I have not been posting for a while because of some personal problems and also because I thought things will be repetitive. So I kept away from the blog even while the agitation for United Andhra Pradesh was on for more than two months. I told myself that there is no need for commentary on the filth that was taking place in the name of politics. However, upon reflection I have felt that if I did not comment on what happened in the last two months in the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions then it would seem as if I was more than happy to castigate things that were happening during the separate Telangana agitation but I did not react when something similar is happening in the other two regions in the name of keeping the State of Andhra Pradesh united. Therefore I shall make a commentary which I hope to keep short because all the things that I said about the separatist agitation in Telangana are valid for the integrationist movement which is still taking place on the other side.
I have always maintained that I stand for leaving the State of Andhra Pradesh as it is even though I come from the Telangana region. For me the games that are being played on either sides are those which are necessarily the ones that politicians want for their own survival. In some of the posts in the past I have said that bandhs and agitations that disrupt the lives of people are not Satyagraha but anti the principles of Satyagraha. I still maintain my position. It is at one level laughable that the so called practitioners of non-violence on both sides of the divide style themselves as satyagrahis who are peacefully agitating for the satisfaction of their demands. And these demands and the methodology adopted for making the demands are non-violent and peaceful. I would like to disagree. The inconveniences caused to the common people even in the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema areas due to the strike of the government employees has shaken me just as it did when similar things were done here.
It hurt to see Intensive Care Units in hospitals not having electricity and water and patients not getting the care that they are entitled to. If this is not violence against people, then what is? Paralysing the state administrative machinery and making sure that we the people take giant leaps backward in the developmental process is indication of how base and immoral politics have become. Many people from the other side expressed awe at the way in which the employees kept the strike going despite not getting salaries. It goes without saying that salaried employees need salaries every month to keep their households running. It is obvious that some politicians have been funding the movement on the other side as well.
One of the things that has surprised me most is the fact that the Congress has become such an opportunist party that it represents both sides, that of separatists and that of integrationists. The Union government wants the state to be divided and the State government does not want it to be divided. The agendas of both sides have been hijacked by Congress politicians making other political parties irrelevant. This is like the left hand fighting the right hand. And when the announcement came that a separate Telangana will be created parties like the YSR Congress Party headed by the son of former Chief Minister YS Rajashekhar Reddy decided that they would throw in their lot with the integrationists so that when the State does get divided they will have an advantage over every other party.
Innocently or stupidly it is being believed that the Congress along with the TRS will sweep the Telangana state post the division of Andhra Pradesh and that the Congress will be routed out in the Coastal Andhra and the Rayalaseema region. This is nothing but underestimating the power of politics and the potency of the games that politicians play. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has suddenly discovered his principles and now says that politics are not important but the lives of people are. Ministers at the state and union levels have sent in notional resignations. Not all only a few, while others like Chiranjeevi have been desperately clinging onto their chairs. Their logic? They need to be in the government to fight the government.
The chief of the TRS, Mr. K. Chandrashekhar Rao is the comedian who comes out occasionally to make terrible statements about the culture of Andhra or about how he is going to kick the Andhras out of Hyderabad and Telangana. Suddenly all attention gets diverted to his comments. While most people see this as a comedic sideshow I suspect is something far more sinister. The MIM and its silence is another thing that is baffling. The only thing that it really contends against is the making of Hyderabad into a Union Territory, for that would mean that the MIM party whose base is mainly in Hyderabad will suddenly become irrelevant. No wonder then that the MIM has been saying that it will reach out to more areas in the country.
The TDP and Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu have become clueless. I am reminded of the line from the Dire Straits song "Once upon a time in the West" which goes "Sitting on the fence is a dangerous course, you might even catch a bullet from a peace keeping force". Everybody knows what Mr. Naidu stands for. So why not stand by one's own convictions and beliefs and face the people boldly? Mr. Naidu's image as an efficient administrator, as one who stood for some principles have all got eroded with time. I admired him when he famously said "I don't mind losing the elections and sitting in the opposition. It will not be my loss; it will be the loss of the people". Ratan Tata also said of him that "While other people are thinking about the next election, Mr. Naidu is thinking about the next generation". Now these are things only archivists like me remember and for most people he is no different from the regular politician; perhaps only worse, since he has to get into power by hook or crook.
The BJP is one party that has been singing the Telangana tune from the day it lost the 2004 elections. The day after the results came out, Mr. Arun Jaitley said that the reason why the BJP lost is because of the fact that it stood with the Telugu Desam and denied Telangana. And this in the nation wide general elections. Nobody searched their souls to see if the pogrom that they had initiated in Gujarat had any effects on the election results. Today the mastermind behind the pogrom is the party's candidate for Prime Ministership next year. And the candidate that is being pitted against him from the Congress Party's side is Mr. Rahul Gandhi, someone who says politics are so omnipresent that they are there in everybody's pants and shirts!!!
One thing is clear; any which way the fate of the people of Andhra Pradesh has been sealed by the short sightedness and blindness of politicians. Bifurcation or no bifurcation is not a matter anymore. The leadership and its abject lac of vision is the problem. The same political game that has been played out in Andhra Pradesh for the last nine years or so will be played at the national level from 2014 elections onwards. The issues may differ but the players are the same and their tactics in dealing with issues will remain the same, so what you see in Andhra Pradesh today is what you will see pan India starting with the next elections.
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