Telangana remains a distant dream
A lot of water has passed through the Godavari since the late 1960s when a violent agitation for a separate Telangana state led to a loss of over 400 lives.
Though the feeling of neglect is still strong in the area, the fervour for a separate Telangana is now missing. This is not surprising because in the interim the demography of the area has begun to change.
Enterprising settlers from coastal Andhra Pradesh, the area whose influence Telanganites resented, have made Telangana their home.
Though there are no statistics, evidence of this can be had from Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, a formation largely representing coastal Andhra, beginning to make electoral inroads in the region.
More importantly, the strategic interests of feudal lords of Telangana, who propelled the agitation for a separate state in the sixties, have altered.
A lot of them have now invested their money in real estate and other businesses that could be affected if the region were to untie its cord with the rest of Andhra.
Though K Chandrasekhar Rao and his colleague A Narendra have stormed out of the Union cabinet and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), they must be aware that besides other factors the biggest obstacle to their dream for a separate Telangana is Hyderabad.
The erstwhile Nizam's city is the capital of Telangana and the Telangana region corresponds with the former ruler's territories in today's Andhra Pradesh.
The remaining part of Andhra Pradesh was under the British. But by virtue of Hyderabad being the largest city in Andhra Pradesh after creation of linguistic states in 1956, it became the capital of the state.
Over the years, however, Hyderabad's character has changed. The Nizam's capital today is a mixture of modernity and tradition with the levers of business in the hands of settlers from coastal Andhra Pradesh.
There is a strong reaction among the city's residents the moment talk of a separate Telangana surfaces.
Chief among the opponents of Telangana is Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who loses no time in telling visitors that they should lobby for retention of a combined state because a landlocked Telangana can only face ruination.
"Huge gas reserves have been found on the Andhra coast. This will lead to unprecedented growth. Let the people of Telangana share in this prosperity and not opt out at this crucial time", Reddy says.
At a practical level, he is working assiduously for creation of a greater Hyderabad, a massive urban agglomeration that extends far outside its present limits and stretches into Telangana districts.
The CM's efforts have only been helped by the upcoming image of Hyderabad as a growing technology centre. An expanding Hyderabad is creating a larger number of people who are against a separate Telangana state.
Reddy and his friends have also been trying hard to create the impression that a Telangana state would be nothing but a Naxalite-dominated area and that the real power behind the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) are militants.
Since Telangana encircles Hyderabad, talk of a Naxalite-influenced entity creates a bigger anti-Telangana lobby.
In reality, however, through a combination of stratagem and force, Reddy's police have driven the Naxalites out of Telangana into neighbouring Chhattisgarh and dense jungles in other parts of Andhra Pradesh.
To complicate issues, the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), with a strong support base in Hyderabad, has called for the creation of a third Urdu state in case Andhra Pradesh is bifurcated.
This being the ground reality, what is the case of TRS based on? For one, TRS is depending on the muscle and lung power of students in numerous educational institutions of Telangana.
With economic growth not fast enough to provide jobs, TRS believes that students can be at the vanguard of a movement for Telangana.
Even in the late 1960s, it was students who had fought pitched battles for a separate state. Farmer sentiment is also being sought to be exploited with poor irrigation facilities in the area leading to suicides.
TRS is dependent on non-resident support. Like other movements such as Khalistan, overseas Telanganites probably also have a romantic notion for a separate homeland, which is sought to be tapped.
Cultural domination of the state by coastal Andhraites is also a sore point. Telugu, the official language of the state, is spoken in the dialect prevalent in the Krishna district of coastal Andhra.
Moreover, Telugu films — an industry dominated by coastal Andhraites — always paint the Telanganite as a villain or a buffoon while the hero is from coastal Andhra.
Thus, villains usually speak the Telangana dialect. But the sum total of all these do not make for a separate Telangana — that is clear from the results of the recent panchayat polls and last year's municipal elections.
The TRS was wiped out in both cases. Its good performance in the 2004 general elections is now seen as a freak incident: the votes cast for TRS were actually against Chandrababu Naidu.
In the ultimate analysis Telangana remains a distant dream
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