A reaction from one of my readers

This is a reaction from a reader of  this blog, Dr. Nagendra Rao.  He has expressed his views and wanted them to be posted here.  In the interest of fairness and equity, I am pasting his writing here, as it is.  I would like to inform all that this is not to start an argument on anything.  On that I am very clear.  Thank you.

Dr. Nagendra Rao writes:

Satish! So far I am following your blog passively without expressing my views. But I am reading seriously your posts almost immediately after you post them.  The reason for not intervened so far is that I agree mostly with whatever you are writing. Only once I felt that I should intervene in the debate. It is nothing to do with what you have written but your reaction to some of the comments. But I resisted because a) I felt I may be taking too much liberty b) the persons who posted the comments are having knowledge and authority on the subject, otherwise you would not have responded that way. But no more I can resist after reading your reaction to some of the comments.

Satish, let me be honest. I felt you don’t have to change your positions or apologetic about what you have written so far. We see the point in argument but I surprised you agree with them in Toto, expressed willingness to change your position. Your reactions are very extreme, which in my understanding not required.  

First time I felt this way after reading your reaction to Mr. Promod’s comments on judiciary. I am quite away from the scene in Andhra Pradesh, I haven’t read in newspaper what the High Court judge actually said. But I am quoting here what you actually said: ... but does one member of the judiciary respond to the work of another member this way?  In a climate where tempers are high and everything is volatile would such remarks not exacerbate the situation?  Why cannot we wait for the report to be made public officially and then comment rather than providing sneak previews like this? It should also be remembered that the Government of India has the right to challenge his decision and if a verdict emerges in a higher court that it is better that it be kept a secret, then what?  I am not defending the Governor, or Justice Sri Krishna but only raising questions of propriety of behaviour of people in responsible positions in offices of repute. I am not going to bring what the judge actually said about the report - whether it can be bettered by front office of the MP or the report is full of lies. It has to be proved empirically. We all have agreements and disagreements about the content of the report (may be some other occasion I will talk about where I can disagree).  But let me limit on this occasion to your reactions. I disagree with all the comments made by Mr. Promod, but one. Firstly, I disagree with a narrow juristic position he has taken.  I will not give value to the position from which the comments are coming from, whether retired judge or sitting judge or ordinary citizen. I give value to the strength of the comments. The strength comes from the notion of justice and public good. Our viewpoint will depend on what we consider as justice or public good. We as academicians have every right to differ with judgements delivered by the courts or Justices, more right to differ with the comments made by the Justices when they are delivering judgements. If some one says that I should not do that means he is asking me not to differ with some of the court judgements which have gone against the agitating workers, against protests or agitations or the very human rights you and me. Should I accept the verdict delivered on Bhopal gas victims (fixing compensation)?  Should I accept verdict on Binayak Sen? There are hundreds of judgements with which we differ. With regard to the comments passed by the judges, I will cite one classic incident. Justice B.N. Sharma who delivered a dissenting and separate judgement stated that: “the disputed site was indeed the birthplace of Lord Ram the mosque was built by Mughal emperor Babar against the tenets of Islam. “Thus, it cannot have the character of a mosque”. I felt it is really funny. So should I accept such a atrocious comments? Similarly, I have my own reservations about Godra judgement as well.  If we can’t speak about these things who else Satish? I agree that many times the judges of the lower courts delivered most radical verdict under severe pressure and we have to be thankful to them for whatever rights we are enjoying. I also agree with Mr. Promod that a judge at lower court should not express what he believes because the verdict can be reviewed by the higher courts. At the same we have every right to differ with what goes against the values we cherish or how much justice is there in the verdict. Even when I differ with the judgement or comments of the judges, I will not become judgemental about his/her integrity. I have seen many people who appreciated Srikrishna for his report on Bombay riots and abusing him for what he did on Telangana forgetting that there are many fellow academicians in that committee whatever goes against Srikrishna the same will goes against them as well. If what the High court judge said is true, we have to believe that all those academicians also lying. Judges have come from the same society where we are living and the context surely influences them.  It is our responsibility to offer critique to what they said or where we differ without denigrating them.  The way some of the lower court judges delivered radically progressive judgements, many of them also delivered judgements mixing up their own subjectivity or individual interests. I just want to quote here what Chief Justice of India H S Kapadia said on Sunday (12^th March) reported in Indian Express of 13^th March:”... judges must not ‘give lectures’ to society while doing their job and should not ‘judge the wisdom of the legislature’. ‘The problem is something we judges impose our own values, likes or dislikes on society’.

