File Photo: Seemandhra leaders with Digvijaya Singh
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By: J R Janumpalli
Seemandhra politicians were indulging in a variety of politics during the last ten years to keep Telangana state demand at bay. Presently, after the Cabinet approval of Telangana state, the grist they use for keeping the state united are the hyperbolic concerns of Seemandhra people. These concerns are being spun by all Seemandhra politicians and their educated class to counter Telangana State formation. What Seemandhra political majority and other appurtenant traits have done in Telangana is already a part of the folklore of Telangana. Of late national media also is picking up the threads of the ground reality. The Seemandhra political class plundered the bounty from Telangana resources like land, water, mines etc. and grew in to a formidable corporate-political entity in the country, capable of lobbying to influence Central government. They also systematically encouraged, patronized and promoted the common Seemandhra people to come and share the spoils of Hyderabad and Telangana. This has made them to think that Hyderabad is the ‘el dorado’ of Seemandhra. Their influx and occupation of Hyderabad, its surroundings and the vocations in it in the last 20 years totally smothered the aspirations of local people and made them to feel alien in their own land.
In the process, the Seemandhras, almost all of them,politicians and common people together started believing Hyderabad and its surroundings as their own exclusive fiefdom. Now, after the Telangana state decision,the prospect of ceding Hyderabad to Telangana is baffling and galling to them. As a matter of fact, even after demerger, they can retain their goodies and enjoy them like any other citizen of India. But they don’t like that. They do not want to be common citizens of Hyderabad like they are in Madras, Bangalore etc. They want to be part of the ruling ‘Seemandhra Cartel’. That is the mindset they had imbuedall these years and are not prepared to come out of it.The feeling is near total in them. Pity is, even the learned people away from it all, also started in believing in this aphorism, because of their Seemandhra roots.
The two months agitation of Seemandhras, which was borne out of this frustration, is now being portrayed as the bigger issue than the 60 year long angst of Telangana people. Seemandhras had never countenanced Telangana ethos.They do not recognize the injustices done to Telangana people in the united state, either. They treat them with disdain and feel that they are all myths created to separate them from their ‘el dorado’. They do not recognize Telangana people’s right to get separated as per the constitution of India, as they themselves did in 1953.They plead purposely and spread the canard that demerger of Telangana state will break the country. For them the total ‘andhraization’ of the state is the only solution for ‘Telugu’ people. All their concerns conclude finally in ‘samaikayandhra’, a euphemism for Andhra chauvinism. Ifthe whole state is made samikyandhra with permanent subjugation of Telangana or,separate seemandhra with Hyderabad as its capital they don’t have any concerns at all. If Telangana is separated with Hyderabad as its capital they have all the concerns in the world.
The trumped up concerns of seemandhras sound like the conversation between the proverbial ‘wolf and Lamb Kid’ in Aesop’s fables. The moral of the fable is ‘Any excuse will serve a tyrant’. It was clearly brought out by the interviews of national electronic media with KKR, CBN, Jagan, JPN et al, the spin doctors of the fabricated feelings of insurmountable problems, equaljustice, the wrong way of dividing the state etc. The abhorrent comments and behavior of their subalterns day in day out in the media and outside in this regard lowering the dignity of democracy is common knowledge. The foulest language used by TDP MPs in the Parliament is one tid bit of evidence. They also are conspiring to indulge in legislative filibuster in the Assembly and in the Parliament to defeat Telangana State Bill and are advertising it as if it is a most democratic thing to do. Their learned political analysts and literati are not lagging behind very much in this denigration of Telangana.It has turned to be an obsession with them.
Their concerns in River water, Power,Jobs,Education etc. all are distorted and are borne out of the frustration of the prospect of losing enjoyment of the share of Telangana people on these facilities and resources. Their game plan is to create confusion and obfuscation by their motivated ‘goebbelese’ and take Telangana issue beyond 2014 general elections. So that the conflagration will continue and they can rule over Telangana with their unscrupulous political advantage. This is a perverted political thinking unbecoming of a democratic polity. This near total bigotry of seemandhra political classis likely to create a political anarchy in the state, if they succeed in stopping Telangana State.
In the division of a state, there can certainly be some issues which need great circumspection and deliberation. It is not for the first time the states are divided and new states are created in the country. There are a whole set of time tested procedures and precedents available as guide lines. There is no need to reinvent ‘the wheel’ to satisfy the unsubstantiated arguments.There is no point for Seemandhras to ask for ministers from Seemandhra to be in the GOM and the GOM to tour the entire Seemandhra region to ascertain their views ‘denovo’. It simply underlines their intention to stymie the formation of Telangana state formation, before the next elections. So that the problem will be there for further coercion and political turmoil, as if the last 10 years political strife affecting the progress of the state is not enough.
The solution lies in the recognition of the aspirations of Telangana people and graciously agreeing to demerger. The GOM comprising of people from different parts of the country can take an unbiased view on the issues and help to come to some equitable decisions, if the process is allowed to run smoothly without acrimony and sabotage. For this, people that matter from both the sides have to work with a spirit of reconciliation and understanding. To get this done,primarily, the Seemandhra people should graciously accept the inevitability of the demerger. All the concerns on both the sides can be amicably settled as was done in the umpteen number of new states created earlier. Separation is unavoidable, given the circumstances obtaining in the state.And it will create peace and prosperity for both the regions. False prestige and phony premises breed contempt and confrontation coming in the way of resolution of mutually important matters.
Let us hope that wisdom dawns in time on their warped up minds to resolve the issue for the good of all Telugu people and pave the way for Telangana State.