1. 12/20/13
..:: Telangana Assembly ::..
Home
About Us
History Of Assembly
Present Assembly
Telangana History
Telangana districts
oped by Freelance Journalist Sunil Babu Kolanpaka...
Why Telangana
The Case for Telangana
The people of Telangana have fought for creation of a new state for themselves for nearly 60 years now. This legitimate fight for creation of a new
state with Hyderabad as its capital, within the legal confines of Indian Constitution, has had a voice since the time of Indian Independence.
In 1948, right after Indian Independence, the Indian Army entered the region to liberate the people of Telangana as part of Hyderabad State from the
Nizam Rule. The newly formed Hyderabad State was a distinct entity in Indian Union and had its elections in 1953 prior to the formation of Andhra
Pradesh in 1956.
Meanwhile, another region next to Telangana, called Andhra, was keen on fighting for a separate state for its people away from Tamil people..
Fearing that most of the newly created jobs and opportunities would be taken up by Tamils since Tamils were more educated and had access to
opportunities, and also citing the reasons that Andhras would not be well represented in Tamil dominated Madras Presidency, Andhra people started
a protest. Potti Sriramulu of Andhra region went on a hunger strike in Madras for 58 days and died fighting for creation of a separate state out of
Madras Presidency called Andhra State with Madras as its capital.
After his death, the Central Government in New Delhi conceded to his first demand, that of creation of Andhra State, but it rejected his other demand.
Madras became capital of new Tamil State instead of Andhra State. Contrary to the widely spread misconception, Potti Sriramulu fought for political
aspirations of Andhra people of Madras Presidency, not the Telangana people of Hyderabad State.
The Andhra People having lost Madras to Tamils looked for an alternative city for its capital and eyed the glorious city of Hyderabad. Using the slogan
that Telugu is the binding factor for both the regions, they renewed their fight to include Telangana into their new dream of Vishalandhra. The People
of Telangana had a different opinion - they didn't think it was a wise move. Telangana people were educated in Urdu under Nizam while the Andhra
people were educated in Telugu and English under British. The new opportunities clearly gave preference to English and Telugu in the new India.
During 1948-1952, though Hyderabad was a different state ruled by civil and administrators, there was heavy influx of Andhra peopleinto Telangana
to take up newly opening positions in the new India. Hyderabad city saw thefirst waves of protests against joining Andhra Pradesh in 1956.
But the prevailing mood in the country was already set for creation of states along linguistic lines. Potti Sri Ramulu's death and Andhra people's
demand for creation of a state on linguistic basis led to creation of First State Reorganization Committee (SRC) in India. Though Nehru was averse to
this idea, many new states got formed in India on the basis of language. Kerala and Karnataka got formed immediately. Telangana was clubbed with
Andhra State to form new Andhra Pradesh though Fazal Ali of First SRC clearly expressed reservations against clubbing together the two regions that
were unequal partners. In his recommendations he went on to say that Telangana could stay as separate state if the union of these regions did not
work out.
To protect the interest of Telangana, that was recognized by everyone as one of the most backward and illiterate regions, where bonded labor and
zamindari system was rampant, many 'Gentleman's Agreement' promises were made by leaders of Andhra to ensure that the new opportunities in
Telangana go to Telangana people. Actually, there was already a system in place to take care of such representations - called Mulki - which was
practiced by erstwhile Nizam who had three regions under him - Telangana, Kannada and Marathi. These rules allowed certain portions of jobs to be
given people of that region only. The agreements between Andhra and Telangana leaders included following Mulki rules in the new state.
Unfortunately for Telangana people, all the clauses of these Gentleman's Agreements were immediately flouted. Illegally, thousands of Andhra people
were given top jobs in Telangana region. This resulted in mass migration when these top honchos coming from Andhra started to fill other positions
with their kith and kin flouting all the guidelines that were established and agreed upon. In fact, any observer will notice that millions of Andhra
people have migrated to Telangana region, while negligible Telangana people have migrated to Andhra region.
The fact that Telangana voted a minority and opposition Communist parties during this time to the State Assembly against the majority and ruling
Congress party of Andhra didn't help Telangana cause. With Indira Gandhi in power, the states became puppets and Congress became all-powerful.
Dissident causes were suppressed ruthlessly. When the SR Act of 1956 were clearly violated by Andhras, Telangana people launched an agitation in
1969 demanding a separate state. It was overwhelmingly crushed by Indira Gandhi who had no mood for creating new states. Thousands were
rrested and put in jail while 350 people protestors were killed in police shootings. Indira Gandhi did not allow splitting of states during her entire
regime.
When their agitation was ruthlessly suppressed, the Telangana people took the electoral route in 1971. They launched a new party called Telangana
Praja Samiti (TPS) and voted 11 out of 12 Lok Sabha seats clearly indicating the mood of people to carve a separate state. Indira Gandhi, who was at
the peak of her power then, called the leader of TPS Channa Reddy, and made him join his party into Congress and made him the Chief Minister of
entire Andhra Pradesh. However, an All-Party Agreement of 1969 was agreed to protect the interests of Telangana as a concession.
Those agreed upon formulas were immediately flouted by Andhra people. Now, the Telangana people took the legal route. Their objections were
upheld by Supreme Court which asked Andhras to vacate those positions that were illegally acquired.
That's when Andhra people, who knew that Indira Gandhi was dead against all new states, blackmailed Indira Gandhi by asking for a new state for
themselves in 1973. Now, the same Andhra people deride Telangana Movement calling it divisive politics. Indira Gandhi's government, in a clear
indication of partisan and discriminatory practices, overturned the Supreme Court ruling, thereby clearly establishing the practice of how a majority
Andhra can always snub and suppress minority Telangana in the state Assembly. This continues till today as clearly seen from the recent episode
where all Andhra and Rayalaseema MLAs resigned en masse from the Assembly on Telangana issue clearly indicating to all observers that no
resolution on Telangana will pass through since they comprise the majority.
Such practices of snubbing all the promises continued. GO 36 of 1969 that promised to position Telangana people in 25,000 that were illegally
occupied by Andhra people remains unfulfilled even today. During 1973 and 1985 nearly 60,000 illegal positions were awarded to Andhra people in
Telangana region. To rectify this, a new GO 610 was introduced in 1985 with a promise to enforce it within a year, but continues to be unimplemented
www.telanganaassembly.com/whytelangana.html
1/2