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By: Vijayshree Kurumilla
There is a strong reason for Seemandhra’s politicians to gang up, every time, there is a talk of Telangana materializing and that is, Business! Many of Seemandhra leaders are businessmen first, before they become politicians, to further, their business interests.
At times, when a company with high stakes, gets floated, the businessmen from Seemandhra come together putting aside their political differences. So, one would see, a Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy, from the congress teaming up, with the Gali brothers, from BJP, for plundering the iron ore. This is profitable to them, as in case of irregularities, no one will question them and this is what is happening, now.
Around the same time as the concept of PPP or Public-Private Partnership began to rise, so did these so called breed of business-politicos. Using this PPP model, a lot of the business ventures are turning into money spinners and its businessmen are also the same politicos ruling the corridors of power, writing, the law concerning, their own business.
There is so much of money in this, that overnight, we saw many Seemandhra businessmen turning into billionaires. Without so much as spending a fraction of the cost of the project, they make profits, with the co-operation of the Government. With the contracts drafted completely in their favour, the public does not even have recourse to getting back any losses incurred, due to any kind of misdeeds committed, by the private company.
The PPP model has literally handed, our national resources, to a few corporate companies, on a platter and these companies are trying to get every scarce resource, under their ambit. Oil and Gas sector, Power sector, Airports, to name a few have been taken over by them. These sectors are very important and even a small amount of pilferage, taking place in these areas, can, turn anyone, indulging in it, into millionaires. Privatization of water resources is their next target.
The World Bank is, now, in a position to dictate terms to our Government, in terms of regulating our economic policies. There are mineral water bottles, available even in the remote corners of our state, but there is no safe drinking water available, despite having rivers right next to us. This is on account of destructive business policies influencing our governance, where the poor are denied their basic rights, in order to enrich, the already wealthy few.
There is a war going on all across the world, against the privatization of water resources, and against the World Bank’s policies of undermining any country’s sovereignty over their own resources, to benefit a greedy few. In our country, anyone protesting the same World Bank’s indirect governance would be branded a Naxalite and killed in some encounter.
Today everything runs on Quid Pro Quo terms. When YS Vijayalakshmi filed a case against Chandra Babu and his associate companies, even if a solid case could have been built against the companies, the investigation agencies did not follow up, on the orders of the Congress. He was let off and so were all those companies, in another case of Quid pro quo.
We do not have a responsible opposition because of such hobnobbing of the TDP with the ruling party and of course, the less said of the Jailbird Jagan, the better. We do not have an effective press too, as they belong to various political parties. The path for the corporate cum politico world is, thus, completely clear of obstacles and they are plundering our national resources with impunity.
When it comes to business, or protecting their business interests, Seemandhra’s arch rivals come together and Telangana for them is just another business. Yes, even if we say, it is none of their business, the truth is, it is, however sordid, it might sound. We have been blessed abundantly with natural and scarce resources like coal and water. They have been converting our lands into graveyards, through open cast mining system, for plundering coal. The entire management and administration of Singareni comprises of Seemandhra, so the irregularities taking place, in it are to a large extent covered up. Our rivers are drying up, with rampant sand mining and also the water getting diverted towards these private companies.
Business-politicos are becoming so power drunk, that they are unable to mask their anger at anyone questioning them. Maharashtra Depty CM-Ajit Pawar’s sickening response to a poor farmer’s demand for water falls into that category and so does Kiran’s recent statement in the assembly.
For people worshiping at the altar of Mammon, a thousand or a lakh deaths do not or will not count, but how much can be made out of anything, is all that counts. And so they gang up whenever they feel that their business is under threat and Telangana movement poses that threat. Telangana is like a question mark to them, rebelling against its unchallenged domination and exploitation of our resources. The stakes for them in this business called Telangana are very high and all the market forces gather strength to suppress it, with all their means. Only, our unified force of rebellion will, bring to halt such a ruthlessly moving Juggernaut.
Jai Telangana!
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