the language of hate

the separatists, led by prof. kodandaram reddy of osmania university don't want telangani students' exam papers to be evaluated by andhra professors:

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Lecturers’ Forum along with the Telangana Joint Action Committee staged a protest at the Board of Intermediate Education office at Nampally here today demanding answer sheets be evaluated regionwise.

With the BIE officials making it clear that there is no question of evaluating the answer sheets on regional basis unless the State Government issues orders, protestors under the aegis of Prof Kodandaram said that it is against the interests of the students from Telangana region.

Speaking to reporters outside the BIE office, Kodandaram said that they are not questioning the integrity of the evaluators or the transparency system of the BIE but are demanding region-wise evaluation in the interest of the students. ``It is just a matter of adjustment for the BIE officials. Even as they are repeatedly assuring that the identity of the students would not be revealed, students are a worried lot,’’ he said and informed that they are getting enquiries every day from the students regarding the method of evaluation. [emphasis mine]

the students are a worried lot? then the professors should reason with them and tell them not to worry about the 'integrity of the evaluators or the transparency system of the BIE'.

When asked whether it is right to press for region-wise evaluation at a time when the Centre mooted a common curriculum, Kodandaram replied that this is not the time for a debate on the issue.``The BIE must heed to the demand. Otherwise the students would not be able to appear for the exam with the right mindset,’’ he remarked.

Telangana Lecturers’ Forum (TLF) members said that it is very easy to identify Telangana students by the language they write in the answer sheets.

i wonder if it is very easy to identify dalit, obc and adivasi students by the language they write in their answer sheets. is that the reason why they keep proving themselves to be less 'meritorious'? because upper caste professors like kodandaram reddy and his fellow conscientious protesters can spot them by the language they use?

reminds me of a petition (filed in the andhra pradesh state human rights' commission) i'd read in a mailing list a few days ago:

Petition filed under section 12 of the Human Rights Protection Act 1995

Respected sir

We the applicants of the petition are students of Potti Sri Ramulu Telugu University, Nampally, and residing in Triveni Hostel here by submitting this petition on behalf of all the SC ST Students of Triveni Hostel, Located in Osmania University, Hyderabad,

It is respectfully submitted to you that we want to bring to your kind notice about the caste based discrimination and harassment that we are facing in Triveni Hostel, On January 7th 2010 at 11am the above mentioned four students gathered at our hostel mess hall and caught hold of the Applicants and threatened by saying “SC ST – Mala, Madiga, Erukala Lanja kodukulu evaru maa prakkana kurchovaddu meeru pandulu, aavulanu thintaru evadaina kurchunnatlaithe Champutham” (You SC ST Mala, Madiga, Erukala Bastard should not come and sit in the same bench where we sit in the mess hall, as you are Beef and Pork eaters, if anybody dares to sit beside us we will kill them)

We opposed the words of the four upper caste students and asked them why they are using filthy language and abusing in the name of caste, then they again scolded us in the name of caste and threatened that they will do it again and again, they also said “Is it not true that you SC STs are beef eaters and pork eaters? And further said you bastards should approach the Hostel authorities to arrange separate mess hall for you, don’t come to this mess hall

We informed this incident to the university SC ST cell on 7th January 2010 and they brought it to the notice of the Vice Chancellor, but nothing has happened; as the registrar of the university and the Vice chancellor are also belong to upper castes and are supporting the upper caste students. This silence of the authorities is further encouraging them to harass the SC ST students in the name of caste. The Vice chancellor had tried to implicate SC ST students in the false cases alleging that the students insulted him and with the intervention of some elders he withdrawn the cases, so it is crystal clear that the vice chancellor is biased and supporting to the upper caste students to harass SC ST Students in the hostel

The registrar too in support of the upper caste students and is instigating the upper caste students that he will take care of them, in case if SC ST students files any cases, through the help of high rank police officers known to him and some of them are his relatives also. ,With the help of the both registrar and vice chancellor the upper caste students continued to behave in the same fashion

We feel that including the Vice chancellor, registrar and the upper caste students are not in a position to recognize and accept the SC ST students as equals with the other upper caste students. Hence they are not allowing the SC/ST students to sit in the same benches where upper caste students are also sitting. That’s why they are encouraging upper caste students to harass SC ST students. With this background the above named upper caste students are regularly harassing us and other SC ST students in the name of caste and insulting our food habits

In addition to the above on 7th march 2010 again the four above named upper caste students came to the mess hall and shouted loudly that “we have told you SC ST Bastards should not sit in the mess hall but why you are sitting, and threatened us by saying that if we sit on the same benches in the mess hall they will bring their people from outside and they will thrash us

It became a regular phenomenon that the above named four students are harassing each and every SC ST student whenever they found them single. Also if they see any SC ST student on the way they are loudly shouting that “see! See Beef eater is ..…” it is a humiliation to every SC ST student on the campus and in the hostel.

