The Land Of Telugus

It’s been so long since I brought myself before ‘wordpress’ and I never expected that I would come back with this as my next entry subject!

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[For those who don’t know, my friend Vishnu is an amazingly adorable software geek. His gentle and sometimes vibrant multimedia skills are just awesome and widely appreciated in our group back in college days. He expressed couple of his opinions in a very elaborate way about ‘the state of my state’ (http://vishspeak.blogspot.com/2009/12/state-of-my-state.html) and it is recommended to go through his blog  before you make time to listen to what I got to say coz most of the following is in reply to his observations. It is A-okay even if chose to directly jump on to my lines.]

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You should first know couple of things about what I believe and what I don’t before you further scroll down in to this page. This is strongly suggested coz this will only help you to understand what is discoursed below in an un-biased perspective. Well, if you think you already know enough of me (or probably more than necessary ), skip the next 10 lines.

a. I strongly believe in the world with no physical boundaries. I consider myself as a World Citizen before anything else. If given a choice, I would merrily erase all the boundaries of the world and would ask everyone to live in World together (highly improbable, I know!.

b. I cannot remain a spectator when there is any kind of injustice happening around (and sometimes, anywhere in the world) and would do anything and everything in my power to stop any type of discrimination happening to my fellow citizens of the world.

c. I do not identify any individual based on their region of birth, religion, caste or color. Coz I myself do not perceive any of those to be important enough.

There may be many other things that you would want to know, but let’s stop with these for now.

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Now, let me just mention some of the distortions my friend made to the history in his blog. (Very Imp. Note: All the sentences that are italicized and made bold in the following pages are directly taken from my friend’s blog)

..In 1969 when 36 GO was issued, ordering the transfer of 25,000 non-Telangana employees, who were posted in the Telangana regions, the Andhra movement take (sic.) shape. The supreme court (sic.) stepped in and nullified the order…

The then State government issued a government order (G.O. 36) in January 1969 repatriating nearly 25,000 non-local employees illegally appointed in Telangana. When this was challenged in SC, the Apex Court declared the G.O (or Mulki Rules – G. O. 36 is implementation of a 1919 firman by the Nizam, which said only “Mulkis” were eligible for public appointments in Telangana. A Mulki was one who was born in the region or had resided there continuously for 15 years and had given an affidavit abandoning the idea of returning to his/her native place) to be valid and in force.  The Supreme Court judgment was nullified in 1973 by an Act of Parliament, and a Six Point formula was drafted guaranteeing “adequate preference to local candidates in admissions to educational institutions” but “subject to the requirements of the State as a whole”. Similarly, local candidates would be preferred “…to specified extent in the matter of direct recruitment for certain posts”. A tribunal was to be constituted to deal with grievances regarding appointments, seniority and promotion. Needless to say that those words (‘adequate preference…’ etc) remained as hollow as ever since then!

…The Capital city of Hyderabad was built over a period of 50 years with effort and revenue of all the three regions… Now if the city goes into Telangana state, the region of Andhra or Rayalaseema stands to lose all their effort and work…

The city of Hyderabad was built over a period of 500 years. The city was richest and the largest among the princely states of India (i.e., before 1947). It is after centuries of its grand existence that the territories of the State of Hyderabad were divided between newly created Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai state (later Maharashtra), and Karnataka on 1 November 1956. Telugu speaking areas of Hyderabad state also known as Telangana (including Hyderabad city) were merged with Telugu speaking state of Andhra state to create to Andhra Pradesh. Thus, Hyderabad became the capital city of the new state of Andhra Pradesh. My point is what is perceived as ‘development’ in Hyderabad is only consequential effects of its grandeur existence, not an overnight bubble. This is to be understood properly especially in the light of many theories floating around suggesting that the Hyderabad now we see (or live in) is in her sublime high only coz of what has been done to her in the past 10 years.

Moreover, any kind of revenue is invested anywhere (especially when it is by private parties) only when there are returns expected. You would risk investing far from your home only when there is high probability of huge returns. That is exactly the thing that was done with investments in Hyderabad. It is a well known fact that those investments, in this case, got multiplied by many numbers because of the obvious reasons. Still, there’s no one who is asking anybody to leave everything and go back! Anybody is free to keep the revenues invested in Hyderabad and watch them multiply more but not at the cost of region losing its own revenue. Please note that the development that has taken place in and around the capital city, after the formation of Andhra Pradesh, is natural and is comparable to the development that has taken place in other major cities of the country.

