Telengana's turn

After more than three decades, the movement for statehood gains ground in the Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh.

THE movement for a separate State of Telengana has been revived after three decades, spurred by the creation of three States - Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh - last year by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Discontent over the perceived neglect of the Telengana region is growing and the question now is will the movement snowball into a political storm?

Spearheading the movement is the Telengana Rastra Samithi (TRS), founded by former Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly K. Chandrasekhara Rao, who left the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) following differences with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The TRS received a boost with its Simha garjana (roar of a lion) rally in Karimnagar on May 17 receiving enthusiastic popular support. Announcing the TRS' agenda at the rally, Chandrasekhara Rao held the TDP government responsible for the crisis faced by farmers, weavers and other poorer sections of society in the Telengana region. The tribal people of Adilabad district fell victim to diseases for want of basic medicare and the Lambadas sold away their infants owing to abject poverty, he pointed out.

Citing an instance of discrimination against Telengana, he said that while the TDP used its clout with the Centre to prevent the closure of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, it did nothing to stop the closure the unit of the Fertilizer Cor-poration of India Limited (FCI) at Ramagundam in Karim-nagar district.

Chandrasekhara Rao asserted that the current movement was different from the one witnessed in 1969 in that the agitation leaders then betrayed the people and joined the Congress. "If anyone of us stray from the path of achieving a separate Telengana, stone us," he told the crowd.

The political profile of Rao has soared after he gave up the post of Deputy Speaker and resigned from the House to espouse the cause of Telengana. So much so that he challenged Chandrababu Naidu to contest against him from the Siddipet constituency in Medak district. The TRS is busy forming village and district-level committees to organise its activities more effectively.

Congress(I) legislators from Teleng-ana have come out openly in favour of statehood and begun to exert pressure on the party's central leadership. The Telengana Congress Legislators Forum, floated by senior MLA V. Purushotam Reddy, has threatened to sit as a separate bloc in the Assembly if its demand is conceded by the party high command.

A convention organised by it in Hyderabad, however, turned out to be a flop. Congressmen are apparently worried about losing ground to the TRS in the region.

The BJP had promised statehood for Telengana in its 1998 election manifesto but fought the election in alliance with the TDP in the 1999 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The central leadership has apparently prevailed upon State BJP leaders to observe restraint on the sensitive issue. This leaves the TDP as the only major political party on the side of an undivided State of Andhra Pradesh. However, the Com-munist parties, whose support base in the State has somewhat diminished, have always stood for a 'Visaal Andhra'.

Advocates of a separate Telengana argue that the denial of statehood to the region is irrational, illogical and unjust. They hope that the NDA government will ultimately give in to pressures in favour of carving out a Telengana State.

The TDP has taken an unequivocal stand that development of backward areas, including Telengana, is possible only in an integrated State. Resenting the whipping up of regional sentiments by "vested interests" for "political gains", Chandrababu Naidu said Telengana remained backward for historical reasons and that its backwardness had not come about overnight. His government could not be blamed as there were no instant solutions to its problems, he said. For the last six years, untiring efforts were made to develop the backward areas, he claimed. Listing out the advantages of a united State, the Chief Minister said Hyderabad was fast emerging as an international city with an international airport while development ports in other regions would serve the entire State.

The government spent Rs.1,400 crores on the Sriramsagar Project (SRSP), which would irrigate 9.25 lakh acres in Telengana, the Chief Minister said. Having a larger contingent of Members of Parliament from the State would also help us bargain for more benefits from the Centre, he argued.

Meanwhile, the euphoria whipped up by the TRS in the 10 Telengana districts (Medak, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, Ranga Reddy and Sanga Reddy) has helped it attract second- and third-line functionaries of the Congress(I), the BJP and other parties into its fold. The immediate plan of action of the TRS to further the cause of Telengana includes participation in the elections to the Panchayat Raj bodies scheduled for the end of July. Its leaders are drawing up an elaborate strategy as the future of the fledgling organisation would depend on the impact it can make in these elections.

The TRS also hopes to emerge as a force to reckon with in the event of a round of early elections to the Lok Sabha. "We will win all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the region," Chandrasekhar Rao claimed at the Karimnagar rally.

Having created three new States in North India, the BJP leadership in the State is hard-put to explain its post-election silence on Telengana. It is under pressure from its own ranks to announce its stand in favour of a Telengana State and pursue its promise to its logical conclusion.

"Telengana is very much on our agenda," said A.P. Jitender Reddy, BJP MP from Mahabubnagar. He and Dr. Ravindranath Reddy, MLA from Alampur, called on Chandrasekhara Rao and conveyed their support to the movement. But the predicament of the party is understandable as it is unwilling to antagonise the TDP (whose support is crucial for the survival of the NDA government) with any initiative on the Telengana front.

Union Minister of State for Urban Development Bandaru Dattatreya summed up the party's position on the issue: "We promised statehood for Telengana during the elections. We did not secure an absolute majority in the elections. Telengana will become a reality when the BJP is able to implement its own agenda and not that of the NDA."

R. Papa Rao, Congress MLA, and Santosh Reddy, a former Congress Minister, have joined the TRS movement. A handful of former legislators and MPs and an ex-Speaker of the Assembly, G. Narayana Rao, are helping Chandrasekhara Rao consolidate the new organisation.

The TRS vows to achieve its goal through "constitutional and peaceful means". During the movement of 1969, the ire of the agitators was directed against "settlers" from the Andhra region. However, the organisers of the current movement do not harbour any ill-will against those who have settled in the region. "Let us separate as friends" is the new slogan.

The stalling of work on the Pulichintala project at Nemalipuri village in Nalgonda district by four Congress MLAs and their supporters illustrates the mood of the agitators. The project, a balancing reservoir, is planned to submerge 35,000 acres of land in Telengana in order to stabilise the Krishna delta, which mostly falls in the Andhra region. Despite the official justification for the project the TRS has called for a suspension of the project work.

Regretting the stand taken by the TRS and Congress(I) on Pulichintala project, the Chief Minister explained that it would in fact benefit Telengana with an additional share of 35 tmc ft of water from the Krishna for projects in the region.