So we request your kind self to protect our human rights, dignity and self respect and relieve us from this mental trauma by directing concerned authorities to take action against the above said respondent Students, Vice Chancellor and registrar

And we pray this honorable authority to direct the police concerned to register a case against the above said students, Vice chancellor and registrar according to the provisions of the SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989

Applicants

SC ST Students of Triveni Hostel, Osmania University Campus, Hyderabad -7

the hostel is located in the osmania university campus where prof. kodandaram reddy holds court now, like a jagirdar or paigah of the good old days. how can this happen in his jagir? i guess he'd probably say: this is not the time for a debate on the issue.

he doesn't like andhra capitalists, and doesn't trust andhra bureaucrats. he has asked telanganis to boycott 'products' made or sold by andhra businessmen. he has called for a 'social boycott' of andhraites, big businessmen or politicians or anyone, who oppose separation. now he finds andhra professors and teachers untouchable.

what's happening in triveni hostel, is also happening right now in hostels across campuses in telangana and andhra pradesh and india, in less or more heinous forms, but you can rest assured that it's happening. and it'll keep happening as long as professors like kodandaram reddy find more and more reasons to distrust, hate and ostracize their fellow human beings. in less complicated societies they call it racism. here, they call it 'democratic' protest.

bloodthirsty media

Perhaps History has cursed Telangana. Its two flourishing empires—of Kakatiyas and Kutub Shahis—were destroyed by Tughlaq and Aurangazeb respectively. It would have been better if the British Empire had made Telangana its province. Good or bad, Mecaulay’s heirs would have thrived here too. Telangana people would have learnt a bit of strategy, a bit of administration and a bit of politicking. Unfortunately, it is their proclivity to struggle that was always dominant here. It is in this place, swords were drawn for the first war of Indian independence. Ramji Gond was hanged here. While mobilizing Adivasis, Komaram Bhim lost his life here. When the entire country was scoring victories through ‘refomative’ nationalism, even satyagraha was banned here. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, prohibited Satyagraha only in Hyderabad. When entire villages armed themselves to fight against the feudal order, the world eulogized Telangana saying “you are second to none in shedding blood.” The sacrifice of five thousand martyrs and the struggle of ten thousand villages—got lost in time. Here, every battle ends with either a sacrifice or a betrayal. The snake in ‘Snakes and Ladder’ game keeps biting. But the Vikramarka hauls Bhetala onto his shoulder yet again. You experience a 1969 and a 1978. For the next three decades, it is the dead bodies of Telangana that would be hung from the threshold of the fort. Still these people don’t learn or won’t accept defeat. Even as experience tells them that nothing can be achieved, they don’t give up. To get something, one keeps raising one’s voice. To live here, one has to die.

For Telangana, its ‘present’ is another curse. One who grows into a leader turns out to be a landlord. Youth become Naxalites. And there is so much concern (from others) for the people of leaderless Telangana!

What a wonderful people! But what a disgraceful leadership! Stubborn or strong or naïve or foolish they may be, and yet what a great people! Telangana took pride—when Telugus and the rest of the world lauded them for its tremendous courage and struggle. When such a people are begging the leaders to assume their role of guiding people, pleading them to occupy the throne of Telangana government, isn’t it a pity that the leaders, in self-deception, choose to land at the gates of the high command and feel secure? What a great tragedy to openly admit that they are not qualified to become leaders, and that they are happy to remain in the second rung and get whatever the higher ups dole out to them?!

Siripuram Yadaiah is an orphan, just like Telangana. Telangana is without a leader. No leader to give a little assurance to its people. No one to at least pledge that he will not compromise, if not resign, from his position. There is no leader to dispel the thick clouds of despair fast engulfing the hearts of these orphans.

