Andhra's tryst with destiny

Troubled State: With no easy way to douse unrest fire, 2011 looks bleak for AP

2004 was a significant year for both Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The Congress leader realised his life’s ambition of becoming the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.  TRS, which won 26 seats in the 2004 Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress, got within the striking distance of a separate Telangana. But the similarity between the two ends there.

YSR quickly consolidated his position and emerged as a leader towering over all others, including the Congress High Command. The mega irrigation projects, Jala Yagnam, and other signature populist schemes such as free power made his popularity soar and prompted many political leaders, not just from Congress, rally behind him.

Then, YSR with a survival instinct perhaps cultivated over years of political wilderness, set out to finish off the Telangana project. TRS helped him a bit and hit a self goal by accepting berths in his cabinet. He made even feisty Telangana leaders attend functions such as the state formation day, thus seizing a huge symbolic edge over separatists. 

TRS ministers, enjoying the perks of power, stood as mere spectators when the YSR cabinet took many decisions that came to be seen as detrimental to a separate Telangana state. The Congressmen of Telangana, who are now among the most vociferous lot, also focused on enjoying the spoils of governance than rubbing YSR on the wrong side.

 YSR toured Telangana extensively and told the people that they should not resist development till the Congress high command took a decision on their demand. People accepted the proposition as YSR, the opposition leader had traversed their villages during his padayatra, and later as CM tried to address the same problems with seeming sincerity. Jalayagnam, he pointed out, was just the solution the parched Telangana region had been asking for.  Gradually, YSR grew bold enough to get rid of TRS ministers from the coalition cabinet. He even announced that there would be no need for a separate Telangana state, after Jalayagnam and other development programs are implemented in the backward region.

On the side, YSR, a doting father, also groomed his son YS Jaganmohan Reddy to succeed him. Just before the 2009 elections, Jagan launched his Telugu newspaper Sakshi and later a TV channel.

 The opposition parties hit out at YSR’s corruption and favouritism. Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu labeled Jalayagnam as Dhanayagnam. But the YSR juggernaut rolled on in the 2009 elections as well.  A disenchanted TRS fought the polls in alliance with TDP, a party that had vehemently opposed a separate Telangana, and dropped its tally to just 10 seats.

Sudden Death, power vacuum

But YSR’s sudden death in a helicopter crash in September 2009, barely months into his second term, gave an unexpected twist to the Telangana movement.

The Congress High Command scrambled to find a successor to take over the YSR’s now larger-than-life legacy.  It was also keen to have a leader more pliable than YSR, someone more in the mould of a conventional Congress CM. 

Jagan’s dash at power immediately after YSR’s death did not help matters. Even before YSR’s had been laid to rest, more than 150 MLAs signed a petition naming Jagan as their leader. The High Command overlooked Jagan’s claim and chose K Rosaiah an old loyalist of the party, sowing seeds of dissidence.

 While Jagan went on a rampage, Rosaiah proved to be a weak and indecisive CM who was ignored by his own ministers. “I am a by-stander asked to take care of the state just for a while,” the octogenarian said once.  The TRS sensed an opportunity and stepped in to seize it. All 10 TRS MLAs, and one each from BJP and TDP, quit in February 2010 to press for a separate Telangana. In the July 2010 by-elections TRS came back with a bang. It retained all its seats and wrested one from TDP with massive margins. A rejuvenated TRS also set aside its earlier decision of not involving students into the struggle for a separate state. It started mobilising students in the region, preparing them for a long-drawn agitation. It also started drawing tacit support from Congress MLAs and MPs from the region.

Telangana explodes

As Telangana turned into a powder keg, TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) decided to light the fuse by announcing  a ‘fast unto death’’ in November 2009.   An inept Rosaiah arrested KCR in Siddipet, who was then taken to Khammam jail via Warangal, igniting passions all-along the way.

 The Osmania University erupted after the arrest. The round-the-clock beaming of the images of a frail-looking and fasting KCR brought together political workers, students, trade unions, government employees and lay men in the cause of Telangana.

While Rosaiah blamed Jagan for the trouble, the central government could see what an unstoppable mass movement the Telangana campaign had transformed into.  Union Home Minister P Chidambaram announced on December 9, 2009, that the process for carving out a separate Telangana state would soon begin. While KCR ended his eleven-day fast and Telangana celebrated, the rest of AP rose in anger. One hundred and thirty five Seema-Andhra MLAs of Congress, TDP and PRP offered their resignations protesting the unilateral decision of the union government.

 P Chidambaram backtracked on his earlier statement and set up SriKrishna committee to find a way out of the stalemate. The state also saw a change of guard with Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy replacing the 78-year-old Rosaiah, who said he was unable to withstand the work pressure because of age. It is a little early to say if the new CM, chosen because he is a Reddy and comes from Rayalaseema as Jagan, would be able to defuse Telangana and handle YSR’s reckless son. But reports suggest that the High Command is upset with his inability to bring rein-in Jagan. The recent fast by Jagan in New Delhi drew 25 Congress MLAs, effectively reducing the Congress government to a minority.

The Srikrishna Committee report which was made public on January 6, 2011 has further angered the Telangana activists.  The Committee presented six different solutions to the crisis while recommending unity as the best option for all the three regions.

“The rich Seema-Andhra MPs have bribed the members of Srikrishna Committee,” an angry Telangana MP, Madhu Yashki Goud alleged. The pro-Telangana activists are again mobilising for another round of upheaval and uncertainty in the state.
 
A divided people 

Whatever the outcome of the renewed agitation for Telangana, it would be difficult to bridge the divide that has come about between the people of these regions. The people of Telangana have always complained about their economic exploitation and humiliation by Seema- Andhra people. But their alienation is now complete.  They feel that what they were able to achieve through the Union Government’s announcement end of 2009 has been taken away by the Seema-Andhra people.

 Andhra and Rayalaseema people are unlikely to let go Telangana easily as they have invested a lot in Hyderabad. A mere division of the state would not have bothered them much probably. But the rhetoric and the hate campaign unleashed by TRS has vitiated the situation. With no easy way out, 2011 looks bleak for Andhra Pradesh.

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