To Dt.20-07-2014
Mr. PNV Nair,
Editor,
Hans India
Dear Mr. Nair,
Your open letter to KCR on 19-07-2014 in Hans India is a shell shocker. The substance in the censure apart, there is a question. Was there a necessity for a journalist of your repute and an editor of a notable newspaper like ‘Hans India’, to pour his bile out in such an intemperate manner against a CM who is in power for just 1 1/2 month, presiding over a new state and trying to find its moorings?
Let us now examine your accusations. The enthusiasm of Telangana people is not waning. On the contrary, it is waxing like the new moon. It is not the hate, but, it is the righteous anger. It is not parochialism. It is the effort to right the wrongs done to Telangana people. His fight is with Andhra leaders and also with the settlers who did loot Telangana with the help of those leaders. They are too many. Their acts of organized exploitation of Telangana will be revealed slowly and inexorably. It is not even a tip of the iceberg now. It will be a great shock to our democracy when the whole hog of it is brought out.
These exploiters were never living in harmony with Telangana people. The few andhras who were living like anybody else from other states do not have any reason to be feeling perturbed. Telangana government will not harass them illegally. Only exploiters will be shown the door, legally and constitutionally. They are not innocent. Those exploiters have dual voter ID cards and other such duplicate documents. They know how to milk on both sides of the divide. In the last general elections a few lakhs of them voted on both sides of the divide. They have several such tricks up their sleeves.
1956 cut-off year is neither vindictive nor utopian. It is being practical. Do not bother about proving the nativity of Telangana people, there will be suitable guidelines. The ‘mulki rules’ which were upheld by Supreme Court of India as legal and was ruled as the fundamental right of Telangana people was abrogated by these andhras. They made a mockery of 6-point formula under 371-D. They did everything imaginable to subvert any safeguard big or small to Telangana people and cornered the benefits for themselves in every walk of life.
Education is a state subject. Fees reimbursement is in the domain of state government. The 10 year provision in the admissions to educational institutions in APRA does not relate to fee reimbursement. The fee reimbursement scheme is outside 371-D. It is a state scheme and the state government is free to continue, modify and close it or totally revamp it, if it chooses. Anyway, the present ill-conceived fee reimbursement scheme is in doldrums, because of the mismanagement of it by the erstwhile A.P.government. The T-government thinks that it needs to be modified and to be taken out of the mess. So that the government can extend the financial assistance to only Telangana students in the state and outside the state also without any hassles. FAST is the answer to the quandary.
The cut-off date for nativity as 1956 specific to the scheme is also very much tenable. There are instances where state governments had such rules in select cases, even in erstwhile A.P. also. T-State is not flush with money and it wants to use its scarce resources to its Telangana citizens only. If Andhra wants to be charitable and pay for the students of Andhra origin who are not eligible under the scheme they can do so. Nobody is preventing it. Or, the A.P. state can go to court if it has the ‘locus standi’ on it.
Your analogy to immigration rules in other countries is not relevant here. Each country has its own rules. The rules are not universal. India has one jurisprudence and one penal code. But andhras want to give special powers on law and order to governor to safeguard andhras in Hyderabad, when there is no such provision in any city in India and nor was it used in any division of state.
There is no provision for joint capital in the constitution itself. The Polavaram project as a quid pro quo to Hyderabad City cannot be considered as part of Reorganization Act of the state. It should be considered under Inter states water disputes act under the aegis of Central Water Commission. Yet they have found their way in to APRA. The andhras with their political numbers and monetary clout can do anything, even if it is not constitutional. But Telangana the underdog is to struggle to come out from the Andhra hegemony even in their own state. Here, why cannot it have its own legitimate rules to safeguard the interests of their own citizens from the predation of andhras?
As for your comments on the cabinet decisions —- growing money in the farm and being quixotic and all; it looks as if you are exceeding your brief as a journalist, if I may say so. You can analyse those things in their own time in their proper perspective. It may be prudent for you to wait some more time for analyzing on them. You are not saying anything on the quixotic statements of Andhra government building a world class capital with Rs.1.5 lakh crores and putting up ‘hundies’ for it for donations. Even Gujarat the state of Modi from whom CBN asking for financial assistance for construction of Singapore like capital is satisfied with Gandhinagar. Your advice here is little too premature and superfluous.
Telangana people don’t need any lessons to learn in living with harmony with other people that is what they were doing for the last 400 years. Hyderabad is not portrayed as cosmopolitan city for nothing. You can say this to our Andhra friends who cannot live with harmony with their Telangana brethren without exploiting them. They came like the proverbial camel in to the Arab’s tent and claimed whole of it. As for your reference to Mumbai and Shivsena —- are you suggesting to support andhras and target north Indians here?
Telangana people don’t have any complaint against any other state’s people who come here and indulge in their vocations without exploiting Telangana people politically and economically like andhras. Your comparison with Haryana, Punjab and other states does not hold water here. Hyderabad is not on the border of the two states. Telangana state wants to have good relations with Andhra, but not at the cost of its own interests. You may teach A.P. which is going to center on the drop of a hat and cornering Telangana state with the help of their big brother at the center, to imbibe all that good neighborly manners. Telangana people wherever they go they mingle with the local people and share their culture and friendship. Not like andhras who keep Telangana people at an arm’s length feeling superior. They would like to live in their ‘ghetto’ like Andhra villages in the hinterland of Telangana and their Andhra colonies in Hyderabad city.
Dear Mr. Nair,
You need to know much more than what you know to understand the angst of Telangana people in the United States, because of the merger with Andhra in 1956. One should be a born Telanganite to understand it. You have made your point. We are also making our explanation loud and clear. Please ponder over it, you will understand the situation. They are not innocent and they will not be stateless, they are too clever for that. They will have dual citizen ship in the two states and take care of themselves. The problem here is; Telangana government needs to take care of innocent Telangana people from further predation by andhras.
Yes, what you said in the end is correct. The dust will settle down one day and both the states have to work with each other. Telangana State is not averse to it. Wherever there is necessity one should say hello to the other and get going. Not that KCR alone has to say hello to CBN who thinks he to be larger than life size. If he has any problems he should sit with KCR and solve the problems not the other way round. It will take a long time till the dust settles down. For, they have chosen 10 long years for the superfluous joint capital. It may take all the 10 years and even more if they don’t realize the need for earlier resolution of problems. For, Telangana is used to fight with its back to wall. The difference now is its people have the state of their own and are on a firmer ground and can fight better. Telangana state is determined to gain its self-respect and sovereignty in the comity of states, like any other State in India.
Hope you will read this dispassionately and make others read to know our point of view on it and understand the ground reality.
Thank you,
yours sincerely,
J R Janumpalli