If you look around the country right now, you are almost tempted to put a flag up on your own home and declare yourself a separate state with the complete majority of your house. The way in which we are setting a disastrous precedent time in and time out is almost lunatic. Just for a victory in the next coming elections, people with white coats and black cash are splitting the nation up in to pieces and causing damage which might have some grave repercussions. Short-sighted policies and lock of any kind of moral fabric is making sure that the few bad men at the top play jigsaw with a nation that is so dear to us.
Reading Indian history as a little kid, I have always been told that the most essential reason for an Island halfway across the planet to rule us for nearly 250 years was the simple fact that we had no unity. We allowed our mighty empire to dismantle itself in the name of ‘Local Pride’. Years after independence we are doing this again by giving states to anyone who so as puts in half a request. This breaking spree has gone on for too long and has gone a bit too far. Anyone who has a decent vote bank and has the voice to put in half a plea is almost guaranteed to get a separate state. This of course is provided the government in the center sees that its own party wins an election and forms a government in the newly formed state.
The problem of Telangana is nothing new. It has been a part of Andhra Pradesh since the day of the states formation. I come from Hyderabad and I do not actually feel either as someone from Andhra region of AP or its Telangana region. I just feel like a ‘Hyedarabadi’ but I’m surrounded by people who have an overwhelming sense of regionalism. It is one thing to be proud of your heritage, it is altogether another to try and take advantage of it. It is funny how in this time and age people of Telangana actually believe that a new state would improve their lives miraculously. This whole heightened hype about bringing back jobs to the locals is almost an absolute joke and in spirit goes against the constitution.
Historically speaking Telangana wanted to separate itself from Andhra since 1956 and even before that. But people then were coaxed and even forced in to submission so as to include its 9 districts in AP. The discontent has only grown with time. While it is hard to ignore popular sentiment, it is essential to note that popular sentiment is not always the right opinion. The areas backwardness which is the reason for bitterness among the localities stems from the fact that most of the terrain is dry and barren. The Andhra region is blessed with resources by nature and is lush green with both Krishna and Godavari rivers. Now people of Telangana are being cheated in to believing that a separate state is the answer to al their woes.
The problem with this is that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which says that it is fighting for Telangana, is that it has nothing constructively planned for the state apart from the fact that they want to rule a state. While they shout like wolfs in the African plains for a separate state, they never mention a constructive plan to develop it for next 5 years or even two. Once again ‘Vote-Fetching policies’ are replacing ‘Welfare Policies’ and people are being conned by men who are showing a Utopia in their palm. Andhra Pradesh was the first state to be formed on linguistic basis in this country. It is a tag we much rather not have. Hopefully Telangana won’t be the first state to be formed on basis of dialect! Maharashtra does not exclusively belong to Marathis and Bengal is not only a state for the Bengalis. Why can’t we understand that a state borders are for administrative convenience and not for personal convenience? Can we ever learn to share rather than stare eye to eye?
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