By: Sujai.K
After the announcement of Telangana by CWC and UPA on 30th July 2013, Seemandhras launched into a farcical and ridiculous movement called ‘Samaikhyandhra movement’ with a demand to keep the state united, against the wishes of Telangana people, by forcing themselves onto people of Telangana the way they did all these sixty years.
There is a mainstream reading of this movement in Telangana – wherein many Telangana leaders would like to believe that these Samaikyandhra agitations are being fed and nourished only by the Seemandhra political leaders, and that somehow the average Seemandhra person is quite OK with the formation of Telangana. Is this characterization of Samaikyandhra agitations really true?
Let’s go back into the recent past. When the people of Telangana were agitating on the streets for the last four years, the Seemandhra people wanted to believe that these agitations were the handiwork of few selected political leaders who have funded the gullible people of Telangana to come out onto streets to protest. The Seemandhra people told themselves, and they even told us, that these protests are manufactured by few leaders with the sole intention of grabbing power. These Seemandhras actually believed for a while that there was no widespread sentiment in Telangana for a separate state, and that it was all an artifice – a figment of imagination of few vested interests.
And what was our reaction then to their reading of our Telangana Movement? We completely disagreed with their wishful thinking and their imagined caricature of our movement. We told them quite emphatically that ours is a grass root movement, led by people, wherein the people of Telangana participate quite voluntarily, only because they genuinely believe in their cause for separate statehood. And that it is we the people who are steering the movement, trying to force our politicians to fall in line, to make them embrace our cause, threatening them with dire consequences of an electoral defeat.
So, then, how should we describe the current Samaikhyandhra movement? Should we tell ourselves that it is funded by the political leaders or that it is a genuine outpouring of Seemandhra people who are actually not ready to let go of Telangana?
Today, Seemandhras are out there on the streets protesting, because they actually believe that by agitating they can force New Delhi to reverse their decision on Telangana, and that they can forcefully keep the state united against the overwhelming wishes of people of Telangana.
It is the selfishness and the apathy of Seemandhra people for all these sixty years that allowed the domination of Telangana by Seemandhra leaders. And today, it is the same selfishness and same apathy of Seemandhra people that is fueling the Samaikyandhra Movement to deny the Telangana people their statehood.
A common man in Seemandhra has the following opinion: ‘Damn Telanganas, we don’t care about them. We care about ourselves, and we will fight tooth and nail to make sure state remains united so that we can continue to use Telangana as our colony – just the way it was for the last sixty years.’
According to a poll conducted by Seemandhra media house with 7.42 lakh participants, 83% in Seemandhra opposed formation of Telangana while 16.36% wanted a right over Hyderabad. Only 0.85% supported the division of the state. No wonder in all their agitations and protests we don’t see a single word of compassion for people of Telangana, no overture from them on how they could go about addressing some of our grievances, no rapprochement to settle pending issues, no soothing touch to heal our grouses. Their slogans are all about coercion and imposition and nothing to do with reconciliation.
As decent humans, if they are not able to recognize and realize our pains for all these years, if they chose to ignore all our evidences which showcase the discrimination meted out to us, if they chose to be apathetic to our demands for self-rule, why should we condone them, excuse them, and treat them as innocent, and gullible?
Why don’t we admit that they are mature adults, capable of thinking for themselves? Just the way we Telanganas think that we are mature adults, capable of thinking for ourselves, not just some zombies who were brainwashed by our political leaders?
Today, Seemandhras are hell bent on denying our right to statehood. So why should we be sympathetic to them and treat them as ‘brothers’. All this “let’s separate as brothers” sounds too sugary, and too sentimental, and is not ground in basic realities. We are not brothers. Let’s admit that to ourselves. Our relationship has never has been that of siblings. From 1956 till today, it has always been that of the colonies and the colonial master. They belong to the majority group representing the rulers and we belong to the minority group representing the ruled. There is no equality between the ruled and the ruler – the only equation is that of freedom and acceptance.
Today we are being given freedom, and it is up to Seemandhras to accept it and let us go. Just because the colonial masters happen to develop the cities and railway infrastructure in their colonies, they are not given a right over the cities or infrastructure after gaining freedom.
Many transitions of power and divisions have been smooth only because the ruler groups let go of the ruled group. When the time came, the British let go of Indians. When the time came, the white South Africans let go of their control of South Africa and handed it over to black Africans. When the time came, Gujarathis let go of Bombay.
But today, we see the ugly face of Seemandhras who refuse to let go of Telangana or Hyderabad.
And here’s the harsh truth. They will never let go of Hyderabad. That’s because they never went through introspection in the last four years. They never conceded that we got an unfair deal in the united state. They never accepted the discrimination and marginalization we faced.
There was never catharsis.
Seemandhras are in denial.
That’s why they see no shame when they participate in perhaps the world’s ugliest movement based on coercive and unreasonable demands, the most egregious kind of forcing themselves onto others against their wishes.
So, we need to some questions to ourselves in Telangana. What kind of arrangement will it be if we agree for joint-capital with Hyderabad? Look at their current agitations, their slogans, their demands, and their rhetoric. Do you really think that they have a desire to let go of Hyderabad, today, tomorrow, ten years from now or hundred years from now?
Seemandhra leaders ask Antony Committee – ‘what’s the benefit in granting Telangana? Who is going to benefit? The division is only going to cause more troubles for us in Seemandhra. The division will make our fields into deserts’.
It’s like 35 million people of Telangana went missing from their worldview. We don’t seem to feature in their grand plans of united Andhra Pradesh. Without the support of single Telangana person they hope to fight for united Andhra Pradesh, on our behalf, without our active support, pushing themselves onto us against our wishes, to continue to dominate and suppress.
When Seemandhras raise the slogan, ‘we want justice’, and say that they want a right over Hyderabad, what do they have in mind? Here’s a map as envisioned by Seemandhras – and the chances are that this may be the reality by 2023.
We need to wake up to face the stark realities. The future is not going to be easy if we agree for a joint-capital. Instead of focusing on building a prosperous Telangana, we will be completely occupied in fighting on a daily basis with Seemandhras in the joint-capital. And for all we know, we may end up fighting for the next sixty years to get our Hyderabad from them.
So, knowing what is in store for us, we reject the proposal from CWC and UPA to have Hyderabad as joint-capital for ten years. We won’t accept Seemandhra’s government, their administration or their interference in Telangana even for one minute once Telangana is created. Seemandhras have all the time from now till the formation of Telangana to shift the capital out of Telangana to a location of their desire in Seemandhra.
And here’s our ultimatum:
Not an inch of Hyderabad.
Not a minute in Hyderabad.