The Telangana bluff
By By Kancha Ilaiah
Jan 01 2010
The Congress' response to the Telangana agitation that flared up with
the "un-Gandhian" fast of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)
president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, was on expected lines.
When the fast was taken up, the Congress high command was facing a
rebellion by Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, son of Andhra Pradesh's late chief
minister, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. If he split the party, there was the
possibility of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu
cobbling up a government with KCR's support. Mr Naidu would then have
managed to establish a rapport with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
and this would have become a problem for the Congress at the national
level too.
Though Mr Chandrasekhar Rao was about to call off his hunger strike
after reaching an understanding with chief minister K. Rosaiah, his
agitation was overtaken by other events. The militant students'
agitation made him continue his "half hunger strike" in the best
hospital in the state, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences. In the
end, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao emerged as a hero as there were all kinds of
forces willing to agitate for a separate state of Telangana.
The Congress high command, at the same time, wanted to use that
occasion to break the back of Mr Jagan's group and foil Mr Naidu's
plans. With this in mind, Union home minister P. Chidambaram made a
strategic statement (though Mr Chandrasekhar Rao was willing to shift
from bottle-feeding to mouth-feeding) on December 9 that the Centre
was initiating the process to form a separate Telangana.
His statement was not meant to create Telangana state but to test the
nerves of all those political formations that were pretending to
support the idea of small states — particularly the TDP and the Praja
Rajyam.
The Congress knew that Andhra and Rayalaseema MLAs and MPs would
oppose the formation of Telangana. For it the more significant problem
was the large group of MLAs and ministers, cutting across regions, who
were supporting Mr Jagan.
Once Mr Chidamabaram made his statement, Mr Jagan's support base
cracked on regional lines, as did that of the TDP.
Of course, the Congress structure in the state also appeared to have
developed cracks but the Central leaders knew that this was a
temporary phenomenon. That there was no Congress leadership in
Telangana region that would pose a major challenge to the high command
was all too well known.
After YSR's death the state has been moving from one crisis to another
and the most humiliating one was when Mr Jagan threatened to become
the chief minister of the state. The only way to get out of that
crisis was to deepen the Telangana question and defuse all other
tensions. Mr Chidambaram's statement of December 9 must be seen in
that background.
All hell broke loose in the state after his statement. Mr Naidu became
a sitting duck and Mr Jagan was made to sit at home, without a single
follower. And all around the country demands for smaller states were
revived.
This broke the consensus among various parties about the formation of
Telangana, even within the United Progressive Alliance.
The BJP too had to shut its mouth on its pet theory of smaller states
as its big capitalist supporters started opposing this proposition.
Andhra capitalists sent enough signals to political parties, including
to the BJP, that they should not expect any more funds if they support
the formation of Telangana. The Andhra lobby did everything possible
to get the decision reversed as their interests in Hyderabad were at
stake. And the Congress, of course, was only too willing to oblige.
The Congress core committee reworked its strategy and Mr Chidambaram
himself made another statement saying that the situation had altered
and more consultation and consensus was needed to form Telangana. And
with this, the issue of Telangana was brought back to square one.
Since all political parties have all along been split on regional
basis, the TRS gained ground and initiated the agitational through the
Telangana joint action committee.
This is now resulting in enormous repression of the students and youth
and destruction of Telangana public property. The poor and
first-generation students, who have reached university level, will be
the victims in all this.
Though destruction of public property is self-destructive, it is a
regular Indian mode of protest and leaders such as Mr Chandrasekhar
Rao, who is unlike Mahatma Gandhi in every respect, would push the
situation to the logical end.
Indian democracy remains semi-feudal because it has not been able to
evolve mature methods of protest. There is a general feeling that
without such destructive forms of protests, the state would not even
listen.
It now appears that the Centre will allow the agitators to go on till
they are tired. The basic question before them is how to handle Mr
Chandrasekhar Rao — either in the Chenna Reddy way or in the Shibu
Soren way.
They also know that as they wait for the protesters to tire and calm
down, the people of Telangana would starve in unprecedented drought
conditions and not have the energy to protest. The more hungerstrikes
and suicides, the more they get tired of such agitations.
Andhra forces and Central agencies knew that a new talent was emerging
from the Telangana region — particularly from the Scheduled Castes
(SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) — and
that they could be stopped in their tracks with the loss of one
academic year.
Also, if we look at the configuration of the Joint Action Committee of
Telangana, it's clear that leaders from some castes have captured its
nerve centre. All the SC, ST, and OBC leaders who built the Telangana
movement have been pushed to the background. Gaddar, Jayshankar and
Manda Krishna Madiga are marginalised for obvious reasons.
In this society, regional agitations are most suited for stopping
social transformation as these agitations create mass hysteria. In
Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema enough mass hysteria has been
generated in recent times.
Many are willing to die while facing bullets or by committing suicide.
We can only wait and see what will happen to the starving masses in
this difficult situation.
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