Perhaps Telangana requires a new leadership, not merely for a separate state, but for the future. It needs a leadership that doesn’t abandon its people midway, but shows them the path ahead. The disturbed and the orphaned people should lead themselves. They should be led by wisdom and rationality and not by illusions and wordiness. They should stop getting disheartened when betrayed by the leaders who lack integrity. They must not waste their valuable lives by dying.

found that at this google group. one of the members seems to have translated it from telugu. the author is k.srinivas, the editor of andhra jyothy.

the world can't take it if telanganis live in peace. srinivas spent a couple of days in jail recently, for hinting in a front page story that dalitbahujan activists of andhra pradesh can be bought. now he can barely control himself from urging the same dalitbahujans to shed some more blood, to follow ramji gond, komuram bheem, chakali ailamma, doddi komuraiah, kishta goud.. siripuram yadaiah. and thousands of others. so that telangana doesn't lose its reputation as a war cry among the well-fed upper caste revolutionaries of jnu?

suddenly learnt the other day, that a couple of 'leader-less orphans' who had climbed up a cellphone tower a few days ago (minor news on television) in the village my folks came from, were my second cousins. one of their grandparents had been beaten up very badly by the razakars around sixty years ago, because their uncles (barely in their teens then) were carrying supplies and messages to the communists. if someone like srinivas had been around, i don't think they'd have climbed down. i strongly suspect it was someone like srinivas who sent them up there, to join their grandfather, in the first place. look at what anant maringanti is talking about here.

the stronger-than-iron fence

dalit poet gorati venkanna asks in a song:

will the earth split open if we separate?
shall an iron fence divide us like india and pakistan?

the questions are addressed to the andhraites who oppose separation. does gorati venkanna know what the separatists' chief ideologue prof.jayashankar has in his mind? look at what jayashankar thinks about the proposal to make hyderabad a union territory:

The proposal is not feasible as it is fraught with serious negative consequences, said Telangana ideologue K Jaishankar. “Union Territory status for Hyderabad is neither feasible nor advisable. The very survival of a Union Territory in the heart of Telangana is a problem. If it is created against the wishes of the Telangana people, will they allow the city to be supplied with water and power from Telangana?” Jaishankar asked.

india and pakistan were separated in 1947 but it never occurred to the rulers of india, whatever their many despicable faults, that they should cut off water supply from the indus river system to pakistan. india fought for nearly a decade over how the water should be shared, but never disputed or even thought of disputing pakistan's right to a share in the water. look at how easily that thought occurred to prof.jayashankar.

'indian genius is to divide'

the divide in prof. jayashankar's mind is much wider than the one between india and pakistan, much stronger than a mere iron fence. the fluid casualness with which he can talk about cutting off water to nearly a crore people, is only something we can gape at and admire. contrast his reaction with what a learned man, who played a bigger role than anyone else in bringing together india, had to say over five decades ago when discussing a similar issue:

When Gujarath and Maharashtra are separated—and they must be— Gujarath will claim the revenue derived from electricity produced and consumed within Gujarath. Maharashtra will claim the revenue derived from electricity produced and consumed within Maharashtra. Bombay City as a State will do the same. Can Bombay be allowed to do so and appropriate the revenue to itself ? Is it just ? Bombay City does not produce electricity. It is produced outside Bombay City in Maharashtra. Therefore the new Bombay City State has no right to appropriate to itself the whole revenue derived from electricity. The proper thing to do is to apply the principle of the segregation of the sources and division of the yield well known to all students of State Finance.

To put it in concrete shape let the Centre take over the taxation of Electricity and divide the yield among the four States of Maharashtra— (1) Bombay, (2) Western Maharashtra, (3) Central Maharashtra, (4) Eastern Maharashtra according to their needs. It will also ease the financial strain that the three Maharashtras are likely to suffer on account of the separation of Bombay.

do you notice even the slightest hint in those two paras that maharashtra should cut off electric supply to bombay because it doesn't produce any electricity on its own? because it shall be separated from the rest of maharashtra?

is there anything more shocking, more utterly sickening than the fact that prof. jayashankar, the glib proposer of cutting off of water supplies to a city of nearly 1 crore people, uses dr.ambedkar's views on division of states, very selectively and very repeatedly, to push his agenda of hate?

the separate telangana movement is 60 years old?

