Those of us who have been following the Telengana
story for the past few years will have mixed feelings about the creation of the
state, particularly about the methods adopted by the ruling dispensation to do
so. Sometimes, I wonder if India is really a democracy or not.
There are several pockets in India where the residents
feel that their culture, language or way of life is being ridden roughshod over
by the majority population. In some cases, it is also a situation of the area
being neglected in terms of development or distribution of revenue, despite
that area being a positive contributor. I personally feel that anyone who is
feeling oppressed enough to seek a separate state should be given an
opportunity to state their case, and if practical they must not be denied the
right, especially in face of objections by the majority group
or oppressors.
This is the analogy that makes sense. I see this as a
case of one of the children in a family complaining that he is feeling
claustrophobic while sharing a room with a domineering older / bigger
/ meddling brother and needs a space to call his own. Any parent that
would like to see all their kids get the best opportunities to grow and blossom
should have no objection to such a request. Why should the people of Seemandhra
have any say in this matter? The resolution in the state assembly rejecting the
motion of a separate state, is akin to the domineering older brother having a
right to veto the separate room request of the oppressed younger brother,
is it not?
Ideally, the best solution is a Referendum carried out
only in the area that is seeking a separate state, and open only to the
residents living there. Unfortunately, India is a poor Democracy and does not
have any legal provision for the same, nor does it have a clean record on this
issue. To understand the views of a few more people, I recently posted the
following Status Update on my Facebook Wall and requested my friends to
respond. This turned out to be a very interesting discussion, and I thank my
friends for their active contributions. Please see an extract of the same
below:
Hemanth Sharma
February 10 near Malleswaram
I'm really perplexed with all this brow beating and
dramatics on the Telengana issue. Why should some folks have an objection if
some other folks want a separate state? It is after all, going to remain within
the Indian Union and unquestioningly bow before the Indian Constitution,
right?
An apt analogy is a parent getting a request from one
of their two kids that he wants to have a separate room, because he wants to
put up posters of his favorite bands, paint the walls in his happy colors and
listen to his kind of music, without having to constantly live according to the
dictates of his bossy older brother, with whom he has uncomfortably shared a
room for 60 years!
Which parent will object to such a request? Also, why
will the 'bossy older brother' in this case, even have a say in this matter? It
really beats me!! Anyone sees this the way I do? Please write in!!
Sharath C. Srinivas From what little I
have heard from my Telugu friends - it apparently is all about Hyderabad, the
crown jewel, as that is where a lot of the wealth and power is. It is like one
brother wanting to keep the big screen TV in his room.
Ramnath Venkateshwaran It's more complex
all of big brothers friends use and claim the room and younger brother is made
to sit outside like ..aatak untu lekhak..illa.. (a Kannada saying
that means you can play with us if you want, but your score will not count).
Ramya Ramnath The brother should
also learn to share the room if needed. In this case, Telengana wants all
the Andhra people to leave that’s not fair!!
Hemanth Sharma Thanks, Ramnath,
Ramya & Sharath for continuing to use the ‘separate room’ analogy. If
it is about Hyderabad, so what if it is in another State? Seemandhra investors
in Hyderabad will continue to own what they already do, and are legally free to
invest more in Telengana. So what’s the risk? There’s more to it than meets the
eye!
Praveen Paul So let Hyderabad
remain a "twin state capital". Chandigarh has benefited so profitably
from such bigamy....:0
Sharath C. Srinivas The risk is about
losing the clout and the influence, as non Telangana politicians will be
outsiders and won't get a piece of the pie. A major portion of the corporate
gain in Hyderabad gets shared with those in influential positions, and
outsiders won't be welcome to the grand party next (bedroom) door.
Hemanth Sharma Sharath, this is
what one hears, but it doesn't make sense. Most of the investors in Bangalore
are not Bangalorians and they face no issues in enjoying their properties. Why
should an Andhra investor be worried about his investment in Hyderabad? His
rights are protected by the rule of law, is it not?
Hemanth Sharma Praveen, actually,
the situation is ideal for the development of a new, modern and high tech
capital city for Andhra. They should take the opportunity to create more gold
plated real estate, more industries and businesses.