Second issue is related to caste. What is so wrong if we name the castes when it is real?  Isn’t it true or not? I absolutely agree with your assessment that the Telangana movement is primarily a movement of real estate or competition among elite for increasing rate of profits or wealth. As dominant forces, the upper castes (Reddy and Velama in Telangana and Kamma and Reddy in Coastal and Ralyalaseema) who own much of the industry and service sector are more to gain or lose, certainly not the ordinary people.  Our theories of ethnicity and nationalism informed us how the elite will bring masses into movements using appropriate symbols. Whatever may be the future, how these ordinary will benefit from this movements in this neoliberal era of market forces? How it does affect the ordinary when State is withdrawing leaving us to market forces? Where from government jobs come when the state is cutting to the size and restricted to only police functions? Will the new Telangana state nationalise all the private property? Let the Telangana JAC say that you will see the collapse of the movement irrespective of the huge participation of dalits and OBCs in the moment. Then whose movement this is Satish? Why Lagadapati, Kavuri  and Rayapati are making so much noise than other leaders from Coastal and Rayalaseema regions? Because they are the major losers. Then if we say that the Telangana movment is dominated by people belong to Reddy and Velama castes and Seemandhra movement is dominated by Coastal Kammas and Rayalaseemas Reddys’ along with sections of Vysyas, Kapus and Rajus, what is so wrong in it? When we are talking in these lines, we are talking in general terms. They are individuals and forces that are always stand away from whatever is happening in their own castes.  We are talking about the characteristic of the movement and forces involved in it. Not about the individuals. If we talk about the individuals, in history counter movements against caste oppressions started by the people belong to the same castes. Isn’t it Gurajada who created typical symbolic brahmincal characters like Gireesam, Soujanyarao Panthulu or Agnihotravadhanulu? Isn’t it Arutla Ramachandra Reddy or Kamaladevi who fought against feudal lords of their own castes? Isn’t Chennamaneni Rajeswara Rao who stood away from economics and politics of his own caste? How can we erase “Mabhoomi” or “Dasi” from our own memories Satish? I think Mr. Promod is not aware of the debates within the Telangana movement. Andhra Jyothy editor Mr. Srinivas who is strong supporter of Telangana movement wrote many columns worrying about how feudalism is on rise in post-Telangana movement scenario. In fact, the Telangana JAC under Prof Kodandaram and Gaddar party are flouted to counter these feudal tendencies.  Kalpana Kannabhiran, Haragopal, Chukka Ramaiah also wrote articles on these issues. Many of them are aware of the contradictions butt they are thinking that these can be resolved once they achieve the goal of the movement. Political success is essential for achieving social emancipation. In my understanding, it is wishful thinking. Wishful thinking because the rich and elite sections will not allow this to happen and they don’t have that kind of strength and base to achieve this.  Hence, this movement is movement by the rich for the rich whether Telangana or Samaikyandhra. Let us stand by that. If the rich are represented by some castes let us state that also. But let us also admit that they are some people who stood away from their own castes and champion the genuine people’s movements whom we cannot bracket in the same category.  And we salute them as well.

Third thing Satish. I am afraid I have become too lengthy. But let me finish it off.  Who said that Indian and Pakistan Muslims or not same Satish until unless we assume that Indian Muslim means Muslims of Hyderabad or those who living south of Vindhyas? They are the same before the independence, during the independence and after the independence. We political scientists protest when people are categorised invoking single identity – say religion – ignoring broader cultural or other identities/markers. A Muslim in Hyderabad can speak Urdu but not Muslims of Malabar or other south Indian regions. They might have lot difference with north Indian Muslims and many similarities with their neighbourhood Hindus. This is the case with entire India. Geographical variations do give cultural variations as well including language. But it is not the whole story. When India divided, what actually divided is Bengal, Punjab and Sindh. I can’t say much about cultural similarity of the Bengalis as I haven’t visited any part of the Bengal in my life. But let me say about the places closer to where I am working. The Punjabis of this side or that side speak Punjabi, eat Thandoori, sing Qawali, dance banghra. They are same. Same in every aspect, except the dam thing religion. Nusrut Fateh Ali Khan, Shamshad Begam, Reshma, Amrita Pritam... or they Indians or Pakistanis? They are Punjabis by birth, by culture, by value system, by heart  and by soul. So is the case with the state of Jammu and Kashmir. At the borders of India and Pakistan in Jammu region, they join together speak in local dialect of Dogri. I have many stories to Narrate. Just I will finish with one story told by Muzfar Beig, former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir who was a leading Supreme Court lawyer. Some time ago, there was a India-Pakistan lawyers forum meeting. He thought that he is going to have a good time with the fellow Muslims from Pakistan. Unfortunately he was end up as a loner because the Punjabi lawyers and Sindhi lawyers of both sides enjoying the company of their counterparts and they are not many lawyers from other side of the border. What I want to say is that the people belong to the areas actually divided are same in all aspects except one – the religion. I can share lot much about our commonness when we meet Satish.