the wikipedia page on dr.jayashankar says that he, 'as a young student of intermediate walked out of his class as a protest for state reorganization in 1952'. when he was 17-18 years old. he had decided before the state of andhra pradesh was formed that it was wrong. when he was 17-18 years old or younger (because the idea could have been formed much earlier because the other idea, of visalandhra, had been around even before he was born). a 75 year old man who has nurtured the incoherent passions of his teenage years, not questioned or subjected them to any rational tests as most people do, so that they grew so big, consumed all his life and became fossilized as a monomania--- he is an ideologue of the 'democratic' separatist movement?

in 1948, when it joined the indian union, the literacy rate in telangana was barely 6%. much lower than in all other provinces, regions of india (the all india literacy rate was 17%). so someone who reached the stage of pre-university education in telangana in 1952 must have belonged to the most fortunate 1-2% of the region's population. right at the top of the region's social order. if one minuscule section of this tiny 1% of the region's elite (the elite of the region who wanted a quota for themselves in government, in the name of the poor masses of the region) comprising people like jayashankar, opposed the merger of telangana with coastal andhra and rayalaseema in 1956, that makes the separatist movement a 60 years old 'people's movement'?

the separate telangana movement is 40 years old?

the 1969 agitation, totally dominated by the upper castes, started as a movement for securing an extension of the special protections offered to people of the region (read: elite of the region) and ended when some protections were extended, in a different form. you could call it a movement of the new elite which had now expanded from 1% of the region's population to 5%. you can clearly see that it was not a people's movement because it failed to respond to a similar call for the division of the state, led by the 'jai andhra' movement, a couple of years later. they showed no inclination to join hands with the 'jai andhra' separatists and build a bigger movement to divide the state. the elite of telangana had got what they wanted, so they had called off their own 'people's movement' to divide the state to meet the 'people's democratic aspirations'.

the current separate telangana movement, in the most objective sense, is neither 60 years old, nor 40 years old. but the reactionary interests, and logic of hate, fuelling the movement are as old as prof.jayashankar or channa reddy or konda venkat ranga reddy. or as old as caste. because it's only caste which speaks so very casually of cutting off water to those who are 'outsiders'. it's only caste which sees the most basic human rights as privileges that can be doled out or withheld by a few to the rest.

hyderabad forum for telangana?

how many of these people were actually born in hyderabad? in a very mulki mood today, and i can see that a major chunk of them were either not born in hyderabad, or don't work in hyderabad, or have been in hyderabad for less than fifteen years, or are not willing to chuck their association with their 'native places' (as the original very murky mulki rules demanded), have lived major portions of their lives outside hyderabad....

the problem with this so-called movement is that everyone, except i, has the right to speak for me.

was reminded again today by a non-hyderabadi with designs on hyderabad that the telangana movement is over 60 years old. hope they can all come together on at least this one issue of how old the movement is- 4 months old or 10, 30, 15, 40, 50, 53, 56 or 100 years old. i can tell them with more certainty that the ayyappa movement in hyderabad is around 30 years old, the ram janmabhoomi movement is around 150 years old, the tirupati venkateshwara movement in south india is less than 100 years old. and all these old movements are equally regressive and motivated more by magic and mumbo jumbo than reason.

i hope some of them have woken up at least now to condemn the recent attack on a hyderabadi who has done more work to stir telangana's and hyderabad's egalitarian impulses than.... all the shrill chants of 'telangana' in the last 4 months or 10, 30, 15, 40, 50, 53, 56, 100 years.

be warned

less than half a dozen google pages yielded so many dire threats from assorted newspapers, ezines, portals, video sites, blogs etc., ignore the typos and heed the warnings:

Professor Kodandaram warns Jayaprada

TPJAC warns recalcitrant legislators of social boycott

Prof Jayshankar warns of civil war on Hyderabad

Harish rao warns Chandrababu & Erraballi

T Harish Rao warns Telugu Desam Party over Rajya Sabha seat

Harish Rao warns Chiranjeevi and Lagadapati

KCR warns Political Parties

KCR warns Cong against backtracking on Telangana

KCR warns Central Government

KCR warns Chandrababu

KCR warns to Centre high command

Don't provoke Telangana: KCR warns Centre

KCR warns of catastrophe if Centre goes back on Telangana

KCR warns Centre against going back on Telangana

kcr warns about militant action

Don't dilly dally on creating Telangana, warns KCR

KCR warns of catastrophe

KCR warns of emotional flare-up

KCR warns Police & CM

Kavitha KCR Daughter Warns Adurs release in Telangana

for those who haven't heard about the other leading players in this popular, telangani social drama: kodandaram reddy and jayashankar are both professors and 'ideologues' of the movement, while harish rao is kcr's nephew and trs mla and kavitha is kcr's daughter. ktr, kcr's son, has also indulged in a lot of dialogue-baazi, but google seems to have not paid much attention. as i had tried to warn you earlier, this is a very democratic struggle and everyone gets to warn everyone else (including other telanganis).

