As India celebrated her 77th year of Independence, both Andhra and Telangana continue to haggle over a poorly administered partition/bifurcation deal between the two Telugu states back in 2014. Almost a decade after the separation of Telangana from the undivided Andhra Pradesh, both states continue to fight legal battles over the allocation of resources, developmental projects, and finances across various areas of developmental needs and administrative purposes.
Many ordinary citizens see the division of Telangana from the larger Andhra Pradesh, as a result of the Congress party’s selfish, narrow-minded political goals. While the common men and women of Andhra allege step-motherly treatment in the bifurcation process where many revenue-earning private and public enterprises went to the new state of Telangana, along with the well-developed capital city of Hyderabad. Andhra was left with little to bank on, aside from the lack of committed/allocated funds for the development of a new capital city with administrative offices for its Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary functions.
Telengana Formation
Many claim deception and an unnecessary (avoidable) division of the larger Telugu state, on the political self-goals and whims of the Congress party, then headed by Sonia Gandhi. K Chandrasekhar Rao, current Telangana CM and party president of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti party (BRS), formerly Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), played his cards well, appealing to the short-sighted political goals of party chief, Sonia and fellow congressmen like P Chidambaram. His master stroke helped him pull off an ill-prepared bifurcation process granting separate statehood to Telangana, even as he was quietly planning on distancing himself from the Congress party which helped him achieve his political goal of statehood for the Telangana region of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state.
As a result of the bifurcation of the larger state of Andhra Pradesh, Congress lost political favour and clout in both Telangana and Andhra. In both states, it has fared poorly for almost a decade. It is now trying to limp back to the position of a minor player, in time for Telangana’s elections by the end of this year.
K Chandrashekhar Rao’s BRS party and Telangana state’s BJP are engaged in daily political wrestling, with the Congress trying to reinvent its relevance in the available social and political space in Telangana. The party is yet to rebound even after almost a decade, in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, where people are still nursing hurt feelings and resentment over its crucial role in an unfair division of the state. The people from the districts of Andhra helped build Hyderabad into a modern, vibrant, bustling cosmopolitan city, ripe for business.
The people of Telangana participated in this city-building process initiated by the financially-abled people of the Andhra region. The citizens of both states deserve a good start for a new state, starting with a capital city. While Telangana was granted the well-developed Hyderabad city without a sharing of its assets and its revenues with Andhra, Andhra’s citizens continue to lament the lack of the Centre’s financial assistance for a capital city.
What’s Making It Worse?
Petty politics including political vendetta has made things worse. While the previous government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) drew master plans and allocated land for a grand, symbolic capital city near Vijayawada, the current government headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YRS party has refused to act on Naidu’s vision of a world-class “smart” city already planned for, with several buildings already under construction.
Telangana continues to harp on more assistance for its developmental projects, its farmers, and its underdeveloped regions. Not to be left behind, so does Andhra! While this is a part of the standard playbook for most states in India… it adds up to an additional, unhealthy rivalry between the two Telugu states. The two states fight over everything from water and electricity to revenue, debts owed to each other, and project /funds allocation from the Centre. Many of these arguments are taken to the Supreme Court at the taxpayer’s expense. The State funds utilized for legal battles in Delhi by expensive law firms representing the two states could be better utilized for a developmental project or two!
Sri Krishna Committee
Against the findings and advice of a special committee set up by the Central Government (the Sri Krishna Committee) back in 2010, the Congress party engineered an ill-conceived, ill-planned, ill-intentioned, and hasty division of the then-largest state in Southern India. After comprehensive research into the state of affairs across the former state of the larger, united Andhra Pradesh and extensive consultations with all major stakeholders including social organizations, sections of the public, political parties Etc, the Sri Krishna Committee presented its findings as well as its recommendations on the subject of carving out Telangana from an undivided Andhra Pradesh.
The committee conducted its own independent research and heard grievances from both sides of a strongly contested petition – one demanding a division of the state citing emotional and economic factors, the other citing facts and present-day ground realities, arguing in favour of keeping the state united. After a thorough consideration of all facts and figures, the committee recommended the consideration of two scenarios:
– Keep the state united by the creation of a special, statutorily empowered “Telangana Regional Council” for socio-economic development
and political participation of the Telangana region.
– Separation of state, recommended ONLY in case it is unavoidable and only if this decision can be reached amicably amongst all the three regions (Coastal Andhra/ Seemandhra, Rayalaseema, and Telangana).
The political short-sightedness of the Congress party is clearly to blame for the mess of the hurriedly orchestrated and implemented bifurcation process.
For its selfish, thoughtless, irresponsible action, the Congress has been punished by the electorate in both states and is only recently trying to wiggle out of exile. Will it emerge as a significant player in Telangana’s elections later this year and in Andhra’s elections next year? Popular public opinion is that it may hobble back to some social and political space in Telangana but it has a long way to go in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where it is still seen as a treacherous, opportunistic party that cheated a faithful electorate.
(Shivani is a freelance writer based in Vijayawada)
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