PS: It has become too lengthy and I don’t have patience to read again for correcting language errors. And I am not apologetic about my linguistic errors.

Rectification of anomalies in my thoughts and expression of those thoughts.

It has been very validly pointed out that I have been loosely using names of castes in the blog and that this can potentially drive a wedge among people.  That would be against what I am aspiring for, unity among people.  This has been pointed out by Pramod and I am putting his comments here and changing the post which he says is doing the damage.

‎@Satish: "Ironically, today it is the Reddys and the Velamas who kept people in Telangana unempowered , who are arguing for a separate Telangana, so that "we can rule ourselves". A direct quote from your blog Satish. A significant number of those two communities has kept itself away from the T movement; and an equally significant number is participating in the movement. Though members from those communities do head some of the pro T political formations, and many of them are participating in the movement, however, the truth is that the T movement is being kept alive, and sustaining itself, on account of the deep sense of alienation that people from disempowered segments of the population, including those two communities that you name, but mostly from OBC's, MBC's and Dalits feel. This is the first time that the masses down below do feel that they are truly empowered, and that it is they who are driving the movement. In ascribing any credit to Reddy's and Velamas, you end up fanning their insecurities. Is that your goal?

In consistently articulating the same putrid analysis of Seem-Andhra Congress and TDP leaders, that the T movement is the making of those two communities, are you seeking to drive wedges between those two communities and rest of T population? Especially when you take what is a genuinely popular movement (even if one were to accept your argument that is is an ill-conceived movement), in which most of the members active on the street belong to other communities? Are you saying that none from those two communities is ever capable of seeing and acknowledging the past injustices that many members of their communities have wrought on BC's and Dalits?

If one were to extend your logic, what about other upper caste communities that have, for a few thousand years, nurtured and provided the spiritual foundation for essentially a divided society? Isn't that the community that SK commission highlights ( and not the community that you refer to in your post above) as having worked for promoting a pan Telugu identity and formation of linguistic states? They wouldn't have any right to be talking about empowerment of the masses anywhere in India, now would they? - Pramod wrote this bit.


I have to say that the Brahmin community has been at the helm of creating a society based in divisions which we are till date not able to break.  Yes Pramod you are right about that. I have removed the offending passages from the post.


The following is what Irfan Adhmed had to say.
BTW, about an earlier post "Time we learnt some lessons": Indian and Pakistani Muslims being alike is an exaggeration at best. At the time of partition, this may have been true, but the divergence in the ensuing years has been real and significant. First, it is an over-simplification that there is any homogeneity among Indian Muslims (even on matters of faith and doctrine, there is variation), and likewise among Pakistani Muslims, and then definitely a stretch that they are alike. I've found more homogeneity among Bangladeshi Muslims than either of the other two, maybe because of a single language and relative lack of class-structure ossification. This is something that has come up with my relatives (especially of my generation): we feel we have more in common with Hyderabadis/Indians -- of various faiths -- than with Pakistanis (even branches of the family tree that fell on the other side of the border); we don't like being mistaken for or assumed to be Pakistani. Bangladeshis are much more sensitive about this matter (had a colleague, last name Chaudhry, who went ballistic when anyone assumed him to be Pakistani). Having interacted with several, I've found they relate better to Indians than to Pakistanis (of course among Indians, really well to Bengalis).