why didn't the centre stick to its 'dharma'?

adithya krishna chintapanti, a lawyer, says:

When the Constituent Assembly was deliberating in November 1948 on the scope and content of Article 3, there was a proposal by Prof. KT Shah that the legislation constituting a new State from any region of a State should originate from the legislature of the State concerned. Had this procedure been approved, the power to decide the statehood of a region seeking separation would have been vested with the State legislature dominated by the elite of developed regions.

Opposing the same and using the then demand for an Andhra Province as an example, Shri K Santhanam stated as under: “I wonder whether Professor Shah fully realises the implications of his amendment. If his amendment is adopted, it would mean that no minority in any State can ask for separation of territory, either for forming a new province or for joining an adjacent State unless it can get a majority in that State legislature. I cannot understand what he means by “Originating”. Take the case of Madras Province for instance. The Andhras want separation. They bring up a resolution in the Madras Legislature.

It is defeated by a majority. There ends the matter. The way of the Andhras is blocked altogether. They cannot take any further step to constitute an Andhra province... (Pg.440, Vol. No. VII, CAD) Thus Article 3 emerged in its current form. It is the Constitutional intent that the will of the people of a region to form a separate State be the sole criterion for the Centre to initiate the process of State formation. This is the Constitutional benchmark for creating a new State for a region, as amply demonstrated in the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly and as reflected in the current phraseology of Article 3 of the Constitution of India.

There seems from the evidence of the general election (wherein the manifestos of all the political parties (except CPM) promised a separate State), the current united stand of the legislators from the Telangana region and the ongoing civil society agitation for a separate state in the Telangana region, that the constitutional prerequisite for the creation of a separate State has been satisfied in a manner far superior to anything the Justice Srikrishna Committee can do.

It is, however, alarming to read the Terms of Reference of the Committee, as announced on the 12th of February 2010. The very first point is “To examine the situation in the State of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the demand for a separate State of Telangana as well as the demand for maintaining the present status of a united Andhra Pradesh.” In fact, asking the committee to examine both the issues of the State of Telangana alongside maintaining the present status of united Andhra Pradesh would amount to subjecting the minority belonging to the Telangana region to the majoritarian vested interests, which is precisely what the founding fathers of the Constitution intended to avoid.

Had the Centre abided by the constitutional mandate, the said reference would have been: “Do the people of Telangana want a separate State?” and the ensuing consultative process, as foreseen in the subsequent terms of reference, would have been restricted to stakeholders and actors from Telangana alone.

The committee is but a smoke screen deployed by the Centre to duck its Constitutional Dharma, that is, to recognise the legitimate interests of the people of Telangana region seeking statehood and facilitate the State - formation process, by acting as a Constitutional guardian of the region in course of the said transition. [emphasis mine].

so, why did the centre duck its constitutional 'dharma'? it is all clearly laid out: the whole ground rules for creating a new state, so why did the centre not follow its mandate? i am genuinely curious, don't have any major dispute with this legal interpretation. why didn't everything fall into place as neatly as the lawyer says they should have?

why was kancha ilaiah attacked?

don't know until now how ilaiah views the encounter. i am sure ilaiah wouldn't have filed any complaint with the police, or other authorities because the interlopers were students. but is there any other way in which you could see this incident but as an attack on dr. ilaiah's rights, his family's basic rights? there has been very little in the media on what actually happened, apart from this news story, and there haven't been any other follow-up reports, as far as i could see. but why was kancha ilaiah attacked? what he wrote around a few days before the incident gives us some clues:

Finally it has resulted in the setting up of a committee. I only hope that this committee headed by a very reputed former Supreme Court judge and comprising other eminent people from different disciplines would do a worthy job of finding a solution to this vexed problem.

In an age of digital democracy the pro-Telanagana forces must provide enough evidence to the committee to persuade it to establish a separate state.

