the prolonged agitations on the streets of the capital of andhra pradesh --hyderabad has thrown life out of gear...studying at saraswati's @ nampally proximal to the state assembly & ravindra bharati,frequent bandhs due to agitations came to be viewed as a norm than an abberation...poor migrant daily wage labour from fringes of hyderabad city were those who were hit the most as agitations (both the telengana & samaykhya andhra movements) robbed the city of its usual vibrance .while saraswati lib was relatively immune from the agitations , one couldnt ignore the constant lament of an "outsider" student over fall in real estate value in hyderabad & plans of shifting to vishakapatnam or a pointless debate of a pro-telenganaist with a samaykhya andhrite!!.
in a classical case of divided loyalities , i have always been caught in the storm of many such debates!!...while my personal opinion on the issue may seem to be status quoist ,i believe that my aspiration to be a civil servant has prompted me to reason out things in a fairly objective manner.the first question which many of my colleagues asked me was " is a seperate telengana state really needed? "--- for answering this question, one needs to thoroughly verify the arguments of the pro-telengana & samaykhya andhra lobbies on the query.
the pro-telanganaists believe that 60 years of assurances of the united andhra government towards the telengana region have not brought about any remarkable change in the quality of life of the people of telengana...they allege that, the govt has perpetuated inequity in development....the samaykhya andhrites on the other hand argue that any future telengana state would siphon off a major chunk of the industrial base of the present day A.P. (the relatively higher concentration of critical heavy industries in hyderabad,mahbubnagar,medak ,ranga reddy ,nalagonda etc--all telengana districts form a large revenue base for andhra pradesh).this they argue would set back all the development achieved in andhra pradesh in the last 60yrs. futhru the major contentious issue is the question of hyderabad as the capital of telengana.the samykhya andhrites argue that ...they were responsible for pouring in investment over the past six decades into hyderabad ...any division of the state would result in "dadagiri" of the telanganaists on enterpreneurs & property holders from other regions of the state who have settled across generations in the telengana region....they say that , there would be utter lawlessness in hyderabad as pro-telenganaists would indulge in land grabbing & bullying tactics...
while both arguments partially hold merit, what baffles me , is the inability of the successive governments of andhra pradesh to adopt an attitude of equitable development of the telengana region itself...the very strategy of using the barren/fallow telengana lands for industrial development, in order to safe guard the fertile agricultural tracts of the coastal andhra belt itself is flawed in conception.....the cause of the people of telengana for a seperate state , has arisen out the erosion of trust on the govt of andhra pradesh.if telengana region was well developed from within , there would have been no reason for the people to agitate and demand for seperation. the quality of cultivable land has degraded to a great extent in the region.the fact that the region falls in the rainshadow region hasn't helped it a bit....the people of telengana are a disgruntled lot , constant refferal to telengana people as "modhunaayaalu"(dim-witted people) has transformed the telengana movement into a quest for identity...so in any case be it equitable development, social indicators or identity ,the telengana people have been oppressed to a great extent & their cause is a genuine one.
however, having said that, we need to examine whether the feasibility of formation of a seperate state.the formation of telengana would not satisfy regional aspirations of the people(as proclaimed by the TRS & the JAC)...as the newly formed state would not be fully equipped to provide employment to all the youth who have been starved of employment opportunities...the sustainance of the current movement ,stems from the relentless support from the students of osmania & kakatiya universities...if any future government of the newly formed state fails to deliver on the promise plank it has ridden on, it would plunge the region back into chaos.when the agitations began, there were reports circulated in the media about intense mobilisation of the maoists to infiltrate the student ranks & part take in violent agitations to serve their own agenda....such a case could become a norm if a separate telengana government fails to address the needs of the employed youth. the Maoist top brass may have already sniffed at an prospective oppurtunity!!.
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