The New Telangana: Can It Become A Trend-setter?
By Dr.K.Vidyasagar Reddy
02 June, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Indian Union has at last responded to the Trend-setting movement of new state formation quite positively and thereby created a new state, a regional one indeed! Thanks to the supreme sacrifice of its students and youth, the new Telangana became a dream come true. Thus, a trend-setting event has happened in the recent past. With the success of such a democratic movement, many more new state movements might emulate the Telangana path. The 29th state of India that came to be described as Telangana was part and parcel of Andhra Pradesh, a parent Telugu-speaking state in the country. On the eve of its formal inauguration on June 2, 2014, the new state celebrates its birth in a big way, unparalleled in the history of Telugu people in the country. Obviously, all its martyrs killed in 1969 and after are always reminisced in the new state of Telangana!
Kalvakuntla Chandra Sekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, has emerged as the tallest leader on this occasion in the state. Representing the lesser-spread regional party like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), KCR had consistently led the party and people in the region for over thirteen years on end. Obviously, he became the popular choice as far as running the new regime is concerned. Despite many a mistake that he committed during the course of the movement, he was very cautious in organizing it on democratic lines. Never did he let the movement become violent, though more than thousand students and youth resorted to the path of suicides and self-sacrifice that is unheard of in the history of such movements.
Perhaps, it will be remembered as the most popular event that any Indian state has ever witnessed so far! For, the four and half crore population of this new Telangana has had a saga of democratic struggles and desperately awaited a momentous occasion such as this. It’s a long anticipated dream that would have been realized at no cost. The Parliament of India is democratically empowered to merge or demerge any two or more states with simple majority in the House. Yet, the political leadership of the country played on to the cheap politics that exposed their myopic perceptions. Popular aspirations and exemplary sacrifices that the local people demonstrated were undermined at times. Strong resolve in favor of their statehood was not recognized, leave alone respected.
Contrary to the conflicting claims of some states or political parties, Article 3 could have been used for the purpose and the issue settled long ago. Rather, the national parties that run the ruling regimes at Delhi succumbed to political blackmails and thereby sabotaged the regional and autonomous movements in the regions. The central government had responded to these movements quite undemocratically on couple of occasions. Besides, politicizing the statehood formation was unwarranted and of course it proved to be counterproductive to these political parties. In a way, such an attitude of the national parties can be attributed for the rise and growth of regional parties in Telangana and elsewhere.
The recent electoral fiasco of the Congress ‘within’ and ‘without’ the state of Andhra Pradesh is a case in point. Despite its decisive support to the state formation, the Congress regime failed to evoke any positive response in Telangana electoral battle. In the similar vein, even the BJP that extended crucial support to the state formation had hardly fared well in this election. While the party swept the 2014 polls in most of the states in the name of ‘Modi wave’, Telangana movement thwarted it here somehow. It’s the classic participation and involvement of the Telangana people in this trend-setting movement that it ultimately clinched the statehood.
Although the Telugus have had the history of emerging as the first ever-linguistic state in 1953, in the form of Andhra state that was carved out of erstwhile Madras state, they were seldom satisfied till 1956 when Telangana was merged with them so as to be established as the Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, Telugu-speaking population is the second largest (next to Hindi) in the country. As there are several states formed with different dialect/accent identities in the Hindi-speaking region, Telugu-speaking population can afford to having been bifurcated or even trifurcated on similar grounds. More than the claim of a single language or its common script, there are many other factors that constitute an identity-making, regional or otherwise in a plural society like Indian. It is Telangana identity that got raised up during the course of age-old movement.
Notwithstanding the resistance from various quarters, both the Telugu-speaking states were combined into one that continued to celebrate its formation day on November 1, for more than five decades on end. Yet, Telangana people, majority of them paid scant regard to such celebrations on that occasion. In fact, scores of groups and organizations that were formed during the period were on record opposing the unification and its state formation day celebrations. The very statehood formation was questioned and fought against overtly and covertly. Whether or not one appreciates it, the statehood movement became potential one that evoked strong identity spirits among concerned peoples. Thus, it was suicidal to dismiss such identity movements as regional or separatist, as happened with the case of Jai Telangana till yesterday!
The Jai Telangana movement that passed through critical phases in the past became violent on couple of occasions whereby the Jai Andhra movement was organized against the former. Consequently, both the peoples were pitted against each other politically and otherwise, particularly in the wake of 1969 movement that cost 369 student lives. Obviously, both the Telugu peoples were never assimilated thereafter. Nor were they integrated with each other in any way. Thus, the unified state was marked by mutual mistrust and non-cooperation. While the political leadership at both the state and central levels hardly endeavored for any sort of convergence, the peoples were at odds all through. At times, one witnessed simulated unity or imposed harmony between the two peoples, but in vain.
Given the socio-geographical setting that existed in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the least that the ruling parties could have resorted to was of displaying democratic response. Rather, the regimes became so undemocratic in their approach that the writing on wall was misconstrued. Besides, they were overoptimistic of their political monopoly in the state and outside. Now that these parties faced the electoral wrath of the people in Telangana, similar trend might emerge in several other states in the country as well. Comparable movements are under progress for the statehood and democratic aspirations. With the success of Telangana statehood movement, indications are there strong for other movements to emulate it and emerge victorious in the days to come. Let good sense prevail in the national leadership and respond accordingly so that the national integration is kept intact over a period of time, lest it could be a trend-setter soon.
Dr.K.Vidyasagar Reddy, Assoc. Prof., Dept of Political Science, Mizoram University, Aizawl
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