No agitating political force can say, “We will boycott the committee,” in a democratic process. The people who do that would only play with lives of Telangana people, as that would amount to saying “We would like to keep the question alive for making money and for seeking votes.”

But do they know the price the people of Telangana have been paying for the last 50 years? The issue has to be resolved once and for all.

Those who have been claiming to have taken part in Telangana agitations all their lives should also understand that the region has given permanent employment to some old types of agitators.

While Telangana has proved that it has the nerve to keep on fighting, it has also proved that constant agitations keep a region underdeveloped. The world has not changed so much through street fights as it did through deployment of brainpower in labs and libraries and changing the contours of production in the fields.

Of course, political struggles are important and engendered democracy and socialism but the Telangana struggle has no such transformative agenda.

Our students and youth should not be street fighters and self-immolators. Quite tragically, this agitation run by shortsighted people and underhand dealers made it the biggest “suicide” movement ever.

Yes, we should blame the Centre, the skillful Andhra operators, but we should blame more those who are counting those bodies to collect money.

and so on. wouldn't the separatists, so steeped in 'democracy' that they speak for 'everyone' in telangana even when they burp, consider those harsh words an attack on their 'democratic struggle'?

kancha ilaiah: why he is a telangani

students force kancha ilaiah to say 'jai telangana':

Nearly 20 students stormed into the apartment of Ilaiah and demanded that he withdraw the `Manya Seema’ demand which he voiced at a time when the agitation for Telangana State was at its peak. The students demanded that the professor support separate Telangana and raise the slogan of `Jai Telangana.’ Taken aback, Ilaiah reportedly chanted `Jai Samajika Telangana’ but that too did not go down well with the students who said that the same slogan was taken up by Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) but was later dumped by the party. Ilaiah then reportedly raised the slogan of `Jai BC Telangana’ too which did not pacify the students and they forced the professor to raise `Jai Telangana’ slogan in the end.

The professor, however, insisted that a at least separate district be created for tribals if separate Telangana is carved out, to which the students agreed.

``We don’t mind Ilaiah leading the ongoing Telangana movement. But we are against the Manya Seema or any other slogan,’’ OU Students Joint Action Committee (JAC) leader Manavatha Ray said.

The students left the place after painting the walls of the entire apartment with slogans of `Jai Telangana’ and `Manya Seema vaddura (We don’t want Manya Seema).

i'd pointed out in many posts (please read this), that the separatist movement has a majoritarian agenda because its core philosophy is essentially of upper caste hindu origin and telangani-ness now (like hindutva), and in the future (if a new state is formed) shall be defined according to upper caste norms. so why would the telangani separatists like the idea of adivasis in andhra pradesh demanding a state of their own? as i had warned in this post, the separatists own the adivasis now, their history and their homeland. i had also said in this post:

slowly, but surely, i see all kinds of diverse minorities bowing down to the hectoring of this new, unexpected majoritarianism: from various obc caste groups to the madiga rights' activists to muslims in the villages. will they really have any say in shaping a new telangana?

ilaiah had said, when he received the lisa book award in london:

This award has come at a time when I was going through a crisis of confidence. I have begun to think, of late, whether the Dalitbahujan people, for the sake of whose transformation I have been writing and fighting, would ever use the material I and others write and are writing, to change their status and position in India and in the world. As a person who constantly keeps working towards, what I call, Thought Reform, in a country where the thought process of the people I write for and work for, has never been recognized, I began to become rather nervous.

and:

For a people who had no identity of their own for centuries, the struggle for identity becomes central in the realms of both thought and action. This is a historical process that remained invisible for centuries. Their actions for identity were met with violence and counter violence. Blood was spilt but most of it was of Dalitbahujan. Brahminic ideological forces deployed several mechanisms of violence—spiritual, social and political—to keep the Dalitbahujan under control or under their hegemony. Brahminic hegemony was so encompassing that the Dalitbahujan had no historical agencies to liberate them for a long time.

now, at home, the people 'for the sake of whose transformation' he'd been 'writing and fighting' seem to be rejecting the historical agencies he offered them.

not an inch more ethical than an election campaign

In a strange and unique development, the Warangal Zilla Parishad adopted a resolution on Sunday repatriating all the Seemandhra employees working in the district back to their respective areas.

Except Zilla Parishad chairperson, all the other ZP members supported the resolution unanimously. ZP chairperson E Swarna did not participate in the voting stating that such a move would create unrest in the region.