The following was written by Ravi Kaza
@Daddo : The Bengali dialect spoken in BanglaD is not remotely understood by the Indian Bengalis. Its Mirpuri dialect, which is almost like a different language actually. JFI
mine is no arguement, a statement of fact.
Anyways, your arguement reminds me of a Bangla taxi driver in London, who was on my duty for a week in Feb 2009. I asked him, why 90% of the socalled Indian curry houses in London dont call themselves - Bangla cuisine, since they are BD owned and operated? . The ingenious reply was, Sir the cuisine is actually Moghlai and India has no first right on that . Quick reposte was then " why dont they call themselves Moghlai curry houses". Needless , the matter ended there.
The similarity being inferred by u is that the religion , came into India 1300 years ago from the Northern invaders. The interrugnum is too long for any similarities to be retained.different sects are proud of their own origins and would love to retain their sectarian identity. - Ravi Kaza


I have also incorporated a change that was necessitated by something pointed out by Irfan Ahmed and Ravi Kaza.  This pertains to clarifying the fact that similarities between Muslims in the areas which were India before 1947.  I have put an asterisk clarifying that I am talking about what was at the time of independence.
My thanks to Irfan Ahmed, Pramod Reddy and Ravi Kaza for their suggestions.

Changed lyrics of a song originally written by the great Roger Waters

I am first going to write down the lyrics of the song "Towers of Faith" by Roger Waters (the mastermind of Pink Floyd).  This song was about the conflict over land in the Middle East and I thought by changing a few things in the lyrics one could write the same about what is happening in Andhra Pradesh today.  So first I will put down Waters' lyric and follow it up with my changed lyric to suit the context here.

Towers of Faith

The Prophet reclined on the Golan Heights,
He said this land is my land to the Shiites,
Jehovah looked out from the sea of Galilee beneath,
He said "I see you, you thief
This land is my land, this sand is my sand, this band is my band",
Oh the lonely boys
Looking over their shoulder
Checking every boulder in the park,
When the gates closed after dark.

Then the Pope rolled down in his armoured van,
He fell on his knees and kissed the land,
He said something that I did not understand,
It was in Polish,
Then up stepped an aide,
He said, here is what his Holiness said:
"I am the Chief Jesuit,
This land is Jesus' land,
That is all there is to it".

And in New York City, a business man in his Mohair suit,
In the World Trade Centre, puffs on his cheroot,
And he says
"I don't care who owns the desert sands,
My brief is with the hydro-carbons underneath"
And the sea of battle rages around the ancient tombs,
And mother nature licks her wounds,
And the lonely boys in their towers of faith,
Walk nervous in the park,
When the gates are closed after dark.

Now here are my lyrics suitable to the present context in Andhra Pradesh
I have called the song "Towers of Hate"

Channa Reddy reclined on the Telangana Heights,

He said this land is my land to the Coastal Andhraiites,

NTR looked out from the river Krishna beneath,

He said "I see you, you thief

This land is my land, this tank is my tank, this bund is my bund",

Oh the lonely boys

Looking over their shoulder

Checking every boulder in the park,

When the gates closed after dark.

Then the KCR rolled down in his imported sedan,

He fell on his knees and kissed the land,

He said something that I did not understand,

It was gibberish,

Then up stepped KTR,

He said, here is what his Mightiness said:

"I am the Chief Culprit,

This land is my father's land,

That is all there is to it".

And in Hyderabad City, a business man in his Armani suit,

In the Cyber Towers, puffs on his cheroot,

And he says

"I don't care who owns the damned lands,

My brief is with all the money underneath"

And the sea of battle rages around the Qutub Shahi tombs,

And mother Hyderabad licks her wounds,

And the lonely boys in their towers of hate,

Walk nervous in the park,

When the gates are closed after dark.

Here NTR is N.T. Rama Rao, KCR is K. Chandrashekar Rao, KTR is his son K.T. Rama Rao.

Please keep in mind that this is mostly in jest, the re-writing of the lyric.  I just saw a comparable situation and did this.  No intention to offend anyone.

Time we learnt some lessons

I cannot recall who exactly wrote this bit in a Hindi essay, (maybe it was Acharya Agneya or Sumitra Nandan Pant) but I recall the bit very well.  It went something like this in Hindi "the beauty of Indian Unity is best seen in Carnatic Classical Music, where the music is named after a Kannada speaking region, sung by Tamilians mainly and the words are in Telugu".  Those were the days when people were happy searching for bonds of commonality and forging them to create a strong and united India.  Today, we are verging on a precipice of integration disaster and nothing illustrates this better than what happened two days ago in Hyderabad.  My problem with the vandalism that saw the uprooting and defacing of statues is only very peripheral.  As I have stated in my post of yesterday that I do not subscribe to the erection of statues and I have also given my reasons for that, and so I shall not write anymore about that.  However, what concerns me most is the intolerance that went into the vandalism.  You have a perceived and I use the word well advisedly outsider and you see these statues as symbols of the oppression of the perceived outsider and therefore in an act of hate and spite, you vandalize them.

