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Congress : emphasis on reforms and good governance |
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Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s review of the performance of the Chief Ministers of 11 states ruled by the Congress indicates that with the Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and possibly Jammu and Kashmir elections round the corner, the party has decided that it must put up a good show in terms of governance. This is all the more important since the BJP run state governments have little to show by way of performance. Accordingly, the Congress believes that the best way to highlight the efficiency of the states governed by it is to speed up economic reforms. In this context, the success of Chief Minister Digvijay Singh’s government in Madhya Pradesh needs to be emulated. This is clearly the signal that Mrs Sona Gandhi gave to the Chief Ministers. The simple point is that the Centre can pursue reforms only upto a point. For benefits to flow to the people, the initiative has to come from the state governments. This makes good economic, even political sense, especially when elections in the states are a few months away. This is precisely what the Congress appears to have realised.
But there is contradiction. The Congress president has been sending opposite signals to her party’s MPs and to MLAs in the states where the Congress occupies the opposition benches. Both in New Delhi and in states ruled by other parties, the Congress has tried to portray itself as opposed to reform measures like the hike in user charges - Andhra Pradesh’s power tariff revision being a case in point. It has preferred to stick to the vague slogan of reforms which do not ignore the social dimension. In the immediate context this strategy of being on the right side of popular opinion may well work for the Congress, but it is not a sustainable proposition. For, as commentators have grudgingly admitted on several occasions, the electorate may be illiterate but it is not foolish. India is no exception to the dictum that you cannot fool all the people all the time.
In terms of the reforms, the only sustainable political stance for the Congress - or any other party - is to determine which side of the fence it is on and then to stick firmly to that side.
If the Congress’ deeds in the states ruled by the party are any indication, it would seem to accept that India needs reforms. If so, it would be much better off aggressively campaigning for them.
Andhra Pradesh : Telengana issue hots up
The Andhra Pradesh Government on June 22 announced Panchayat elections (local body and village level elections). According to observers, the outcome of the elections would decide the future of Telengana as a separate state. The elections will be conducted in two phases on July 12 and July 15. This is the first election after three decades that is being fought over Telengana’s statehood.
The demand for a separate state of Telengana gained momentum after Deputy Speaker K. Chandrasekhar Rao quit the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to form the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). The Congress is yet to make up its mind on the issue, but it is under pressure from 41 MLAs belonging to the Telengana region. The BJP is in the most unenviable position after having promised statehood in the 1998 parliamentary polls. The state unit is divided and has been forced into silence by the high command. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has shed his initial diffidence and is now going flat out campaigning for an integrated state.
Background
T.V. Rajeshwar, former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim, traces the history and background of Telengana. The sentiments for a Telengana state are as old as the Nizam’s Hyderabad state where Telengana was the dominant zone with the twin city of Hyderabad/Secundrabad being its pride. There were also Kannada speaking and Marathi speaking districts in the South-West and the North-West of the erstwhile Hyderabad State. After the Centre’s police action in September, 1948, initiated primarily at the instance of Sardar Patel, the Home Minister, the Hyderabad State remained as a composite unit until 1956. From September, 1948 when the police action suppressed the shortlived challenge from disparate forces from Hyderabad and until April, 1952, when the first general election took place, Hyderabad State was directly administered by the Centre. B. Ramakrishna Rao was the first Chief Minister from the Congress party to form a popular government and his Cabinet also included representatives from Marathwada and the Kannada areas. The Telengana Communists who were responsible for the famous Telengana struggle during 1946-52 had by then given up arms and peace prevailed in the State. The administration was run by a large number of officers brought from outside and they were assisted by local officers.