Also, what would you say if British argued in 1947 that all the investments (oh yes, they made hell lot of investments in their 200 yrs of colonial rule) that were made in India before 1947 were actually to develop and make India prosper? What would you say if Britain demanded to take back all that could be taken back from India when they were leaving coz, it was after all their investment? This might look like an exaggerated analogy but holds true in every manner! Some XYZ comes Hyderabad and gets amazed to find its richness (just like the way when British entered India long ago). He brings over the surplus left over at home and invests it (like the way British brought their soldiers). He slowly makes everything own and tries owning others’ own too (British founded East India Co. and spread it across the country). He builds couple of buildings for his own convenience and creates more revenue out of them (British built couple of rail tracks calling it ‘development’ but actually meant to make their exploitation more convenient). He claims to have ‘developed’ Hyd now (like the way British claims that they built modern India!)!! It should be noted that this analogy stands valid only for those few whose actual interests lay upon squeezing Hyd for their own wicked interests not for everyone who’s being in and with Hyd and became a Hyderbadi (just like the way this analogy stands good only for British not for every foreign merchant who wanted to do business with Indian Kingdoms, make couple of profits with no plans colonizing India)

Lastly, Hyd used to be called as ‘City of lakes’ and ‘City of pearls’ – forget about pearls but lakes are seen no more (or seen everywhere in the months of July and August) thanks to the hideously groomed real estate market which by the way is being controlled mostly by non-locals!

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Now, let’s talk about something more interesting. Since I can continuously discourse upon the subject in discussion for hours, or probably days, I will limit myself to the major issues that are being raked up in the advent of recent events happening in and around Telangana.

Here are some of the famous and repeatedly preached arguments by many of my brothers and sisters of Telugu land whenever a talk of separate state is made. I know most of them are inadvertently oblivious and so I will attempt to make couple of such sermons as naked as possible for it is elemental to see them in the true colors to understand what they could actually mean.

I repeat, it is recommended to go through  http://vishspeak.blogspot.com/2009/12/state-of-my-state.html) before you make time to listen what I got to say coz most of the following is in reply to the observations made in the above link. It is A-okay even if chose to directly jump on to my lines.

…It is a common practice to make ‘villains’ or ‘comedians’ in telugu movies speak the Telangana/Rayalaseema dialect while the ‘good guys’ speak the Godavari/Krishna accent…

It would be stupid to ask for a separate state just because someone is ridiculing your language. I mean, you can file a complaint in the court or ask Govt/Censor Board to look into the matter seriously but you can’t make a serious case out of ‘ you are being derogatory to my language so, I want a separate state ‘ argument. I know it’s pretty serious issue (coz, it’s your identity that is at stake) but not good enough to demand a Separate State based merely on that!

…Lack of sea ports will weigh down heavily on Telangana…, if made separate:

In spite of having sea on all sides, and thus having many ports, Srilanka is nothing more than a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia and stands 104^th on UN’s Human Development Index List. A country with no port on any part of its boundary, say, Switzerland, remains in the top 10 (9^th according to the 2009 list) countries in the UN Human Development Index List. So, for a region or nation to become developed (and by developed, I mean the standard of living of everyone not just couple of individuals entering Forbes’ billionaire list) depends very minimal on the number of sea ports it possess.  Every region has its own ratio of strengths and weaknesses. It is for us to decide where we lay our efforts and energies on. So, Telangana, in spite of not having any sea with its boundaries, will not have to worry about the means of building a port within the state!

…You (both Telangana & Andhra) will not have as many jobs in the IT sector if the state becomes two…

American companies running their offices here in Hyd (that’s is what we call ‘IT Sector’)  will be more than happy to set up their new office in any city (even if it is a ‘ second-rung ‘ city) with few graduates as long as these people can write couple of programs and attend couple of conference calls at 2 AM without much of bemoaning (No offence intended for those in IT – it’s just that IT sector needs relatively less complex resources to establish and sustain). This is precisely because of ‘Easy re-location of the IT-hub‘ as it was rightly observed in another part of my friend’s blog that ‘Unlike the other industries, the IT industry does not depend much on the location’. So, Andhra people do not have to lose their sleep over the possibility of not having more IT Jobs. Neither does the Telangana people worry about prospects of losing many IT jobs to their Andhra counterparts. Coz, both the states are going to have their own share once they are conveniently separated!

…In a federal setup, numbers is strength…

Let me just correct that. It should have been ‘in the current federal setup, numbers is strength’. I yell for the umpteenth time as the walls of my larynx vibrate that what is being followed by many does not necessarily make it the correct practice. But, using ‘numbers’ like the way it is being used in the current India is a sufficient condition to call our nation as flawed democracy!

Yes, you need to have ‘numbers’ in the current federal setup to bring down the govt. (which, by the way, was elected to rule the country after ~1000 crore rupee elections) because your demand for more cabinet berths was not met. It’s true that these ‘numbers’ decide the policies of a 100 crore nation! How pathetic!