To me this act is very much akin to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, because that also is rooted in intolerance.  Let us now face a truth, however inconvenient it may be to some of  us.  India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are actually one nation, though they maybe three different nation states*.  I recall what Tony Greig was saying when he was commentating on TV for a world cup cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in the year 1992.  Australia was batting and there was a lot of chatter from the Pakistani fielders and Greig simply said "Pakistan will play India in the next match and then I guess things will be a little more silent since they will be understood by the Indians who share a lot including languages with them".  Those are not the exact words but what they convey is the exact meaning of what Tony Greig had said.  We may not want to recognize this unity but the fact is that it exists.  A big number of Pakistani Muslims speak Punjabi and Kashmiri and we know that almost all Bangladeshis speak Bangla language.

The story that is accepted today is that the British divided and ruled India.  Maybe.  What facilitated the division is that there was always a simmering intolerance to the perceived other in this country and that is what was exploited.  I read with distress a report in the Times of India of today that people like Hanuman Chaudhary who was once advisor to the Chandra Babu Naidu Government and Katti Padma Rao a revolutionary, have advised people of Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema to reconcile to the creation of a separate Telangana.  They have said most Coastal Andhra culture is different from Telangana culture. Differences in culture need not mean divisions.  

I want my readers to understand my angst.  It is not that I am batting for a Telugu nationalism and a united state for Telugu speaking people.  My angst is fuelled by the fact that we have started magnifying differences and want divisions and polarisations on the basis of that.  There will be differences, but those differences cannot and should not be the basis for sectarian and parochial thinking.  I oppose the breaking up of Andhra Pradesh because that does not solve the problem.  Tomorrow differences will arise between Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema people, as will differences between various people of various parts of Telangana.  If you are curious about how I am so certain about these differences arising my answer is that politicians will create them if they don't exist for their own purposes and incite people against each other.

I have said that the politicians will exploit the differences between people. The question then is who will bridge the differences and solve the problems.  The answer is simply "people".  The plight of the unempowered in Coastal Andhra, Rayalseema and Telangana is the same.  The differences are between the empowered groups.  It is therefore the duty of all well meaning citizens to strive for a proper civil society that will help bridge the divide.  Ultimately people will have to help themselves, not rely on wily politicians to do something for them.  For that a civil society is required.  It is the bounden duty of all the educated well meaning people to take this idea to everyone not just in Andhra Pradesh but the whole of India so that we learn to empower people and respect each other.  That will depend on a public sphere and deliberative democracy and not on electoral politics and just representative democracy.  The need of the hour is to empower all, tolerate and respect difference and  forge a common goal of development.  That will not happen with breaking what exists.  That will happen with building on what we have today.

*I am talking about what was when India became independent and not necessarily now.

I am still in a state of disbelief!!!!!

I have always been against the creation of statues.  Great people should remain in the memories of people or as people about whom we read or whose works we read.  I have always argued against making statues for precisely the reason that even the greatest of human beings will have detractors and therefore will use the statue to vent anger or frustration.  If the title of this post makes you believe that I am shocked at what happened yesterday on the Tank Bund of the Hussain Sagar Lake then you are completely wrong.  I am in a state of disbelief because I did not see the vandalism coming.  When under the able leadership of an academician a call is given for a million march to the Tank Bund, I should have realized that something like this had been planned.  Not that my realisation counts for anything since I am not a person who could have done anything about it, but still.  The statues of some of the greatest writers and social reformers who were Telugu people or that of people whose work has helped the Telugus have been vandalized and not many eyelids are batted.  Pity.  That is why I always believed that statues should not be made.  How many times have upper caste vandalized the statues of Ambedkar and in retaliation how many times have statues of Gandhi been vandalized in return?  It has happened so many times that it is impossible to keep track of these things anymore.  My anguish is that the upper caste cannot see Ambedkar as one of the greats of this country and the Dalit refuses to see the same in Gandhi.  Ambedkar and Gandhi are Indians, not lower caste and upper caste persons, people who have done great for the country and therefore are actually national heroes.  

