By Mallikarjun R Bandyala
Skeptics are dealt a crushing blow. The notion that under Telangana’s own rule, brand Hyderabad will loose its sheen is mercilessly squashed, the other arrogant notion that all the entrepreneurs came from one region is in retreat.
The tsunami of headlines of Wi-Fi Hyderabad, India’s largest incubation centres for young entrepreneurs , world class policing, massive infrastructure infusion around Hyderabad are making average Telanganite only to be more confident of his or her future. Beneath all these headlines lies an important first public relations battle of the government of a newly created state. During the agitation for Telangana there was a rumour mill working round the clock, spreading the notion that brand Hyderabad and business environment overall in Telangana will be in decline and people of Telangana are incapable handling of their own economic matters. So naturally the first and foremost priority of the incoming government of the new state was to assure the business community that Hyderabad is open to not only for the business as usual but also present whole new dimension of looking to encourage innovation and provide world class facilities. The IT minister of Telangana is in the forefront of this battle and winning it convincingly for his government.
The cat fight with Andhra is set go on it seems, be it Polavaram ordinance, power purchase agreements or employee sharing arrangements. Telangana, under its new Chief minister K Chandra Shekar Rao is confident and audacious enough to take on any challenge that comes its way. The fourteen years of agitation, numerous political victories and defeats have made the Chief minster a battle hardened, sophisticated and a mean political war machine. People of Telangana, though given him a marginal mandate but an impressive decision overall to select the agitator TRS to form the government. The only disappointment for agitators in the election was to see TDP winning double digit number of MLAs, it left many with a bitter taste. I said and wrote it in the past that a party that exist in Andhra could never survive in Telangana on its own in these current political circumstances.
People of both states may be called as one Telugu people but the two separate entities of Andhra and Telangana are having competing economic interests on key resources that are vital for their respective economies and will remain as natural competitors in the region. Economics generally do tend to rule the politics in modern and transitional societies. Politics of compassion and oneness are inferior to politics based on interests. We have witnessed that phenomenon for last five years. Sooner or later ambitious politicians, if any in Telangana-TDP will have to come out of that party if at all they are planning to throw a political challenge to TRS party, else get condemned to remain as numbers in opposition benches for very long time to come. People voting in confusion in next election is still a distant dream that yet to be dreamt. Until then TRS will continue to have opposition in Assembly but miss a political opposition in the streets of Telangana.
The cat fight aside, Telangana after all has the historic opportunity to carve out its own destiny. A destiny that upon it reaches or one the way to it, is solely responsible for. A convenient Andhra bashing may not be an option any more in the future. It’s a big challenge indeed. The immediate one is electricity generation. So far the fundamental stand, the Chief Minister has taken is that it will be done by public sector company. It’s a great decision in terms maintaining and managing energy affordability. It may end up as bad one if its delayed or costs blow over. For any economy to prosper energy affordability and relative consumption is the key. It’s a simple equation of Einstein’s, energy burned is equal to energy released. It’s an economic formula too, so if there is no affordable energy then there won’t be a meaningful consumption, if there is no consumption there are no new jobs. The difference in the per capita energy consumption of the USA and India tells the story of their respective economies. Whatever resources we have of gas and petroleum were auctioned off to private companies, which will never be charitable on our affordability so all we have left with is dirty coal in the ground and water that is depended on good rainfall. Solar, wind and Thorium reactors are other alternatives worthy of exploring.
Power generation in public sector, if taken seriously and finish building projects on time will have tremendous benefits in empowering its poor and middle class. Telangana could follow French model of investing part of its future surpluses in establishing key public and strategic services companies and successfully running them. France not only has most public sector companies among western nations but also made them technologically one of the most advanced in the world. The latest example of that being is new generation of largest super critical nuclear reactor being deployed in China by Areva of France, first of its kind mankind has ever known to. What my point here is that only government can subsidise the energy nobody can. So to manage high energy costs, at least one form of energy which is electricity should be in the public sector. We just can’t afford to gamble all our chips with private in these economic circumstances. Same time caution is urged, not to create white elephants like Air-India. We are yet to see details of any new projects in this regard. We need to take it up on war footing, meticulous planning on costing and accountability must be established before we take plunge into this.
