The process of creation of separate Telangana state is going on in reverse direction. Usually, any government first examines a particular demand (Telangana in this case) through an expert panel; based on panel's recommendations, it consults all the concerned parties; builds consensus and then makes a final statement.
But Home Minister P.Chidambaram first made a statement acceding Telangana; then the government tried to build consensus; later, it invited all parties for talks and now it announced the constitution of an expert panel to study the demand. This reverse process has badly hit the lives of common man in the entire Andhra Pradesh.
that's congressism. it could've talked with reasonable people in punjabi civil society about the anandpur sahib resolution, but it talked to bhindranwale. congress, the main hindu party in the country and the chief political vehicle of the brahminized classes, can't believe any reasonable people exist outside the congress: that will go against the principle of caste it upholds. so one can see why the anandpur sahib happened. resolution no.1 of that historic meeting starts like this:
Moved by Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra, President, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, and endorsed by Sardar Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, Punjab.find anything very unreasonable there? it was just a people standing up for themselves. there is some bluster, some combativeness in the rest of the resolution/s. but it was mainly an impassioned demand for respect. underlying it was a plea: please don't sc$%^ around with us minorities. today, as a telugu, i feel very connected with the sikhs of those times.
The Shiromani Akali Dal realizes that India is a federal and republican geographical entity of different languages, religions and cultures. To safeguard the fundamental rights of the religious and linguistic minorities, to fulfill the demands of the democratic traditions and to pave the way for economic progress, it has become imperative that the Indian constitutional infrastructure should be given a real federal shape by redefining the Central and State relation and rights on the lines of the aforesaid principles and objectives.
The concept of total revolution given by Lok Naik Jaya Parkash Narain is also based upon the progressive decentralization of powers. The climax of the process of centralization of powers of the states through repeated amendments of the Constitution during the Congress regime came before the countrymen in the form of the Emergency (1975), when all fundamental rights of all citizens was usurped. It was then that the programme of decentralization of powers ever advocated by Shiromani Akali Dal was openly accepted and adopted by other political parties including Janata Party, C.P.I. (M), D.M.K., etc.
Shiromani Akali Dal has ever stood firm on this principle and that is why after a very careful consideration it unanimously adopted a resolution to this effect first at the All India Akali Conference, Batala, then at Anandpur Sahib which has endorsed the principle of State autonomy in keeping with the concept of federalism.
a recent article in world sikh news discusses the resolution:
Framers of Indian system of governance took care not to rock the boat too much after the British left and decided to invest the Center with excessive powers to hold the new republic together. The trauma of Partition, the resistance of some princely states to integration with the Indian Union, the secessionist ideologies of some political groups, etc, made the preservation of the integrity of the new-born nation the topmost priority of the rulers after independence and this got reflected in the new constitution.while anandpur was about standing up, about refusing to be ruled down from delhi, the political and intellectual leadership of the telangana movement is bringing groveling back into style.
The Centre's mandarins dictate where the investments for the downstream production facilities would go. They give concessions to poorer or hill states that work against Punjab. The concurrent power of the states meant virtually nothing, since the ultimate power of approval is with Centre. Regional assertiveness is seen as a rebellion. Aspirational movements like the one led by the Sikhs in the 1980s and early 1990s were given bad name and wrongly projected.
while anandpur was about redefining centre-state relations, the telangana movement has begun the process of pushing everything back to delhi. in a way, it has rendered meaningless all the progress that states have achieved in wresting some reasonable powers from the centre in the last thirty years since anandpur sahib. and the biggest joke is that these pairvikars, these inveterate courtiers leading the movement have chosen to describe themselves as fighting for 'self-rule'.
can't help thinking ahmed ali's observation that a political mafia is ruling hyderabad is true not only about the present, but could also be interpreted as a prophecy of sorts. the telangana movement has questioned the rationale of hyderabad, not delhi, unlike the regional movements of the past. a democratic movement? hardly.
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3 comments:
VS Naipaul in his book "A bend in the river" says that Europeans were one civilization who managed to get slaves and simultaneously erect statues of themselves in Africa. Congress which sees itself as inheriting the mantle of rule from British seems to beleive its entitled to the same - treat lingusitic and religious minorities (among others) with contempt and simultaneously have them worship the statues of Nehru, gandhi etc.
The fight for federalism was not an easy one for the states. In AP it was led valiantly by NTR -his famous statement "kendramu oka midhya" shows the depth of his thinking on this issue.
Today one winces when one hears the speeches of the likes of Jaishankar which tend to grovel to the authority of Delhi and make a proud show of past grovellement to the authority of Nizam. The stupid praise of Nehru over his alleged "telugu imperialism", the allegations that every parliamentary act is the handiwork of kostha people while centre itself is pure as driven snow ..the list goes on. No wonder the centre has shown a creepy enthusiasm to interfere.
kiran,
agree with you a hundred percent on what you say. yes, ntr with his simple peasant sensibilities exhibited more intellectual strength in identifying and questioning many structural injustices and inequalities, like the traditional patel-patwari system in villages, the unequal relationship between centre and states than many much better educated and learned thinkers/leaders have..and so on.
Centre stopped Andhra people in 1972 when they wanted to leave Andhra pradesh unconditionally and form a separate Andhra state. Now the same centre is planning to split AP and in the process give a raw deal to AP.
Now ,i don't know what prompted Anandpur Sahib resolution , but if center goes ahead with its evil intentions , it will sow the seeds of extreme chauvinism in the minds of Andhra people. Andhra people will never be able to trust center.
The next Anandpur sahib resolution is just waiting to happen.
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