Articles
A Poser to Samaikyandhra Leaders
Dt: 22/1/14
A Poser to Samaikyandhra Leaders
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
It is astonishing that various leaders of Samaikyandhra movements are not seeing the writing on the wall, namely, the inevitability of the division of A.P and formation of the Telengana State. The Congress party in 1940s went blind to the imminent and inevitable partition of the country and there by invited horrible communal riots and large scale uprooting of people from their homes and hearts. If the Samaikya leaders really believe in the unity and brotherhood of the Telugu speaking people and sincerely believe that the division will be harmful even to Telengana then, instead of holding rallies, strikes, bandhs shut downs and so on in Seemandhra and inciting the Seemandhra people, they should tour the Telengana districts and explain to their brother Telugu speaking peoples there the advantages of preserving the state as it is. Why don’t Samaikya leaders, who invoke the principle of “linguistic states”, demand to the merger of Yanam, Krishnagiri, Kolar and Berhampur in A.P?
2. Whom are the Samaikyandhra strikes and bandhs for weeks on end hurting ? Power is shut down in Seemandhra but is available in Telengana during these strikes. The industries and businesses in Seemandhra closed down. Whose is the loss? Schools and colleges are shut down. Which students will suffer? Everything is normal in Telengana and Hyderabad. The hurt and loss because of the Samaikyandhra movement are in that area and for those people.
3. Instead of inflicting pain upon themselves and inflaming the people against Telengana leaders, Samaikya leaders ought to spell out the assistance and assurances that the Union Government and the Telengana leaders and parties should give to the Seemandhra state to be.
4. Also, in view of the incipient desire and fledgling movement for a separate Rayalaseema state, the leaders of coastal andhra and Rayalaseeema should sit together and decide whether they want to be in one state and what adjustments and understandings
should be there in regard to the location of various offices and institutions and industreis. If there is no agreement between the leaders of costal area on the one side and leaders of Rayalaseema on the other, would it not be better that the Union government instead of bifurcation, should propose trifurcation of the state?
5. Is two or three-state division the only solution to the differing aspirations of the Telugu people? Not necessarily. Successive governments of A.P blundered by undertaking all development in one city, Hyderabad. Should Telengana continue that blunder? Can Hyderabad Metropolitan Development area be another state with a population of about one crore, more than that of J&K, Himachal, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Goa and Puducheri? Can Warangal, the famous Kakatiya empire’s capital, be once again the capital of Telengaa, so that Telengana would have two major developed metropolises? Coastal Andhra will have Visakhapatnam and Rayalaseema will have Tirupati as emerging modern metros.
6. It is widely known that the main concern of the Seemandhra leaders is the status of Hyderabad and the prospects of the Seemandhra people and their businesses in and around Hyderabad. Instead of plainly telling the truth, why should they agitate for the continuance of Samaikyandhra, which like united India ( without partition and Pakistan ) was impossible? The stubborn will and violent actions of Muslims all over India ensured the partition of the country. The will for a separate Telengana and the movement for it which has been surfacing now and then but suppressed in a short time earlier, have been continuously gaining strength since the year 2000 when the TRS was launched just like the demand for Pakistan gained irresistible force among Muslims after the Pakistan resolution of 1940. The leaders of the Samaikyandhra movement would do well to read the history of India from the Khilafat movement of 1919-21 onwards till the murderous partition of the country and the irreconcilable hostility between India and Pakistan thereafter.
George Santayana the great historian, philosopher said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
7. It appears unlikely that A.P would be restructured before the General Elections, 2014. The interval can therefore be utilised to deliberate upon the issues raised here and decisions taken democratically with least dissatisfaction to many.
(700 words)
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