J R Janumpalli
Telangana statehood movement has reached to its final stage. The Telangana State Bill is in the A.P. Assembly for its views. The Seemandhras, who were stalling implementation of the Telangana State declaration since 9 December 2009, are now trying to sabotage the T-Bill. They are indulging in uncouth defiance of Indian Constitution. Raising fake objections, making use of their 175 v/s 119 majority in the Assembly they are trying to delay the Bill so that it will not go to the present Parliament. They are loathe to leaving the largesse of Telangana resources and its revenue, which they were enjoying with unreserved relish for the last 57 years.
After the Union cabinet has resolved for the formation of Telangana state, the anti-democratic antics of Seemandhras have reached new heights. All the parties which had endorsed the formation of Telangana state earlier, have now made complete U-turn on Telangana state and are indulging in anti-constitutional conspiracies to defeat the T-Bill. Except TRS all other parties hitch some superfluous riders in the form of concerns of seemandhra to Telangana state. The concerns do not make much sense. They are so nebulous that, it has become like the proverbial description of an elephant byblind men. In actual fact these concerns are all made up intending to delay the T-Bill and stop the formation of Telangana state.
CPI and BJP are expected not to hinder the passage of the Bill in the Parliament. But, it is a different story with Andhra Congress, TDP and YSRCP. They are leaving no stone unturned to stymie the Bill in the Assembly, with the President and in the Parliament. They are inventing weird ways of blocking it. Not only the politicians, paradoxically enough their civil society – Lawyers, Journalists, Academicians, Political analysts et al, also are chipping in with some sneaky ideas, making a mockery of our democracy. They have no regard to principles of democracy,propriety of behavior in Assembly or Parliament and respect to Constitution. Their only twisted paranoia is to defeat T-Bill by hook or by crook and keep Telangana people under their yoke.
At this climactic stage if they succeed in their anti-constitutional effort, they will not gain anything tangible except a vicarious pleasure of defeating the desire of Telangana people for the present. For, Telangana people will never leave it like that. The conflagration will escalate with an offended intensity and the state will slide in to ever increasing disorder. Seemandhras had never recognized the angst of Telangana people and never thought of addressing their legitimate grievances. Their conceit and egocentricity simply did not allow it. They had violated all the central government brokered formulas for reconciliation from time to time with utter disdain.Hence, there is no alternative to the division of the state. The writing on the wall is very clear. The Seemandhra politicians, their intelligentsia should be in a position to read it.But unfortunately they are not doing it. It is a case of collective myopia, an anti-thesis to a pluralistic society in a democracy.
Let us now examine the veracity of their reasons against T-Bill.
Constitution: They say T-state is against constitution.In the T-Bill constitutional procedures are not followed. A state formed on linguistic basis cannot be divided. Article 3 is un constitutional, because it will not take in to consideration the majority view of the people in the state. Article 3 should be amended.
Assembly: State assembly should have the primacy. The state division has to be considered only when the assembly has passed a resolution to that effect. Inearlier divisions of state in many cases there was resolution for the division of the states. That convention has to be followed here.
President: President should take in to account the majority opinion of the people in the state. He should not allow the state division because UPA is dividing the stage for its political gains just before the elections
Procedure: The procedure adopted here is not as per Constitution. It should start from the Assembly. It should be done with an elaborate observation of rules on a scientific basis. There should be a very wider consultation of people, including social activists, employee leaders, and many more stakeholders.
Equal justice: There should be equal justice for both the regions. The division should be undertaken only after sorting out all the contentious and outstanding issues between the two regions. Seemandhra demands are not met in the T-Bill.
Telugu jati: By the division of the state Telugu jati will be divided and its future will be uncertain. Honor of Telugu jati will be compromised.
Employment and education to youth: By the division Seemandhra youth will lose their employment and education opportunities in Hyderabad and they will have no future.
Irrigation water: There will be disputes in irrigation water and Seemandhra will be in loss if the division takes place.Polavaram Project is to be approved in the Bill and Bhadrachalam area to be given to Andhra to complete the project.
