I am sure that by the end of this article most of you would be wondering to which region (Telangana or Seemandhra) I belong to or to which political party I am affiliated to. I assure you my friends that I am not biased to any region or any political party. I am a common man.
All the political parties in my state are vertically divided today on the basis of regional lines. No party has a clear stand on the bifurcation issue. Every party wants only confusion in the state. Even if a party takes a stand, we have no idea when it is going to take a U turn. Instead of solutions, blame-games are played.
One common thing across the political parties is that they agree that demands in both the regions of the state (telangana and seemandhra) are legitimate. But nobody is proposing a solution nor is taking a stand. They are only interested in blame-games.
The seemandhra agitation is no doubt fuelled by legitimate demands and the sentiment is very strong. All the political parties failed to gauge the pulse of seemandhra people’s sentiments and their attachment with Hyderabad. The TDP chief is today fasting for justice. “Justice” is an abstract term. He has to clearly spell out his solution to the problem on how he would address the issue if he is voted to power. It is very very absurd for a person of his stature to say that he would solve the problem in 6 months if voted to power. He should come out with a solution and the people will decide if the solution is apt for them or not.
Jaganmohan Reddy has spelled out his stand for United Andhra Pradesh. He should clarify if this is his party’s permanent stand because it was he who said that his party neither has the strength to give telangana or stop telangana. It was only after consulting these two parties that the congress has taken a decision. Both the parties have taken a U-turn.
The LokSatta party chief considers himself to be a genius talking about political ethics and stuff. But what ethics does he have when he only blames the ruling party without providing a solution or an alternative.
Last but not the least, the CM who said that the decision of high command would be acceptable to him is now openly defying his party bosses. There are even allegations that he is behind the attacks on Botsa’s properties.
All this give rise to a trust deficit that has to be addressed. Trust deficit among the people and politicians.
The Seemandhra people and the intelligentsia of that region agree to the fact that the issues raised by telangana people are legitimate. If they don’t agree, they better start agreeing to this fact at least from now because it is the root cause. Instead of simply creating troubles for the innocent people of the state, the proponents of Samaikyandhra should come out with certain safeguards for people of telangana so that it addresses the trust deficit between the people of both the regions. Simply raising the slogans of “kalisiunte kaladu sukham” would do no good. The people of telangana feel deceived since last 60 years. So coming out with a certain set of safeguards for telanganites in order to convince them to stay united would be better.
The telangana intelligentsia instead of being adamant on the issue of bifurcation should recognize the sentiments of Andhra region and come out with a set of demands if in case the state should be kept united. This would surely initiate a dialogue between the people of two regions and the solution will not be far enough.
When the demand of telanganites is genuine, have the seemandhra leaders tried to reach out to telangana people to gain their trust. To gain the trust, they could start with small things like addressing the cultural identity loss of telangana. It could start with things as small as recognizing bathkamma festival as a state festival; by assuring the telangana people that their history of ‘sayuda poratam’ would be taught in the schools and colleges; by assuring them that their historical figures statues would be erected on necklace road.
These being the immediate measures, for long time measures, I think a statutory provision on the lines of SC/ST sub plan act would be suitable. The SC/ST sub-plan act ensures that the funds allocated for SC/ST will be spent for them only. Simlarly a statutory provision enabling the revenues and water resources of a particular region to be spent in that region only would address the allegations of telangana people that the andhraites have taken their revenues and waters. A review of the implementation of the provision should be carried out every three years under the chairmanship of a retired High court judge. The policy of the state should change from “Hyderabad centric development” to multi-nuclear cities centered development.
This is me- a common man proposing a solution to the present crisis. I am not as intelligent as the present day politicians or agitators but I am proud I have a solution. I appeal to all the political parties in the state to take a stand and provide for a solution. Most of you might not agree to this solution but I atleast have one. The people blaming others should examine themselves if they can give an alternative.
Written By Vasanth Sai
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are the author's and not of greatandhra.com.
