Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Welcome, Telangana!

The people have won.  Against all odds.  Against money.  Against hegemony.  Most importantly, against the tyranny of the majority.  Today, CWC and UPA have announced they are ready to create Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital. 

For a moment, a brief moment though, India restores faith of its people in democracy. 

This is a momentous occasion for people of Telangana.  A historic decision unlike anything it has seen in the last sixty years.  While India got its freedom in 1947, Telangana gets its freedom in 2013.

Though Telangana was merged into Indian Union in 1948 it never experienced freedom and self-rule. The promises made by Jawaharlal Nehru in his speech on night before Independence in 1947 and the guarantees made in Indian Constitution of 1950 were never applicable to people of Telangana.  They remained subjugated and suppressed in their own country, stripped of their political freedoms, through the tyranny of majority.  They were converted into an internal colony within a democratic setup.

Today’s decision is a sigh of relief for all of us, but a brief one, before we set onto the task of bringing political freedom, social emancipation and prosperity to our people.  Now, we have to embark on building Telangana in a political atmosphere which is free from Seemandhra domination.   We shall feel for the first time the taste of self-rule.  And this occasion, while it calls for celebration, also calls for sobriety.  Because now that Telangana will be delivered, it is time to keep up the promises made to people of Telangana.   It calls for utmost responsibility, because there are nearly 35 million people who have very high expectations on how the new state is going to be.

The current decision to announce Telangana by Congress could be a ploy to contain the political parties like TRS and YSRCP, a political maneuver taken for political gains.  For four long years, the same Congress party refused to pay attention to the struggles of millions of Telangana people who have participated in thousands of protests and rallies, carrying out hundreds of major agitations, wherein nearly thousand people sacrificed their lives.

It is indeed sad that India has not demonstrated political maturity in dealing with aspirations of peoples through proper democratic means and methods, and instead it has curbed such movements as long as possible, only to grant the statehood when it made political sense for the ruling parties.

We hope that in future, people of other regions in India, who suffer from the tyranny of the majority, do not have to go through so much struggle and pain as people of Telangana have gone through in the last sixty years.  We hope that there are no more of saga of betrayals, the delaying tactics of commissions and committees, the brutal suppression of people's movements through armed forces, imposition of emergency like situation, and curtailing of freedom of expression, when it comes to creation of new states.

We believe and support in creation of more states in India and extend our full support to those people’s struggles.

11 comments:

  1. When it comes to Telangana you reasoning is gone, you are biased. You numbers are manipulated. The problems are not related with state division. You need to find solution to the problems you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sujai,

    Welcome to TG.

    Intestingly in the last few days, Seemandhra leaders were making statements augmenting the need for a separate TG State. They were saying that they are concerned about Water sharing. If the current water sharing between the different areas of AP is fair, why should they really be concerned ? Also, Seema leaders are concerned that people from Andhra will dominate people from Seema. As long TG is a punching bag, they are ok but suddenly they are worried about Andhra domination.

    /
    Sridhar

    ReplyDelete
  3. In actuality, though this is a welcome change, it would be a greater challenge ahead for T folks. All along, they have a single aim of achieving statehood. Now, they would not have an aim - so, to remain focused amidst the sympathy wave new AP is going to ride against is close to impossible. Center all along could suppress, in a way, hegemony of Andhra with the bait of NOT granting Telangana. Now, they have nothing to stop them. Inter-state rivalries are much more difficult to fight. All the best Telangana.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who said our aim is just to attain the statehood. Our leaders are continuously saying that after attaining the statehood, it is our responsibility to make the state one of the leading in the country in terms of education, employment, agriculture, industrial and many other factors. Not only that, a small state helps many people to think whether they are on the right track of choosing the leaders. After all, the democracy has given us a choice to change the leadership for every five years if we don't like the leaders.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, if I had given an irrelevant reply

      Delete
  4. Congratulations on the new state. I hope this spurs development in the previously neglected Telangana region. Smaller states may help in better governance.

    It is unfortunate that people in Andhra region are protesting the break, but hopefully, they will soon realize why Telangana is celebrating and why it is better to be friendly neighbors instead of resenting Telangana.
    This may also help further develop cities like Ongole, Vijayawada etc (and one of them could potentially become the new capital of Seemandhra)That will be good for Seemandhra.

    Ram (in TN)

    ReplyDelete
  5. My thoughts posted at: http://bit.ly/16CQ6FT

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats to us :-)
    Sujai, You did a great job in writing so many articles touching every discussion point that comes up in explaining the reasons behind Telangana state to ppl. I certainly did refer ppl to your blog when I ran out of breath :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sujai: Let me first congratulate you & other bloggers for the role in the Telangana movement.

    On a different note, I have started a series of posts on the subject of Telangana river waters, irrigation & agriculture. I plan to post a couple of posts every week for the next few months. This series represents a detailed study over the past year on the subject.

    Sorry for advertising on your blog. I do this only because it is likely to be interesting to you & your visitors.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 30 July, a black day in the history of India and Andhra Pradesh. People like this author doesn't know the real facts. They sit in A/C rooms and writes all there non-sense as they are really involved the agitation. Certainly the decision by Central Govt will impact country very badly.
    FYI, Mr Sujai, Mrs Sonia Gandhi has not declared the state for your agitations and demands. She wants her son to be Prime Minister after 2014. She makes use of ignorants like you. Telangana may celebrate and enjoy the fruits brought by Seemandhra, but after 5 years, Telangana will become another state begging for food and water. THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY INDIA, TELANGANA WAS GRANTED THOUGH BY MONARCH GANDHI FAMILY. CERTAINLY, THIS NOT WIN OF DEMOCRACY. THIS IS WIN OF FOOLISHNESS AND SELFISHNESS.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You don't have guts to accept our comments, because you don't have answers for your questions.

    ReplyDelete

Dear Commenters:
Please identify yourself. At least use a pseudonym. Otherwise there will be too many *Anonymous*; making it confusing.

Do NOT write personal information or whereabouts about the author or other commenters. You are free to write about yourself. Please do not use abusive language. Do not indulge in personal attacks and insults.

Write comments which are relevant and make sense so that the debate remains healthy.