We have seen this shameful spectacle of K Chandrasekhara Rao going in a fast-unto-death and statehood for Telangana has been accepted. This is commerce at its worst. Go on a fast unto death and get a state in return. This is a fantastic bargain for the political class.
Are we going to see a renewed balkanisation of our country. A concept of an united India having braved many odss in its six decade old journey faces yet another crisis. I feared the worst as our unscrupulous political class would go to any extent if they sense a chance to further their interests. This is our worst nightmare come true. Suddenly, everyone seems to have a grievance or two and statehood seems to be the only solution.
Telangana has 119 representatives in the Andhra assembly. I find it very difficult to believe that for the last fifty five years these MLAs and 11/12 MPs never worked or could not work for the development of Telangana. M Chenna Reddy, a Telangana leader was the Chief Minister of the state and should one believe that he was powerless in this respect and could do nothing for the region. Now, with statehood being considered, is it possible that this political class can weave their magic and a backward region would suddemly become developed.
Gorkhaland in West Bengal has been the first off the block. The later has been vocal and violent to get their goals. They have an autonomous arrangement within the states of West Bengal. If backwardness is the criteria then every district in West Bengal should be asking for statehood.
Vidarbha, an arid part of the Maharashtra has been poor and backward for many decades. It shot to fame due to its poor farmers committing suicides. If the politicians from Western Maharashtra were enriching themselves, what were the Vidarbha representatives doing. Could they not further the interests of that region. They were voted to do that in the first place.
Carve out
UP into Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh and Purvanchal.....
AP further into Rayalseema and coastal Andhra,
Karnataka into Mysore, Coastal Karnataka and Belgaum-Hubli-Dharwar and Bijapur / Bidar into separate states,
Maharashtra into Mumbai as UT, Konkan, Western Mah, Khandesh, Marathwada and Vidarbha....
MP, Rajasthan, Bihar (whatever is left of it), Tamil Nadu also have undeveloped areas.
It took the genius of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and his tireless assisstant Mr Menon to put all apples in one basket. The genius of our current politicians seems to break the country back into the original 550 fiefdoms.
Jharkhand has been a complete disaster and we are seeing the manifestations. Chattisgarh has been battling the Naxals and Uttarakhand has not made any great impact either way.
This is a dangerous trend and must be put down by national level parties at the earliest. Congress has made its move and is looking very foolish now.
The contributing factors of poor governance, lack of transparency, massive corruption, ineffectiveness of our political representatives need to be tackled with more citizen activism. There are other ways to do all this. Claiming and getting statehoods is clearly not one of them.
11 comments:
May be,unknowingly,this Govt has made a mess of this issue and it is going create a major problem in other states.
Watch out--we are heading towards a bad time ahead on this issue.
The Congress is paying the price of keeping KCR out of the plunder that YSR enjoyed. Now that he is dead, the guy wants his share of the pie.
This problem is going to snowball. I only wish the BJP and the Congress can sit together and save the nation. This is no time to score cheap political points.
I agree- this is a dangerous trend indeed. Is carving out multiple states going to solve all our problems?
Unfortunately, in India, since the time of Mahatma Gandhi, going on fasts-unto-death has been accepted as a legitimate political weapon!
Can India afford to have 50 plus states ? Some go by the logic that if USA with population of 300 million can have 50 states, why not India with 1 billion population have 50 ? Let me paraphrase the last line of The Hindu editorial Correct diagnosis, wrong cure: The diagnosis is right: Telangana is backward and cries out for rapid development and the regional autonomy needed for this. But the cure pressed by a succession of militant movements — a separate Telangana State — will do serious harm to the patient.
Chowlaji,
States re-organisation is an emotive issue. When Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh were formed it was believed that they will see fast progress as the main states were all very poor and mis-managed.
It is different here.
Vinod,
This is a question of proper governance and allocation of resources. In Andhra, it is abt development, diversion of water and shutting out this region.
The same thing on a much larger scale is visible in Maharashtra but the"KCRs" from Vidarbha have got a share of the loot.
Manjuji,
You are right. This is emotional blackmail. The problem is they tend to become martyrs if they die.
We always tend to give in - whether it is during hijacks, insurgency or terrorist attacks or fasts-unto-death.
Smaller states means more scope for corruption.
Krish,
Why do you need 50 states?
The real problems are poor governance and lack of transparency and corruption. Splitting and creating small states is not the solution.
See Jharkhand - what has the state achieved and we have seen complete moclery of democracy in the political process and the massive corruption that has occurred.
nobody wants to address the issues, but just keep stirring the pot and bring up new ones and evade the real issues and run and hide behind the new ones - that's the new political game -
Hi Anrosh,
You have hit the nail on its head. The whole idea is confuse and create an emotional twist. You can then trust the media to do its bit by adding the over-hype bit.
Result....real issues are never dealt with.
Mavin, Good luck, good health good cheer. I wish you a happy New Year.
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