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Telengana

Posted on December 12, 2009 by vivin

I was reading the BBC on Thursday and was surprised to find that India is going to create a new southern state out of the existing state of Andra Pradesh. I knew that at least one new state had been created in the last decade (the actual number is 3: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand). I didn't think much of it, but my interest was piqued and so I read the article. To be completely honest, I don't have a strong opinion on the subject, except for one thing: Hyderabad is going to be the capital of the new state. Hyderabad is a very important Indian city. It's kind of like an Indian Silicon Valley and several Fortune 500 companies have their offices there. It's a prosperous, modern, and hi-tech city.

Now some background. After reading the article about Telengana on Wikipedia, it seems that when the states of India were being re-organized along linguistic lines by the State Reorganization Committee, they were not in favor of merging the Telengana region with the Andra region due to economical disparities. The Central government decided to ignore the SRC recommendations and performed the merger anyway (perhaps using the reason that both areas spoke Telugu, and so there was no reason to split them). As was to be expected, over the past few decades, the Andra region has prospered whereas the Telengana region is still economically underdeveloped.

It would seem that in principle, there needs to be a separate state. However, I'm not so sure of the wisdom of handing over Hyderabad to a fledgling state. It will take time to create a new state-machinery and I think that Hyderabad could suffer in the process. In addition, the city is going to a state with an untested and nascent administration (obviously, because it's a brand new state). So... maybe not such a great idea. On the general topic of creating more states in India (as a result of the imminent creation of Telengana, many other groups are agitating for their own states) I don't really have a well-formed opinion. Maybe it's a good thing - you can have more focused state-administrations and better management. However, the side-effect is increased fragmentation. The last few governments in India have been coalition governments formed with the support of regional parties. Creating more states is probably going to create even more regional parties and it's not going to help the situation.

5 thoughts on “Telengana”

  1. Vishwajith says:
    December 13, 2009 at 1:33 am

    Actually three parts of Andhra are the Telangana region, the Rayalseema region and coastal Andhra. The Rayal seema area is naxal affected and Telangana region is economically backward except Hyderabad. Coastal Andhra is the most flourished and most developed of all the regions and all the wealth from the Telangana region comes to the mighty lobbyists of Coastal Andhra. This is the reason there is strict protest from the politicians from Coastal Andhra on the formation of Telangana. Also I support Viv’s statement that Hyderabad should be put in Coastal Andhra only, if the indstrialists have to get enough resources and support.

    Reply
  2. vivin says:
    December 13, 2009 at 9:50 am

    @Vishwajith
    Thanks for the additional information Vishwajith! Yeah, I think Hyderabad should stay with coastal Andra Pradesh.

    Reply
  3. Kalyan says:
    December 14, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    Well, the movement for creating a new Telangana state is not new but unfortunately for the people of that region there was not a single leader that could realize their dream of carving out a state. So far the leaders who headed the movement during its history got sold to other parties (mainly the congress). There is no doubt socio-economic backwardness is how you can characterize this region, but 50 years is a pretty good spread of time for anyone to realize something tangible has to be done. But none of the past and the current leaders of the state seem to take a deep interest in developing that region. The answer to the question of development doesn’t lie in bifurcation but in the mindset of the politicians. Its possible that a new state is formed and the region still remains poverty ridden. Unless, the leaders take up the task of development you would still see this region that way it had been.

    Reply
  4. vivin says:
    December 14, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    @Kalyan
    That’s a good point. The area can’t develop if the politicians don’t make any effort. Previously it seemed like there was no incentive for the Andra politicians since they had the mandate of the (coastal) Andra section. But I think the new administration (of Telengana) will be held accountable if the state doesn’t succeed.

    Reply
  5. Kalyan says:
    December 15, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Another point to be made is that, people from Andhra and Rayalaseema seem to pretty much make the epicenter of the powerful political, industrial, film lobby. The reason you see all these guys rush to have a United Andhra is not because they love the state, because they will loose a strategic geographical edge in the state and multiple crores of money buried in real estate.
    #1 The filmy group is very apprehensive because all the activity is done in and around Hyderabad.
    #2 The political group is very much fearful because one of the major rivers (Godavari) flows through this region which means big time fight for water.
    #3 The worst to get hit will be the IT industry which again is in Hyderabad.

    Like it or not, the government of India made a blunder in announcing the bifurcation and believe it or not Hyderabad had been part of Telangana ever since its birth. The nearest border to the Andhra region is about 100 k.m from Hyderabad. So its going to be a messy life for people in that part of the world in the foreseeable future.

    As it has always been, the most affected will be the common man.

    Reply

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