A look into the various reasons for people espousing the cause of a separate telengana makes interesting reading.The major reason for the clamour is the lack of development in the Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh. At the outset this demand sounds ridiculous. A brief look across the country and one can find most of the regions irrespective of whether they are part of a large state or a smaller one, do have despicable levels of development. Granting statehood for Telengana will increase the clamour for such small states to be formed and the associated movements are bound to get stronger. At present there are demands for a separate state of Bundelkand, Gorkhaland,Vidharbha etc..This would drive us towards a pre-independence scenario and the idea of a united single nation will undergo a heavy beating. This would leave us extremely vulnerable to extremism and affect us in all possible ways. India would then be like present day Afghanistan, where localised regions are controlled by tribal warlords and thus leave us extremely vulnerable to control by foreign hands. This lack of unity was one of the most significant reasons for the takeover of India by the English.People would do well not to repeat the same mistakes.
The second reason being offered is that small states are easy to govern and administer, hence benefits would ripple down to people faster and more efficiently. This would also accelerate development thereby narrowing regional imbalances. One just needs to have a look at all the north-eastern states to counter this claim. If the above claims had a modicum of truth behind them, then the north-eastern states would have been the most developed states in our country.
The third reason being offered is the cultural differences between people from Andhra and Telengana. India is an extremely diverse country and even within a region we have people belonging to different cultures,religions etc.. living together in harmony. Granting a separate state for people from different cultures would split apart the social fabric of our country thereby disrupting the harmony that exists. Its claimed that because of these cultural differences people of Andhra have always discriminated people from Telengana and this is also being projected as the purported reason for the backwardness of the region. Supporters of telengana point out to the fact the all chief ministers of AP have come from either Rayalseema or coastal andhra. Leave aside the Chief minister. What about the other ministers or the elected representatives. Telengana has definitely had a fair share of representation and people would do well to look into why their representatives have failed so far.
The most dismaying aspect of this whole issue is the way different political parties are trying to use this issue to further their gains. Everybody is aware that YSR never espoused the cause of a separate Telengana, however he managed to win the assembly elections and that too by a huge margin. This is definitely not a people's issue. The politicians have also managed to coax the minds
of the young students and are using them as a tool to project this as a people's issue.The agitations by both the pro and anti Telengana groups has brought life to a standstill in all parts of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad,which was being looked up as a valuable investment hub all these years has lost its promise and people now are looking elsewhere.
The various political parties must come together and try to resolve this impasse asap. This brooding has already lead to invaluable loss of life of many a young students apart from valuable loss of property and investment. The people of Andhra Pradesh have coexisted peacefully for the last 50 years and politicians must not try and disrupt this harmony. It is this unity that has helped them so far and
People would do well to remain united and advance to greater heights.
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