By: Syed Amin Jafri
It is 10 weeks since Telangana state came into being. However, it is now becoming increasingly clear that what the then UPA government delivered, with the BJP acting as a midwife in the Parliament, is a Telangana with congenital defects.
The AP Reorganisation Act, as enacted by the Parliament, contains many provisions that go against the interests of Telangana and compromise its status as a full-fledged state of the Indian Union.
The no-holds-barred rows witnessed between Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh on various issues in the last few weeks bring out the lacunae that were embedded in the hastily-drafted Reorganisation Act that was rushed through the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in February this year.
The latest missive from the ministry of home affairs, entrusting wider powers to the common governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over law and order and other matters pertaining to the common capital of Hyderabad, is bound to create lot of friction between TRS government in Telangana and the BJP-led NDA regime at the Centre.
The TDP government in AP is also likely to come out fully in support of the Centre’s stand. The MHA order adds fuel to the fire since the NDA government promulgated an ordinance for transferring seven mandals in Khammam district of Telangana to residuary AP and passed an amendment to the Reorganisation Act to this effect in the Parliament recently.
While resisting the pressures of Seemandhra lobby (consisting of the then chief minister and council of ministers, legislators, union ministers, MPs and leaders of political parties from that region), the Congress high command was always eager to address their concerns even if this adver sely affected Telangana.
Instead of `Sampurna’ Telangana, what we got is a state with d fetters wrapped around its body politic.
The then UPA government implanted `Trojan horses’ in the Reorganisation Act through Sections 5 (1), 7, 8 (1,2,3,4) which have the effect of severely restricting the autonomy of Telangana state vis-à-vis the residuary state of AP.
These sections are patently adverse to the interests of Telangana as they run counter to the provisions of the Constitution and also the rights confer red on all the other states of t the Indian Union.
The fatal flaws in the Act are: `common capital’ for 10 years, common governor for f both states and the `special responsibility’ cast upon , the governor in relation to law and order and security of life, liberty and property of non-Telangana residents in the common capital area.
The political parties or groups that supported the statehood demand for Telangana could not assert themselves before the GOM and in the Parliament to force the then UPA government to drop the adverse provisions contained in the Reorganisation Bill with the result that the deformities and defects incorporated in the Act have become a `fait accompli’ for Telangana, much to the resentment of the people of the new state.
There is no other way for Telangana except to confront the central government and exert pressure to drop the controversial provisions from the Reorganisation Act.
N Chandrababu Naidu, who set a record as the CM with the longest tenure in erstwhile united AP and is presently serving as the first chief minister of truncated AP, quips that “Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are not like India and Pakistan“ but he forgets that no other state in India and no country in the world has its capital in the territory of the other.
Residuary Andhra Pradesh has the dubious distinction of not having its capital in its own territory now. Then, it is the only major state to share its governor with another state. It does not behoove the stature of Naidu to indulge in brinkmanship to spite Telangana, since his party has its presence in the new state.
There are many other adverse provisions in the Reorganisation Act, such as the common high court for the two states, sharing of assets and liabilities, staff and All India Service officers, institutions and bodies listed in Tenth Schedule, irrigation waters and power projects and continuance of Article 371 D and common admission process in educational institutions.
The schedules appended to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act also contain many anomalies and defects. These are going to persist unless the Telangana state fights back.
Source: Times of India