Why else would we need ‘numbers’ to have a say in the national politics? The impression that ‘you need moral conviction and genuineness to make your demands heard’ is no where existent anymore. I didn’t know that we need to stretch muscles (read as, threatening and blackmailing with serious consequences if you don’t listen to me!) every time we feel our vested interests are not being properly cared for. Besides, wouldn’t the number game result in mere blackmail politics? Don’t you think we see enough of ‘numbers’ getting kidnapped (oh no, they are now terming the sudden disappearances of MLAs/MPs as ‘taken away’ or ‘made invisible’) to threaten the governments unless their stupid demands (like, ‘my party candidate should have XYZ ministry’) are met? Which month in a year passed by with no mention of a group of these ‘numbers’ sulking over countless and meaningless issues with no memory of the responsibilities they are supposed to be caring for.

What is more and urgently needed is the veracity or genuineness in your convictions or demands not the strength in ‘numbers’. It is proven time and again that the number game would result only in more of blackmail politics and nothing more! Besides, as long as the Judiciary (which, by the way, is the only one pillar that remains unscathed to the surprisingly large extent in the midst of all the mud) is existent and is driven by a compassionate lot, I really don’t think there is any reason to lose our sleeps over having less ‘numbers’. People are anyway equipped with the most powerful weapon of all time (that’s called phalanx) and they don’t hesitate to use it when the need comes by.

…Farming problems…

Are you actually suggesting that we should be worried over ‘few sanctions’ or ‘possible water-riots’? The centre (or in this case, anybody with common sense) already states that percentage of water to be used by any particular state should be equal to the percentage of catchment area of the flowing river through that state. If you find your share getting exploited by upstream parties, you go and fight with them. You have Centre’s policy and an apex court to back you up for your genuine and deserving share. I know you are jumping to say ‘why can’t we do the same within the existing AP instead of complaining about one region not getting to utilize its share of waters?’ It’s not possible simply coz Centre don’t have a say in State’s internal water disputes, neither would the apex court say something unless asked for (Well, SC did ask AP State Govt. to implement couple of things to avert the damages done to Telangana which, of course, went conveniently unheeded and there’s nothing Centre could do about it). If it was a separate state, even the most disgusting political parties will have to fight for the new state’s rightful share coz their existence depends on their fight. Again, as long your fight is just, you don’t need ‘numbers’ to support your cause.

‘Choice: Imagine, you run a company and you want to take employees into it. …’ Nice try.

What is incomprehensible is why did we not ‘develop’ (Development is just another most abused word) or why is this so called ‘development’ getting limited to a very few pockets of the state in spite of ‘better employees‘ across the state and thus ‘better administration’ resulting in ‘growth and development’ or even when you are ‘ picking the best of a lot ‘ since 60 long years! Does it not look like a well crafted method of bamboozling some in the name of unity? This method, (the method of keeping unemployed/under-privileged as unemployed forever) in fact, negates the ‘growth’ that is supposed to have reached every corner of the state/country.

…All the problems we face today are because of our leaders. Change them and we will change our lives…

There is nothing that can be truer than what is said in the above two sentences. But in this particular case, have we not been doing that for the past 60 years!? Why is it still not working? Coz, people we call as leaders are highly efficient (not inefficient) in keeping problems alive so that there remains a chance of making promises. This exists in every direction you see and in every region you live. And this continues for years and decades. So, how does a separate state solve this problem? Breaking news: It won’t.

A separate state will only solve one of the many problems that the people of Telangana region are facing. And the one that will get solved is the most important one. There won’t be anybody whose sole aim is to bring Telangana anymore! And there won’t be any of those false promises anymore! Anything and everything that the ‘leaders’ will have to do then will be to spend the resources (or at least act so, coz their existence depends on how better they act!) on Telangana and Telangana only. Again, will there not be any problems then? Of course, there will be, just like the way there are problems in any part of the country or world for that matter. But that’ll be the different stage for another battle. People will fight for their rightful share in the already allocated resources.

Democracy is a highly flawed practice for the existing world, especially for India. And it’s surprising that many of us still can’t see this naked truth and live in our own dream world! If you think you can change lives by just changing the ‘leaders’, I would urge you to think again! (You may probably be able to change something – very little with huge number of constraints, though – if you become one of the ‘leaders’)

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Most of the above lines were only intended to analyze the mostly used objections for the formation of Telangana State and attempts to present a little fairer picture of what those objections actually consist of. It is never my intention to assault any individual or a group but I am sure you will have many more objections and doubts over the necessity of forming a separate state. You may please contact me or leave your comment below and I assure you that nothing will be left unanswered unless it is very stupid in tongue or intention. You will find me updating more information here with few more details in the next couple of days.