Similarly,Krishnadevaraya, Annamacharya, Nannaya, Thyagaraja, Kshetrayya, Jashua, Molla, etc are greats among the Telugus.  When they existed there was no Telangana - Andhra divide.  To drag them into the muck and filth of the Telangana-Andhra politics is so sad.  When I say that it sounds so shallow and phony.  What is unacceptable is that an academician presides over these acts.  Politicians were willing to back off about yesterday's programme which was ultimately so disgraceful to the nation but not academicians.  Not only have the statues become victims of the dirt of politics, they also have been given a permanent resting place in possibly the dirtiest and filthiest water body in the country.  Shows how much we respect ourselves and our heritage.  

Yesterday was even more disgraceful because doctors at the Gandhi Hospital went on strike because some of them or one of them were (was) arrested while participating in the million march and left people requiring critical and emergency care in hospital corridors and ambulance vans.  So many of the young children who went to write the 10th class and intermediate exams were put to great inconvenience and reached home late, causing anxiety to parents.  One of the papers today shows a photograph of KCR addressing the mob and where there should have been a statue there are various people standing and sitting and in the middle of them is a boy who must be ten years old, dressed like Shivaji and holding a sword in his hand.  Really early recruitment.  I suppose what one can do when a society is taken over by lumpen elements and lumpen politics is sit back, grit ones teeth and brace for more such shocks.  I can see what the future of youngsters is, I hope they can and do something about it.

The plot thickens, literally as well

The Telangana Joint Action Committee has decided to make the Hussain Sagar (Tank Bund for Hyderabadis) region the centre for the convergence of the million march to Hyderabad.  The intent is to replicate the festivities of the Telangana region and the fervour that accompanies them by recreating the carnival like atmosphere on the 10th of March, 2011.  The festivals and the festivities that have been cited are the Ganesh Utsav and the Bathkamma festival.  The idea apparently is to have the carnival all along the way of the Ganesh procession that culminates at the Hussain Sagar uses and the routes used for Bathkamma as well.  To me this is very unfortunate. I live in the area adjoining the lake and every year the Ganesh procession is a veritable nuisance that we have to put up with.  Not only do we have to be house bound for the day, but also put up with filth and muck for the next two to three days.  The amount of garbage all around us is unbelievable.  Foul smell (not the one from the lake) lingers for days.  Public urination and defecation is an embarrassment for us all.  To keep away from such sights residents are driven indoors.  Plastic packets used for food are strewn all over the lanes and by lanes that abut the main arterial roads that are used for the procession.  A similar thing but on a very small scale happens with the Bathkamma procession as well.

I for one cannot understand the idea that the Ganesh festival is a Telangana festival.  I am under the impression that it is a festival celebrated all over the country with the public placement of idols and the procession for immersion being unique originally to Pune and Mumbai.  Apparently Bal Gangadhar Tilak the freedom fighter found Ganesh in the pantheon of deities of both the upper and the lower sections of the Hindu order and decided to use the Ganesh Chaturthi festival as an occasion to bring people from both the sections together by erecting public pandals and by having a procession that culminated in the immersion of the idols at one place.  The message was of oneness.  This was a reformist at work.  He was trying to reform Hindu society and inculcate a spirit of Indian Nationalism among the people.  Unfortunately for the people of Hyderabad this effort of reformism provided a tool for the evoking of reactionary sentiments.  A few decades ago the Ganesh procession was brought to Hyderabad by reactionary groups to consolidate the Hindus against the Muslims.  So the first big Ganesh procession had people shouting Hindu-Hindu bhai bhai, instead of the Gandhian slogan Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai.  Over the years the procession has acquired various hues of nuisance ranging from communal riots to polluting the city and the Hussain Sagar lake.  Growing egos have seen growing size of Ganesh idols and the procession now runs for nearly two days as opposed to the one day that it started off with.  Not only that the pandals erected during Ganesh pooja are now left untouched till Durga pooja and every year the number of Durga and Kali idols being put up and immersed in the Hussain Sagar is growing.  It is must a matter of two or three years more for the Durga procession also to reach the proportions of the Ganesh procession.