The backwardness of Telengana area, which is now cited as the prime factor for demanding a separate state, goes back to the days of Nizam. It was not only the Telengana districts but the entire Hyderabad state was backward and underdeveloped. Large tracts of land were given to Nizam’s nobles and family retainers as well as big Hindu landlords. The communist agitation in the state was largely agrarian and directed against the atrocities of absentee landlords who lived in comfort in Hyderabad. There were only two small townships - Aurangabad and Warangal, apart from Hyderabad city, where there were colleges and elsewhere there were only high schools, one for each district. The medium of instruction was Urdu in all the high schools. The officers who were on deputation in Hyderabad tended to look down upon the local officers and this resulted in a backlash in the form of an agitation in 1953, demanding that all outsiders should be sent back. Students and young political activists took out processions raising slogans like “Iddly sambar go back”. The situation went out of control in a couple of places when the police resorted to firing. The agitation slowly died down after the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues took necessary corrective measures.
Andhra Pradesh was the first linguistic state formed after Independence. It became inevitable after extensive riots broke out throughout the Telugu-speaking districts of the erstwhile Madras Presidency, following the death of Potti Sriramulu who went on a fast unto death in 1953 demanding the formation of Andhra State. Pandit Nehru was rattled by the intensity of riots in Andhra districts after Potti’s death and he announced the formation of Andhra state from October, 1953. This became the intermediary stage as the Telugu speaking districts of the neighbouring Hyderabad State were keen to join the Andhra state and emerge as a Vishal Andhra. In any case the creation of Andhra State led to similar demands elsewhere. This led to the setting up of the State Reorganisation Commission in 1955 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It was headed by Justice Fazl Ali. The Commission recommended, inter alia, the setting up of the States of Telengana and Vidharbha but this recommendation was not accepted. The simmering discontent raised its head in these regions occasionally and never completely petered out.
In 1968 Dr M. Channa Reddy led an agitation in favour of Telengana which gained quick momentum with the participation of student elements. There was widespread rioting and arson in the first week of June, 1969, which led to the arrest of Channa Reddy and a large number of activists. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi proceeded to Hyderabad, got Dr Channa Reddy released from jail, and negotiated a settlement for accommodating the Telengana aspirations, without conceding a state. Channa Reddy was later taken in the Central Cabinet and his senior collaborators were accommodated in various capacities. Channa Reddy subsequently became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh twice and had a long political innings even thereafter.
The demand for a Telengana state coming to the fore this time is primarily due to the larger-than-life dominance of the Telugu Desam party’s supremo and Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu is a shrewd administrator who thinks and acts and a large number of administrative measures taken by him are on the positive side. His great interest in information technology has caught the imagination of not only the entire country but even the foreign countries. Unfortunately the problems of the State are such that very little development work could be undertaken due to paucity of funds. There is a huge bureaucracy which cannot be whittled down. The power situation has been alarmingly bad since free handouts of electricity had been the norm from the days of N.T. Rama Rao in 1983. Even a minor upward revision of power tariff is resisted. The entire revenue collection in the State goes towards payment of salaries and debt servicing. All the same, with the Telengana cry reaching a crescendo, Chandrababu Naidu has come out with a lot of sops for assuaging the Telengana grievances. He announced a series of irrigation projects primarily for the development of Telengana districts, creation of a number of posts of teachers, setting up of several schools, etc.
The Telengana demand has led to similar demands for formation of a North Andhra State consisting of four districts of northernmost region of the State. There is also an old dormant demand for a Rayalseema State consisting of the comparatively drought prone districts of the south-western region of the State. All these are impracticable and are in fact not serious.
The Telengana movement, however, can become emotional and serious if the students join the movement. The other complicating factor is that both the BJP legislators for the Telengana region as well as the Congress MLAs back the demand for a Telengana state. They hold the BJP leadership at the Centre responsible for the revival of the Telengana state demand because of the recent formation of the States of Uttaranchal and Chhatisgarh. They point out that Uttaranchal is not capable of sustaining itself and has to be rescued by making it a Special Category State like the North Eastern States. There is some validity in this argument that if the movement gains momentum and goes out of control, the Centre should be held primarily responsible.
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