Separation of Andhra Pradesh – Issues pertaining to state Capital

Separation of Andhra Pradesh – Issues pertaining to state Capital

Role of Congress:

It is very unfortunate that the Congress party took such a hasty step of declaring the separation of Telengana from Andhra Pradesh. It is clearly visible & obvious that the step was taken to get political gains over BJP in Centre & YSRCP, TRS & TDP in AP & Telangana. The logical steps such as deliberations on Srikrishna committee report, formation of SRC, intellectual brain storming on possible repercussions, water distribution, and issues related to nervous centre of united AP i.e., Hyderabad, many such issues are being completely ignored. 

Illogical approach:

We cannot compare Telangana separation issue with previous states separation happened in the year 2000. At that time Jharkhand was separated from Bihar, Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh & Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh. Unfortunately this was also done in a hasty manner as it was suiting all political parties relevant in those states such as BJP, Congress, RJD, and JMM besides settling internal political issues. In the above referred three cases the capital city reminds with the main state and newly formed states had to develop their alternative capitals in their respective states. Whereas in case of Telangana which is getting separated from Andhra Pradesh the capital city Hyderabad is being allocated to Telengana & the main state Andhra Pradesh is asked to develop its own capital.

 Unfortunately Andhra is being treated like this when it was separated from Madras state. The short sited vision of Andhra region politicians did not capture the inconsistent approach of national parties on states separation or they were silenced for obvious reasons. In fact the very straight forward approach of BJP favoring smaller states is appreciable compare to game plans of Congress. It is very sad that Congress completely deviated from the approach took by Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi on states separation & the way she handled much bigger political movements. It is high time that BJP should come out with a white paper on their policy on states separation and be a role model to other parties. At least these will avoid future confusions on such issues. 

Coming back to Telengana issue, as the Union Government moved forward by declaring road map for separate state, they should follow democratic approach of respecting public opinion, discussions in state assembly, council & houses of parliament and follow the recommendations emerged from such democratic forums. Instead of giving importance to passing of the separate state bill, give importance to various issues involved, process to be followed, future implications etc and then decide on future course of action instead of making hasty statements like common capital for 10 years, advantage Andhra Pradesh etc. In fact the feelings of Royalseema, minorities, settlers are to be given due consideration. 

In the present scenario of globe being considered as one due to technological revolution, the creation of smaller states for administrative convenience etc is not on scientific lines and needs deliberations. Our country’s own experiences of political instability and larger social issues in smaller states is to be reviewed seriously before further moving forward in forming more smaller states.

Logical thinking

Based on present scenario, if the separation of Andhra Pradesh is inevitable, the union Government can take it as an opportunity to declare cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ahmadabad, Kochi, Noida etc along with Hyderabad as national cities with union territory status. In fact with IT revolution the above referred cities are emerged as true national cities with larger presence of skilled man power coming from all over the country & overseas. The respective states shall be given an opportunity to develop their own capital cities in line with Gandhinagar, Bhubaneswar etc. This approach will make the migrant population to these national cities feel more comfortable as they are immune from regional politics, besides addressing the capital issue of Andhra Pradesh & Telengana. Also this approach will address future state wood issues in many other states. If we take the example of USA, most of the capital cities are smaller places and economic important cities are totally different. For example a smaller town Springfield is capital of Illinois State whereas Chicago is the major city flushed with commercial & employment opportunities attracting global intellectual resources. 

The other issues such as water allocation, mining rights, and coast line approach to Telengana etc are to be deliberated and decided as these are common resources till date of all residents of this state. The experiences during the separation of Andhra from Madras & formation of Andhra Pradesh are to be considered while deciding on the fate of Andhra Pradesh. 

Our appeal to all political parties, intellectuals, scholars etc to come out openly with ideas, suggestions in the larger interest of Telugus and contribute for the further development of our language.

B G Reddy - grbonthu@gmail.com
9866889246