My problem here is that why do we have to use the Ganesh Utsav as a rallying point for Telangana especially when it was a reactionary thing alienating at least one community if not more?  It is not a Telangana thing since some political parties have successfully taken it to most parts of the state now.  Why do we have to complicate problems of nativity and region by linking them up with religion and creating a whole new ground of controversy?  The stress on ethnicities and sons of soil arguments which are bolstered by this approach will prove to be fatal for the country is a point that I have been raising again and again.  The sense of the local and the entitlement sentiment that comes with it is potentially fraught with dangers of discrimination and these will only add to the complexities of Indian society which is very divided as it is.  During the days of the National Movement, attempts were made to bridge the divides that existed and thereby bring down on discriminations in society.  At the academic level curricula are being formulated with idea of "inclusion" at the centre of things but politics are operating with the idea of "exclusion".  The entire vocabulary of society is now based in "Us and Them".  The iterations of the Us and Them are many and sadly in some cases they are also becoming Us vs Them, as it is in the case of Telangana vs Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema.  The iterations are Hindu and Muslim (in many instances it is Hindu vs Muslim), Upper Caste and Lower Caste, North Indian and South Indian and the ubiquitous Rich and Poor, the extension of which is Empowered and Unempowered.  In each of the above instances the word and can be replaced with versus and you get a picture of a society at war with itself.  How I hope and pray that we get over polarities and polarisations and not create new ones.

In my previous post about Kavuri Sambasiva Rao's utterances I did not mention one point.  He on being surrounded by separate Telangana activists went on record that he did not invest anything in Telangana, except in Hyderabad and abroad.  This is shows the dubious nature of the politicians who are supporting a United Andhra Pradesh.  They don't want it for reasons of nationalism, unity and integrity of the country.  While I do not want to be bifurcated, I certainly don't want to identify myself with the politicians who are talking about leaving Andhra Pradesh as it is.  For them at the centre of everything is the city of Hyderabad.  Nobody cares two hoots about the rest of Telangana (including many asking for a separate Telangana), all people want is control over Hyderabad, for the power and the money that accrue with it.  The people in the hinterland of Telangana, Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra are not even in the peripheral vision of the politicians.

I guess it was black humour at its best when the Telangana leaders of the Telugu Desam party and the Coastal Andhra-Rayalseema leaders of the same party went into separate rooms of the same party office building for confabulations about what strategies to adopt.  The same is the case with the Congress party.  This is a national shame.  Why don't all people seeking the same objective come together on the same platform?  Simple because when the objective is realized they want to be the ones to take power and its perks into their hands.  I was told by a friend that today's Telugu daily newspapers have reported about the BJP wanting to table a resolution asking for a debate on separate statehood for Telangana, Gorkhaland and Ladakh.  They seem to have left out Vidarbha since their friend and electoral partner the Shiv Sena will not take too kindly to that.  But a couple of days ago, an old leader (I cannot remember his name, so please forgive me) had already linked the question of separate Telangana to separate Vidarbha.  I am not being an alarmist but I see the seeds of potential disintegration being sowed and they will only grow roots if there is further procrastination without action.  The more these movements fester the greater the antagonisms between people on either sides of the many divides.

The Union Home Minister has said that no meeting over the issue of Telangana will be convened until all parties agree to attend the meeting.  The TRS and the TDP are adamant that they will not attend.  So the process will continue.  Even legally the Union Government has refused to divulge details of Chapter 8 of the Sri Krishna Committee report, paving the way for a protracted legal battle there as well.  While all this will happen, there will be bandhs, million people marches etc to inconvenience the common public.  To come back to where I started, the choice of location of Hussain Sagar and the Tank Bund means that a number of hospitals in the area will become inaccessible and most of the well known and good hospitals are around this region or one will have to pass through these regions to get to them (the good and well known hospitals).  In the last few years, I have had to rush my father to hospital twice (the last time being last year around this time) and it was only the availability of doctors and emergency care that kept him alive.  I am sure my case is not unique, everyday there are many such.  What of all these people who may require emergency care?  I guess they can go to heaven or hell. Politicians fight by targetting their weapons not at their political adversaries but at common people who have nothing to do with most of these things.  The greed and avarice of politicians seems to ensure that we will never learn our lessons from the past.  So be it, all said and done we are a country that places great faith in fate.  Maybe we are fated to be like this only.

P.S.  I have not proof read this post  so there will be plenty of errors of different kinds.  For the time being please bear with me.  I will rectify the mistakes soon.

