Telangana yes what next?

Hyderabad: The division of Andhra now certain, Seemandhra has to look for a new capital. The Prime Minister’s 6-point formula has not cheered many in the region.

Vizag should be announced as the new capital since there are no other city that could claim the honour, said S Siva Sankar, president of the Uttarandhra Rakshana Vedika. “Now the government should spell out exactly what is there in the package. If the next government changes at the Centre, we’ll have to wait and watch if the promises of the current Prime Minister are kept.”

TDP member Ayyanna Patrudu said, “All the leaders joined hands and cheated the people. Seemandhra has been affected but there has been no justice done to the people of this region.’’

Coming down heavily on BJP and Congress, Samaikyandhra Student JAC convenor Lagadu Govind said, “The Centre has not yet fulfilled the promises that were given to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, so how can we expect them to keep their promises now?

Mentioning that a legal course was one option in front of them, he said, “We will take a decision by tomorrow morning on what needs to be done to protect the interests of the Seemandhra people.”

The birth of India’s 29th state has been a culmination of the build-up of tumultuous affairs. While the Seemandhra section has been going hammer and tongs against the development, this was always a logical ending for the Telangana people. Warangal, in the thick of actions has assumed the look of a wedding venue.

Avinash Bhaisa from Warangal says it looks like a “barati ghar (groom’s house)”. He says, “The celebrations are over the top here. People have hired musical bands, just like they hire for weddings. They have been dancing on the streets ever since the announcement has been made.” However, he’s bitter with the timing of the announcement. “We waited for close to 60 years for this moment. It wouldn’t have mattered much had this decision come six months later. This is just a political gimmick and that’s all,” he says, adding, “Now, it is clear that the Congress will win here. Just because the Telangana Bill got cleared, people will forget all their wrongdoings and support them wholeheartedly.”

For Nandini, this is more of a moral victory than anything else. However, she takes a neutral point of view to explain where the whole bone of contention lies. “The problem, as I see it, is not in the split. People from Seemandhra are not bothered by the bifurcation of the state. They are worried about Hyderabad being taken away from them, something that was inevitable. Hyderabad, thanks to its location, had always been a part of Telangana, right since the times if the Nizams. Just because people from Andhra took over and developed it, doesn’t make them the rightful owners,” she says.

She also talks about discrimination, that has led to bad blood between the two factions. “People from Seemandhra have always indulged in ridiculing our language and cuisine. All of a sudden, when the state was on the brink of separation, they wanted us to be a part of them, when all through history, they have done nothing but make us feel like outcasts,” she lambasts. People of Telangana also feel that it has a lot to do with governance. Nandini feels that the leaders of Seemandhra always consoled their people that Telangana would never happen. And when it did, it sparked off a huge protest.

With the Telugu speaking lot slowly creeping into the predominantly Urdu-speaking regions, job opportunities suddenly opened up for the Andhra people, who were obviously proficient in both Telugu, unlike the natives who weren’t. This, in turn, led to more Andhraites ruling the government jobs, a tradition that has been carried on for generations. Pavan Kandi has fallen victim to this majority, losing out on a job in a company where majority was from Seemandhra.

However, every coin has two sides, and this story too is no different. Jarardhan, from Nellore, feels this is pure injustice. “We have been pumping in funds to develop Hyderabad, building the best of colleges and other facilities, and all of sudden, it just gets snatched away from us. The best educational institutes, the jobs, all go to them and we have nothing,” he exclaims. “NIT-Warangal is one of the premier institutes. With Telangana bagging it, majority of the seats will be reserved for the home state, and we will be left with nothing,” he adds.

Clearly, the bone of contention is Hyderabad here. Had the focus of development been thoughtfully distributed, there wouldn’t have been so much ruckus at all. Nandini Rabelli says Andhra should be happy that they can use all their experience with Hyderabad to create a new development hub.

While some people are rejoicing and others are cursing, there are some who are absolutely indifferent. Like Venkatesh says, “I am a taxpayer at the end of the day and i don’t really care which state I am a part of. I want my tax money to be wisely spent and that’s all. All this fuss doesn’t get to me.”

Hyderabad, meanwhile, looks quiet, unperturbed by any of the commotion that’s being created around it.