Currently health care is in total shambles. Government must invest significant amounts of money in this sector if at all TRS’s slogan of improvement of life standards of ordinary Telanganites to get anywhere near reality. Don’t expect great deal of help from Delhi, it’s not going to happen. Immediate priority should be given to categorise all public and private hospitals on cost and quality to stabilise ever increasing costs for poor and lower middle class of our society. One must know and prepare for approximate cost of basic health need like baby birth before he chooses to go that particular hospital or facility. Pictures of pregnant women giving birth and dying on the pavements of bus stops or in front lawns of hospitals which refused entry on monitory grounds, should hang in the office of the health minister to remind the task ahead everyday. If we can’t provide our citizens the basic maternity care in next five years then we have to question our society’s journey of transition to modernity in moral, social and economic terms.
Social reforms must be given importance. The cast free hostels are a great idea. Time has come to implement it sooner than later. When 85% of its population is classified as under privileged then its the most suitable approach to fight Mafia style politics of cast. An initiation by the Chief Minister to distribute land among backward and land less is a step in the right direction. If successful with out disturbing social cohesion this will be first of its kind and give millions an opportunity to start a fresh in their lives. I think everybody is also eagerly waiting for the policy proposal on free education to all and the amount of funding will be given to government schools.
In my view, it’s undemocratic to ask opposition not to do politics because we have lot of development to catch up. People who are in power must not get into this business of silencing voices of opposition rather they should get on their job to achieve what their manifesto has promised. Politics take care of itself and provide an ongoing and important platform for evolving alternative ideas and leadership. The process must not be disturbed so should be the attitude of the government with media. We may be ecstatic in banning few channels in current scenario but cannot be encouraged in the future. The intellectuals of the time of agitation should not get blinded by the affection towards TRS. Mistakes must be pointed out with out fear and favour. An urge or a temptation of wanting to control the flow of the information, good or bad is neither practical nor ethical.
Social and economic integration of religious minorities is the area we have lot to catch up. TRS must challenge MIM in old city politics. Let’s face it, old city has missed the bus to the Hi-Tech city. How many boys and girls of old city has made it into software riches of Hyderabad. Owaisi brothers may block people like me asking those legitimate questions in Twitter but The TRS, which boasts the social and religious inclusiveness may not afford to be silent and lease out politics of Hyderabad to the MIM. What ever the political compulsions may be, the juggernaut of developmental agenda must go on and reach each square meter of Telangana. Politics of development and politics of aspirations must have no barrier.
IT minister’s push for the innovation faces staggering contradiction on the ground. The young people of our society grow up seeing very little innovation in our daily lives. We repair our roads by simply putting another layer of concrete, undermining the level of the house we live in making it vulnerable for flooding. We drive our cars with high beams on in night times endangering our lives every minute of it. Our future innovators go past the criminal dumping of industrial waste on their way to school or college. Last but not final, our numbering systems for the houses we live in and cars we drive, they compete in complexity of MAC addressees of computers. Let’s face it, It’s hard to be inspired to be innovative in this environment where generation of parents of kids or its government just do not bother to sort out their basic issues. No wonder Apple closed its centre in Hyderabad soon after it opened. Why all these basic mistakes we commit on regular basis and hinder our every day lives do not get prominence in our developmental and aspirational politics. Are we consumed with too much noise of headlines and give too little attention to the substance on the ground?
We must not have system run on status quo. How do we go about delivering the promise of corruption free governance with out making any fundamental changes in the way government conducts its business. System that existed during the loot of YSR era continue to exist and thrive. What is that magic innovation that effectively promises corruption free governance? Can a paperless government could be a solution? Or should just the image of leader is enough to make the system work. If that so, are we building our governance based on personality centric? or system centric where most of developed world is built on. What is the direction of TRS government? Do we have proper political opposition that dare ask all these legitimate questions? The slogan of “Anti-political corruption” having spectacular run uncontested until today. What about the just plain corruption itself, be it political, bureaucratic and systemic. Can the new government of ours promise commissions would not get distributed from top to bottom on our up coming massive infrastructure projects? If it doesn’t and can’t, then why we are in this new set-up in the first place! Are we not capable of having an objective political discussion on all these fundamental issues? So far the government and its leadership is only talking tough on “political corruption”. Why it is not able to follow up with any administrative measures or even proposals? While our mixed veggie and handicapped opposition still trying decide weather to back the interests of people or their leaders.
I urge introspection on our basic stand on fundamental issues like corruption and good governance. The tough talk and empty promises are not enough. A modern society, if we assume we are, can not be ruled on the basis of a personalty. The decision we make will be the key to our future success or failure as a society. It may not always about money or monument, its about how we choose to evolve, live and make a head way into the future as knowledge based society. It must be shameful and unfair on our future generations still be labelled as a developing or third world for decades to come. Let’s build a proper system for our kids. Let’s create the brand Telangana, a brand that represent knowledge, wisdom and modernity in all aspects moral, social and economic.