The UPA government has taken a final call to divvy up Andhra Pradesh and carve out a Telangana state. Now it is incumbent on the central government to take every measure possible to buffer the ill-effects of bifurcation. The nitty-gritty of it is, without doubt, quite awesome. It goes without saying that the division of the water, power and mineral resources should be to a tee and beyond reproach.
True, the UPA government had been vegetating on the issue ever since its decision to demerge Andhra Pradesh in 2009 and, when it has initiated the process, it has botched the whole thing up pretty much comprehensively.
To be fair to the government, the entire political class is to blame for the unedifying situation of violence and protests.
Why did the BJP-led NDA government, which created Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, baulk at forming a Telangana state despite this having had a place in its 1999 manifesto? Was it because of TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu's support which was then crucial for the NDA?
Ironically, in 2008 Chandrababu Naidu sought the creation of the Telangana state. Now, he has changed tack and has become a forceful votary of the status quo. Likewise, YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy had sent a letter to the centre demanding a new state.
Reddy recanted his view too. Political games are unavoidable not least because Andhra is a huge state with 42 MPs at stake.
The Congress decision to go for the division of the state before the next polls stems from political considerations as well. As it is, Congress has not much to hope for in the Seemandhra region what with the anti-incumbency mood of the people and a phenomenon called Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy making things very hard for it.
With the division of the state Congress hopes to sweep Telangana in the polls. It may be noted that Dalits, for long a Congress constituency, form over 24 per cent of the Telangana population. However, the merger of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) with the Congress seems pretty iffy.
As for the BJP, it is champing at the bit to see the 28th state, realising that it is wise to swim with the tide. An important leader of the party has gone to the extent of warning the UPA government that a new state should be in place before the end of the year.
Quite a few questions are bound to pop up when the Telangana state comes into existence.
Two of them are: One, what would the next government — UPA or NDA — do when demands for separate states start coming up from several states. Would the government go into overdrive creating baby states? Two and, perhaps most important, on what basis would the government, if it plumps for new states, go about it?
If a state is formed on the basis of administrative facility, the government cannot be faulted. All other grounds of division are either deleterious or uncalled for.
Apologists of the Telangana state have been highlighting its economic backwardness. If it is so, Rayalaseema is economically more backward than the Telangana region, something which was corroborated by the Srikrishna Committee on Andhra bifurcation. Ironically, when Telangana was merged with the Andhra region in 1956 the argument was that the unification would benefit the former.
Furthermore, Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, perhaps more underdeveloped than the Telangana region, has been clamouring for statehood for decades. If a Telangana state comes into being, a Vidarbha state or Gorkhaland may not be far behind. This is not to say that there should not be any new states in the future. Far from it. In fact, small states are better placed to get the centre's assistance and encouragement in all aspects.
The point is the central government must craft a clear-cut modus operandi based on even clearer rules and conditions. Ad-hocism should not be the basis for forming a new state.
If need be, another States Reorganisation Commission should be set up not only to go into the demands for new states but the way they should be formed.
It's amusing to read Union Minister of Science and Technology S. Jaipal Reddy's remark that the division of Andhra Pradesh is inevitable as the people of the two regions could not live together.
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