Nandu's Insight

'Telengana' - news waves seem to be full of this word in the last few days. Formation of another state in India is not earth shattering news. Many new states have been formed since independence. A foreign country Sikkim even became an Indian state in 1975. It is not that new state is Telengana either. Fazal Ali Commission or the States Reorganisation Commission in 1955 recommended that Telengana be kept separate from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema [Paragraph 386 of SRC Report]. Therefore, fifty-four years later, if the people of Telengana want a separate state, there is nothing to wander about. What is important about this now is the fact that the Government of India has decided to start the process of forming the new state, after K.Chandrasekhara Rao, leader of the party with a one-point agenda that of formation of Telengana fasted and was reported to be in a critical health condition.

One could think of this as a typical Gandhian struggle, if it were not for a couple of ironical points. One, Irom Sharmila, a political activist in the state of Manipur has been on a hunger strike from November 4, 2000 to demand the withdrawal of a draconian law called Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. For people who wonder how she is alive after nine years of fasting, the explanation is that she is regularly arrested, taken to the hospital and force-fed. Well, the point is that in spite of her Gandhian struggle, the Government has not budged a bit. But for KCR, the government bends. Strange are the ways of politics. Two, KCR himself is a controversial leader whose political ambitions made him move from Telungu Desam Party, where he was a minister from Telengana Rashtriya Samithi. His way of running the party led to differences with another leader, A. Narendra, which led to his suspension from the party. The political ambitions of KCR took him from BJP camp to Congress and then the third front. After the electoral process earlier this year, even before the election results came out, KCR declared that he would be with the NDA led by BJP. The conclusion is that, this struggle is neither Gandhian nor done with a noble purpose.

Let us sit back, wait and watch the developments.