Sharath C. Srinivas Rule of law? ,
and it will take a few generations to create another city equivalent to
Hyderabad. The same issue exists all over, even here in the state of New York,
the vast majority of the tax revenue comes from NYC, and the rest of the state
is actually poor, even by US standards. 75% of the state of Georgia's tax
revenue comes from Metro Atlanta, and the rest of the state is very poor, by
global standards.
Anand Srinivasan Agree with you.
Looks like both sides want Hyderabad as part of their state, as it is the
largest cash cow.
Hemanth Sharma Anand and Sharath,
The protests are apparently not anything about the revenue that Hyderabad that
generates for the state, as the Central Government will handhold the new state
for 10 years. It actually seems like a more self-centered objection as considerable
personal wealth seems to be at stake. Where is the national interest in that?
Praveen Paul Show me the
money...Or as they say in Tamil...kai le kasai...wai le dosai.. (one eats well if one has soiled ones’ hands
by working hard).
Hemanth Sharma Thanks, Praveen. If all
the Seemandhra protesters stop trying to be holier than thou (“we want our
homeland to be united” farce) and admit that they are actually protecting their
own personal wealth, they would be so much more believable.
Raghuveer Rao Let the people
decide ...have a referendum.
Hemanth Sharma Raghuveer, there's
a catch to this, unfortunately. India being a Representative Democracy, the
people are expected to leave all the decision making to their elected leaders,
and there is no genuine precedent for a referendum. However, in this case, I
agree that it may be the best tool to gauge public sentiment and must be tried.
Of course, a referendum must be carried out only in
the districts that make up Telengana and not across the state. To return to my
original analogy, it will not be fair if the bossy older sibling is given a
right to veto the request of the younger for a separate room!
Hemanth Sharma Praveen, Sharath,
Anand and Raghuveer I shortly would be writing a blog article using this
discussion. Thanks for your views.
Chris Anand We have enough
division in the name of diversity. This stereotyping is handed down through
generations and I can tell u that some have been passed down from my late
grandparents to me as well. Hopefully education and a world view will break
that chain and we can expect a more unified India one or two generations from
now.
Hemanth Sharma Chris, going back
to my original analogy, how do you address the claustrophobia that the younger
sibling feels? Should a parent not ensure that his personality also gets as
much chance to shine as the older sibling?
The central issue here is that one bunch of people
feel that their culture and their opportunities are being overshadowed by the
dominant bunch. Is a common language a sufficient bond? Apparently, not.
Raghava Gopi Krishna See, it is more a
political game to mislead people. People of AP have seen their worst government
in last 10 years, and AP which is known as the Food Bowl of India, but during
this government, which claims to be farmer friendly, farmers have even declared
a ‘crop holiday’, which is unprecedented. Lack of governance takes a big toll
on job creation and Hyderabad is suffering.
The only one thing that happened well is the loot, at
a never before scale, where an Ex. CM’s son is implicated in scams of 50k Crores.
This is a record in itself. Now just as it did in 2009, the ruling party and
its cronies are out to fool the People by getting some new flags (political
parties) that will eventually merge with some or other party for their personal
gain.
Things will change only when people became more
rational than emotional, besides creating state will only increase non plan
expenditure for both states as it will have 2 Governments and all their usual
excesses, which the poor people have to foot.
Raghuveer Rao In 1948, Junagarh
joined India based on a plebiscite. So there is precedence.
The problem with representative democracy is that
elected representatives from other states, who may or may not have any sense of
sentiments on the ground effectively get to decide the fate of the people.
Hemanth Sharma Raghava and Raghuveer,
excellent points. However, what I meant was that there is no legislation that
mandates referendums and also, India has not covered itself in glory while
using this route. 99% of the residents of Nagaland apparently voted for
independence, but India overruled them and annexed the state. A referendum
carried out in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which were Portuguese colonies, on the
question of whether they want to join India was apparently never even published,
and other such inconsistencies.
Perhaps a genuine referendum, that is carried out only
in Telengana will accurately measure the mood of the people. I’m fully
supportive of such a move.
A similar exercise is being carried out for the grant
of possible independence to Scotland from the UK. If the referendum is
extended to all UK residents instead of just Scotland, I wouldn't be surprised
if the independence motion is defeated. Since it would be confined to the
people of Scotland alone, I'm expecting a new nation to be born soon.
It would be ideal if we did the same here. But as
Raghava says, perhaps we are too corrupt and politically sleazy as a nation to
do the right thing. We definitely need to learn a thing or two from our former
colonial masters!