Hyderabad city: Hyderabad city belongs to everybody;they will be losing Hyderabad if the division takes place and is not acceptable to them. The revenue from the city should be shared.
Legality: The central government is not following the constitutional provisions correctly.so the division is not legal and it will be challenged in the courts. They will stop the discussion in the assembly but submit sworn affidavits to Speaker, President and Prime Minister, to register their majority in opposing the bifurcation.
These and some more are the incongruous reasons of Andhra congress, Andhra TDP, and YSRCP in opposing T-Bill. The objections raised by these political outfits are superficial and do not stand the test of scrutiny. Creation of new states as per Indian Constitution is the prerogative of Indian Parliament. The reasons for creation can be many, including granting the wishes of minority who are subjected to majority discrimination. As the majority will not allow the aggrieved minority to get separated, here, specifically the majority opinion is not recognized as sine qua non.
It is for the Central government to make the separation as per the provisions of Constitution. The President and the Parliament will examine the constitutionality of the proposed Bill. The legislators in the assembly can discuss and suggest corrections, amendments and express views on the Bill. The central cabinet will consider the suggestions and amendments and make required changes before introduction in the Parliament. The Bill will be debated in the Parliament. Amendments are carried out where ever necessary. Even the Bill can be rejected by the majority vote if the Bill is not as per the Constitution. Therefore Seemandhras raising the bogies of constitution, procedure, legality etc. has no relevance here.
The Telugu language and Telugu jati slogans by Seemandhras sound very hollow. For, Seemandhras never considered Telangana people as their equal in Telugu language or in Telugu identity. They invariably preferred to use Andhra in place of Telugu unless they were obliged to include Telangana people for their political and other reasons. Telangana culture was always ridiculed by them. Anyway, language alone is not the criterion for creating the states as there are many Hindi speaking states. The states formed in 2000 were not based on language either .Then the arguments on Irrigation, education, employment etc. are very motivated. They are intended to hold on to whatever they are enjoying presently and grab more as much as they can in excess to whatever they are eligible. In fact the provisions made in these areas in the T-Bill are very much loaded against the interests of Telangana, and need amendments.
Telangana state is a unique case in the creation of new states in India. It is not carved out of an original state, like many other states. The region was merged with Andhra state which was separated from Madras, its original state, with several statutory conditions original and modified. Thanks to the seemandhra majority all of them without single exception have been violated resulting in irreparable damage politically, economically and culturally to Telangana.Now they are not even prepared to recognize the damage and call it a lie unabashedly. As it is, there is no other way for Telangana people to get liberated from the majority tyranny except taking recourse to Article 3 in Indian constitution. In such a situation leaving the fate of Telangana people to the chauvinistic seemandhra majority will be a heartless travesty of justice.
When Telangana was looted unaccountably, in the last 57 years, in every walk of its life by Seemandhras where is the scope and need for equal justice? Even if Telanganagets separated it can never reclaim some of its inestimable losses like in case of employment, educational seats ,loss of Telangana revenue, irrigation water etc. It will be decades beforeTelangana state finds its moorings as an independent state recovering from the devastating exploitation by seemandhra administration. While the situation is like this the Seemandhras crying for equal justice without any qualms of conscience, makes a weird spectacle.
All Andhra political outfits ‘cry wolf’ on Telangana state and babble that losing Hyderabad will make Andhra state an orphan. Andhra intellectuals say Telugu jati will be ruined by division of state. Common people fed by these false hoods of Seemandhra politicians and their educated elite exhibit uninformed Seemandhra bias and demand Samaikyandhra without regard to the sufferings and identity of Telangana. Even after UPA and NDA have approved Telangana state, and union cabinet resolved and set the constitutional process rolling, they are opposing it with mulish stubbornness. In fact they are displaying an unusual frenzy in trying to block the T-Bill with their fake unconstitutional objections, advertising their collective majority tyranny to whole nation. Telangana state should become a reality not only to emancipate Telangana people from the tyranny of the majority of Seemandhras but also to teach some democratic lessons to this egotistic plutocrats.