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Journalism of Courage
With the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) constituting a committee on Telengana, it shall definitely assume significant proportions in this winter session of Parliament. One has to wait and see if the issue moves beyond constituting the second States’ Reorganisation Committee (SRC) and there are efforts to actually carve out an independent state of Telengana. A lot depends not only on how effectively the leaders of Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) would plead and convince, and also at times threaten, since it is not very long ago that TRS leader Chandrasekhar threatened to ‘drag Sonia Gandhi onto the streets, if demand for a separate Telengana is not fulfilled‘. There is a need to convince the ‘High Command’ and the Left parties as their opposition is well known and was the reason why despite the alliance, the TRS put up its candidates at many places in the recent Assembly elections in AP.
It is perhaps important to note that the Andhra BJP has taken a pro-Telengana stand. BJP has a stronger support base in Telengana than in coastal Andhra. Undoubtedly BJP stands to gain with the formation of a separate state, and it is only due to the compulsions of alliance politics (with the TDP) that it underplayed the issue.
The issue of separate statehood to Telengana is by no means new. The first States’ Reorganisation Committee in early 1950s, much before it has been an electoral issue, recognised it. However, in applying and implementing the States’ Reorganization Act, 1955, the Central Government developed four formal rules:
• No reorganisation for groups that made secessionist demands (for states like Sikkim);
• No accommodation of regional demands based on religious grounds (in light of the problem of Punjab);
• No linguistic recognition unless out of popular demand (in 1954, for instance, Western Uttar Pradesh wanted a separate state but was not a popular mass demand);
• No reorganisation if the demand came from only one of the important language groups (for instance, with the Madras province both the Telugu and Tamil speaking people wanted a reorganisation).
Apart from the fact that the first SRC cautioned against reorganisation solely on linguistic grounds, the demand for Telengana fulfills the entire criterion including the last one. Contrary to popular perceptions, common people in coastal Andhra are not quite opposed to the idea of a separate Telengana state. It was more than evident in the recent Assembly elections where despite the TDP raking up Telugu pride and Andhra sentiment by suggesting a possible water crisis due to sharing of river water, it could not garner a substantial percentage of vote or seats in the coastal districts.
Telengana is the largest region of the state, with a population and area that is more than that of both coastal Andhra and the Rayalseema, covering 41.47% of the state area and 40.54% of the total inhabitants. It, in fact contributes more than 50% to the state revenue.Inspite of this Telengana was denied rightful share in river water by successive Governments. Many of the districts are suffering from acute water crisis and some like Mahabubnagar have become drought prone. All major irrigation projects are undertaken to benefit the coastal regions where irrigation with canal system is up to 74.25%, while farmers in the Telengana are forced to pay for digging bore wells and pay heavy electricity charges on using them. With bores drying up due to low underground water levels, agriculture has become increasingly untenable leading to a spate of farmer’s suicides very recently (apart from the handloom workers suicides).
The literacy rate in Telengana is even today less than 50%. It is because the share of Telengana is less than 20% in the total quantum of grant-in-aid (Department of Higher Education, AP). Culturally, the Telengana dialect is looked down upon and the Telugu film industry, which is dominated by producers who were rich farmers and has its lead roles played by actors also from the coastal regions while representing people from Telengana as the stereotypical villain. The coastal rich also dominate the print and electronic media.
However, the real question is whether the formation of a separate and smaller state would really address Telengana’s problems? If so, would the common people be the real beneficiaries, or would benefits go to a minute privileged section that already wields economic power? The latter comprise of landed castes with active support from the NRIs belonging to the Telengana region who are now in search of political power? Individuals and organisations championing the cause of Telengana need to raise the following issues: patterns of land ownership and accompanying caste-class dynamics. The implementation of minimum wages. Free primary education for all below the age of 14-yrs with schemes such as the mid-day meal and providing qualified teachers and necessary infrastructure. Restricting privatisation and corporatisation of the health sector and compel them to follow mandatory free service to the people from poorer sections. Continuation of various welfare policies including subsidisation of agriculture (such as free electricity). Monitoring both fluctuating prices and selling of spurious seeds. Generating employment and social security measures for the workers in the growing unorganised sector. Rehabilitating the urban poor such as those displaced migrant labour, which migrated to Hyderabad city mostly as daily wage labourers and construction workers. Reactivating Pollution Control Boards against industries (mostly in the new industrial towns that have emerged around the capital city in the Ranga Reddy district). Letting out untreated affluent into tanks built for drinking water which have led to grave health disorders. Arresting rampant urbanisation which has led to a severe drinking water crisis along with traffic-related pollution and steep rise in real estate making housing unaffordable to lower income groups.
The current leadership of Telengana does not seem to raise or possess a clear perspective on any of these issues, which is what makes the demand for Telengana hollow, as such a demand could then end up serving the aspirations of the privileged class. The struggle for Telengana is a struggle for ordinary people to find a geographical entity that would better their lives.Without a commitment to those ordinary people, achieving Telengana would simply be a betrayal of the aspirations of a large section of deprived groups.Telengana is therefore a rather poignantly paradoxical conjecture where the demand is democratic but realising it might not be.
The writer is with the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore
