done by tens/ hundreds of Andhra people in power is sad. What bad did the lakhs of common people from Andhra do that you want to separate from them?

Coming to the facts, the 1952 agitation was against the mulkis (non-locals) when Andhra came as a Madras province. But, after creation of states on linguistic lines, all Telugu speaking people got united. Talking about the present statistics in A.P., appx. Revenue generation comes from
Telangana: 61.47%
Central government contribution: 19.86%
Andhra: 14.71%
Rayalaseema: 3.90% (most economically backward)

Allocation to irrigation:
74.25%, to the Coastal Andhra
18.20% to Telangana
7.55% to Rayalaseema (again backward) etc….

Agreed that Telanagana was always second to Andhra region when we see statistics. In that case, Rayalseema being the most neglected region in A.P., should we have a third state as well? Is this a sensible solution? Telangana agitation was always powered by the student associations. If we leave the 1960s and 70s, and talk about today,
1. Education is based on merit and nobody is snatching seats from Telanaga students. If someone is meritorious over the other, it’s not a fault
2. Local quotas in education are still prevalent in every region in A.P., but again a student should at least intend to study for an exam sincerely and not expect to merely depend on reservations to grow in life
3. If we talk about jobs, I don’t think private jobs favor regions. Latest statistics say that more than 3lakh government employees supported the Telangana movement. It means these many Telangana people are already employed in government jobs. What else is expected? Do they expect to get admissions into colleges without even having to study and get into jobs without having to try for them?
4. Securing admissions into colleges is not based on merit. Merit does not come to you because you are from a certain region

People who are getting on to the roads and behaving vehemently are not sensible. People who destroy public property which comes out of all tax paying pockets. Creating a loss of more than 8cr to the government on a daily basis is not sensibility. The real educated won’t do that because they understand the terms GDP and per capita income. All these are just driven by emotions and materialistic offers. I don’t deny the fact that there could be some genuine supporters (very few again) from common people, who witnessed the movement during its inception. But, all the youngsters who are getting involved in the destruction of public property and monuments of historic value now, do not even know the value and the real intensity of the Telangana movement of the 50s. They are just a provoked lot. Everybody involved see their own benefits from it.

All these students who bunk classes and exams and who are not letting even others study are not real students who seek genuine education. A person who is not serious about his career and life is not deemed to be called a student. There are only these reasons I see for students in agitation.
1. Looking to settle down easily without much competition in the state of Telangana
2. Money/ Liquor
3. Unhealthy zeal to grow as youth leaders in politics

A student who is confident, can study and gain admission in any part of India, not just Telangana. If they are economically backward, then it’s a different issue. May be then they can be provided with some reservations but otherwise I don’t think it’s necessary. People should learn to live on what they gain for themselves and not on what is promised to be given or given by others.

Will KCR be happy if Telangana is given but he and his family are not brought to power? I am dead sure he won’t be. No politician will ever sacrifice power for the sake of common man. Those golden days are gone! People have become selfish now. Today, we can hardly count politicians who can live and die for people. Politics are so filthy that even the ruling parties, central and state alike, are not taking a stance just because they fear losing potential vote banks in AP in either case. Are politics not playing with our sensitive imbalances?

There are even more number of people who want to live together even though they don’t get any benefit from it. They want to live together because they don’t like getting separated from fellow beings of their own state, and whom they never considered different or separate in any measure in these days of modern day India.

Just thought of adding one last but relevant point here. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. So, I am a Telangana native? But, I don’t support division and separation anywhere in India. I believe in unity. May be the compelling patriot in me thinks that way.

I don't dislike Telangana people. I am one of them. I dislike being separated. My morals never fall prey to communal segregations. I am a rationale being. :)

3 comments:

  1. why is it considered rational to be divided on the basis of language?

    Doesn't this urge to stay united as a telugu speaking entity is a proof of the fact that we still have strong sub national identities?

    why is one sub national identity ok and the other 'unpatriotic' and 'irrational'

    why is a geographical and multicultural, multireligious entity be seen as a threat to idea of india?