Get, set, go. The festivities seem to have begun

Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Congress MP from Eluru (hope I got that right) has reacted after Telangana activists lay siege to his house.  He was apparently fire and brimstone and if what was reported in the Hindu today is correct then he believes (hopefully, he was being sarcastic, though the correspondent of the paper made it appear that he said it in all earnestness) that what is today Andhra Pradesh, should become 23 states and India should become 500 states.  I am sure a lot of you are thinking that I am overreacting to stupidity by making it the subject of a blog post.  Maybe I am, but let me give my reasons for the anxiety that I have.  I have reported of a discussion that I attended on a TV channel sometime ago.  The subject of that was Maoist extremism, but before the commencement of the discussion (if it could be called that), in an informal chat one of my co-panelists used exactly the same figures.  Instead of Andhra Pradesh, 23 states and a total of 500.  The person's argument was the number of states in India was not set in stone and that 500 years ago, we had 500 states in India. The person insisted that nothing need ever be set in stone about anything political.  I suppose that we have to be democracy is not set in stone, that we have to one country is not set in stone, that we should empower people is not set in stone, that we should get rid of social inequalities is not set in stone, that we should work for removal of poverty is not set in stone and I can think of a zillion other things that are not set in stone.  Do people even know what they are saying?  Was there an India as a cohesive political unit (and not just a physical entity) 500 years ago? With intellectuals and political leaders converging on sheer stupidity, I guess anything can happen in India.  After all nothing, except fossils,  is set in stone.

It becomes even more pathetic

Another small post.  It was quite sad seeing people stranded on railway platforms and in trains since there was the rail roko.  As if this was not enough the Osmania University Student JAC - 2 (obviously there are more than one) has given a call for a 48 hour train roko in and around Hyderabad.  The most disconcerting thing is anyone can now give a bandh, rasta roko or any other call that will inconvenience common people.  Even more frightening is the fact that the duration of bandhs is steadily increasing.  I fear that we are on the verge of going the Gorkha Land agitators way, where bandhs are for weeks at a time.  My trepidations have hit the roof when I have read the threat that all essential services such as water, electricity, health care will also be paralysed.  Who are the agitator's targetting?  Common people?  What for?  I can already see some answers, if we don't do this then no one is listening to us.  We will burn our trees so as to ensure that someone will help us to build a house.  Maybe that is what it is, maybe not.  The people on the other side of the divide are feeling left out of the fun and games.  So in order to ensure that there is equality here, they too have promised to get into the act.  Mr. J.C. Diwaker Reddy went to meet Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu to enlist his help for the agitation on the other side. But Mr. Naidu is made of sterner stuff, so he steadfastly refused to budge from his perch on the wall or the fence if you like.  I would like to remind him of a lyric from a Dire Straits song, "Once Upon A Time In The West".  It goes "Sitting on a fence can be a dangerous course, you might even catch a bullet from a peace keeping force".  Somehow I think Mr. Naidu has been hit by the bullet, but he does not realize it.  Pathetic isn't it?  And what to say of the good Chief Minister who tells us all that the state administration has been crippled.  I hope it doesn't get anymore pathetic.  

Actually quite distressing.

I am not making this a long post.  Even I am tired of going on and on about the same thing, so I will keep it short but unfortunately it cannot be sweet.  A couple of days ago, I was happy to read in the newspapers that the Million March to Hyderabad had been deferred from the original date so as to not disrupt the Intermediate Board Final Examinations.  After a couple of flip flops, I see that the decision has been rescinded and the organisers plan to go ahead as originally planned.  That is distressing.  I still remember the days when I was a student the anxiety that my friends and I went through before and during examinations.  Disruption of examination schedule will lead to extended anxieties among students, not to mention the disturbance to entire households because of that.  The cancellation of several trains yesterday and today and the rescheduling of others owing to the rail roko agitation is sad.  I know people have booked tickets a month and more in advance and they feel let down by the disruption of their travel plans.  When I have spoken about this someone said to me that I was being insensitive to the distress of people who want a separate state.  That is a matter of distress?  I don't know. All I know is that such disruptions of life are not solutions to finding answers to a question which is quite complex. I personally do not believe that inconveniencing ordinary people and students is not a way to find political solutions.  It is even more distressing when an academic of repute leads a movement that wants to disrupt examinations.  The Osmania University has become a farce with neither classes being held nor examinations being conducted.  Apparently things have reached a stage where nothing can be done about those things.  So I guess I will just say let it be.