Telangana statehood demand is a long pending crisis in Andhra politics. Even a cursory peep into the history of Andhra and its demography will reveal how this problem is kept pending due to lack of matured leadership.
Andhra Pradesh (AP) is the fifth largest State having an area of 275,909 sq. kms and a population of about 75-80 million. Andhra Pradesh consists of three distinct regions, namely, Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana. Andhra and Rayalaseema were part of Madras province of the British empire. For approximately 400 years, Telangana was part of Hyderabad State, an independent kingdom ruled by Muslim Qutub Shahi and Nizam dynasties. Andhra and Rayalaseema were separated from Madras State in 1953. Andhra state (Andhra and Rayalaseema) was the first state that was formed purely on linguistic basis. Later, Teleangana was merged with Andhra in 1956, and thus the present state of Andhra Pradesh was formed with Hyderabad as the capital city.
This has resulted in two major agitations: Jai Telangana in 1969 and Jai Andhra 1972, both for separate states. Finally, a political settlement was arrived in 1973 with a six point formula. The peace was shortlived and the Telangana movement gained momentum during 1990s with BJP promising a separate statehood. Nothing materialized as its coalition partner TDP was against it. The crisis has taken a lot of turns and twists from then onwards, with each political party playing its own cards. Finally, the Central Government formed the Srikrishna Committee to look into the crisis.
The committee has submitted its report. The report is very exhaustive with vast data. It suggests six options with their pros & cons, recommending the best viable among the six. The same is in public domain now and much discussion have been made on it. The proponents of separate statehood has outrightly rejected the recommendations. TRS, BJP & TDP did not participate in the meeting where the report was made public. Thus the tangle remains.
Telangana is the largest region of the three with around 40% of state's population. It contributes about 76% to the state's revenues. Injustices in water sharing, imbalanced budget allocation and poor representation in jobs are the major grievances cited by the advocates for separate statehood. They argue that all the agreements, formulas, plans, etc in the last 50 years have not been fulfilled.
The grievances of Telangana region may be genuine. But, will a separate statehood address them is disputable. I feel, a non-political issue would have remained a one but for the politicization of it by the political parties. As usual, the parties are indulging in vote bank politics. A development related issue has been made into a political one by the short sighted politicians. With the crisis evolving into a political one, the need of the hour is a matured political leadership at all levels to resolve the same. And sadly we miss it.