    By your logic lingusitic criteria of states has all the potential of turning out to be against the idea of india.. Remember the dravidian politics in its heyday...?

    Those who oppose telangana are not compulsory patriots and by no stretch of imagination can you call those who seek telangana as anti national..

    If you say you cant be separated from fellow beings of the state,it implies that you treat the fellow beings of rest of india in a different scale than the people of your own state. Does a north indian or a sikkimese less closer to you than a fellow of your state? I am sure they are as much indians as your fellow state people.After all in modern day all indians are equal isnt it?

    What will happen if a state is formed?Its not as if they are going to build a wall between different regions.You have as much right as any other to stay , work travel any where in india.Your rights are in no way reduced or curtailed. All states and new states that may form follow the same constitution and everyone has the same individual privileges..

    The impact of creating a new state of Telangana will be felt in the political(realignment of political equations) and economic arena of the new states that will arise.

    Whether these will be for the better or for the worse should be the subject of debate..Your hypothesis that telangana will be anti national is irrational and before you declare those who fast for a political cause as fit for darwin awards..may i remind you that AP was formed when a guy died fasting for cause of dividing Madras state and forced nehru to redraw the political map of india

    All forms of political agitations followed everywhere in india are remnants of the freedom movement. Even in independant india parties of all regions and colors follow the same objectionable methods of protest..what ambedkar called as the grammar of anarchy is sadly true and alive in our ENTIRE political discourse.. why single out this movement alone..Dont forget the vandalism that happened or will happen if state is formed on the other side of the divide. politicians and their methods are same all over the country..We get what we vote or not vote for.. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello,
    Welcome to my blog!

    I never called Telangana agitation anti-national. Also, I never termed lingual division as rational. This was something that happened a good 50+ years ago, something that cannot be changed now. But, we can change what is in our hands today.

    Governance may become easier if we have smaller states, but then the reason behind the separation is not that. It is something more critical - something that causes a hindrance to communal harmony and equality.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi and Thank you...

    IMHO there is a strong 'perception'in telangana that they are ill treated by the powers that be. Alas govt statistics of progress do not satisfy a poor farmer in adilabad.

    Sometimes i wonder why we seem to view an issue in terms of the leader. charisma of KCR is irrelavant to this debate. If bal tackeray quits , a Raj thackeray will rise to pursue his ideas.

    Messengers will always be there..its how you deal with the message is what matters

    Shooting the messenger and refusing to look in to the real issue doesn't resolve anything. it only discredits the opposition and anyways the cynical manipulation of the telangana sentiment by leaders of tdp and congress
    has destroyed their credibility

    Communal harmony is a loaded term. If you are alluding to religious riots, i dont think there is a correlation to size of state and occurence of riots because riots happened in united AP as well. riots happen in big and small states all over the country..hell it even happened in Delhi. people dont travel from kadapa to hyd to riot.Riots are more or less local in scope.
    Every citizen has equal rights no matter what state you live in. So i dont see any inequality arising out of separation.

    Having said that, division of state is not a panacea for all ills plaguing telangana, the way this discourse is played out by both sides is unwarranted.

    The status quo has failed not just in AP but in many regions of the country.

    A new model of decentralised politico administrative structure should have been found that will make the leaders of that region responsible for the effective implementation for the development works in this region.

    This would have solved two problems,it would have removed the cause for grievance because once you make leaders from telangana responsible they cant shift the blame to others. Also it might have been a test case to see if new politico administrative systems within unified state are more effective in dealing with regional and local problems. If this experiment fails you can rework it after a set timeframe.

    Crisis should have been treated as opportunity as people are receptive to more radical ideas in such situations rather than in normal times.

    If not for BoP crisis in 1991 we wouldnt have had liberalisation.. isnt it?

    One side wants to keep things as they are and the other side wants to replicate a smaller version of status quo , the only thing going for pro telanganite's is that their solution is not tested YET and they want their chance to prove their solution.

    Im not sure what according to you can cause a hindrance to communal harmony and equality..The anti status quo stance of the movement or the methods adopted by the movement itself?

    ReplyDelete