The resolution followed an attempt by the Kakatiya University students Joint Action Committee to storm the meeting demanding that the public representatives resign from their posts. There was a tense atmosphere at the ZP hall, where the students clashed with the police. It was only after that the ZP adopted a resolution in favour of deporting the Seemandhra employees.

Though nothing would come out of such resolutions, iIt is for the first time that it was adopted anywhere in Telangana after the revival of the movement. Even when there was a huge demand for the implementation of GO 610, there was no such attempt by any zilla parishad or mandal parishad. [emphasis mine].

that 'strange and unique development' happened yesterday. a day earlier, at a public meeting at korutla in karimnagar district, kcr repeated his promise that a new state would bring the youth of telangana loads of jobs. 1 lakh jobs in the government within the first four months of formation of telangana state.

it's not very difficult to move from the promise in karimnagar to the students' 'direct action' and the politicians' response in neighbouring warangal.

the first incident illustrates the nature of this so-called democratic, people's movement: it is founded on the same principles, or lack of principles, as any election campaign by the most irresponsible representatives of our political classes. just like any election manifesto, it dangles sops, freebies and everything under the sun to lure 'voters'. the second incident tells us that politicians and lured voters can touch even lower depths than those illustrated by the first incident.

elsewhere, other job-seekers made a desperate plea to the state government to remove the chairman of the andhra pradesh public service commission because he 'had adopted ‘anti-BC/SC/ST stand'which affected the career prospects of many candidates'. an rti application by a candidate who had appeared in a job selection test and interview conducted by the commission had revealed information that fuelled suspicions that prof. y.venkatarami reddy, chairman, had managed to award unusually high scores to reddy applicants who had appeared for the interviews.

i have asked this question earlier too, are the political and 'intellectual' leaders of this separatist movement truly interested in the lives of the millions of students and unemployed youth in telangana? their total lack of interest in the third event that was unfolding slowly over the last one week is quite revealing. do they really understand what 'discrimination' is actually about?

more trust in delhi than in your own people?

t.g.venkatesh, of the rayalaseema hakkula aikya vedika (roughly, united rayalaseema forum for rights) and a congress mla in the andhra pradesh assembly, writes:

The panel is not meant for just examining the demand of Telangana State but the issue of Samaikhyandhra too. But the Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders and votaries of Telangana are hellbent on forming Telangana in the format of their choice, notwithstanding any amount of damage caused to other most backward areas like Rayalaseema and North Andhra.

The blind support by K Chandrasekhar Rao for Telangana reminds one of the proverbial evil intention of a cunning man over sharing a milch animal with his brother. The cunning man wanted the portion of the animal that gives milk and manure while offering the head portion that required continuous feeding to his innocent brother.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao is well aware that 50 percent of the State income comes from Hyderabad, 20 percent from the rest of Telangana and 30 per cent from Andhra-Rayalaseema. Since Hyderabad is the commonwealth of Telugus, the income is utilised to take care of the needs of all 22 districts.

Chandrasekhar Rao wants to grab the creamy part and dump Rayalaseema and North Andhra to their fate. The people of the two most backward regions are frightened at the developments.

Their per capita income, employment potential, industrialisation, irrigation facilities, health and road infrastrucutre indices are among the lowest.The Telangana debate should begin with the fate of two orphans.

Even Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and his troupe should find a solution to the orphan areas before staking a claim to Telangana.

it's quite clear that neither the congress chief sonia gandhi, nor her cabal of shady advisors, had thought about the people of rayalaseema and north andhra on december 9th, 2009, when they announced that the process of formation of telangana state 'will be initiated'. it's also more clear that the political leaders of rayalaseema and north andhra had bothered even less about the people of those two regions.

even though the 'aikya vedika' was formed nearly half a decade ago, its leaders had mostly focussed on engaging in scoring points in televised 'which-region-is-more-backward' debates with the telangana separatists than in meaningful engagement with the people of the region to make them aware about the issue of the division of andhra pradesh and its implications for rayalaseema. they remained mostly a congress managed puppet outfit, whose sole purpose was to ensure that the trs didn't steal all the television time.

now, mr.venkatesh makes a poignant case for rayalaseema, and also north andhra. as he says, in many aspects, both regions are actually more backward than telangana. but what were you thinking mr.venkatesh, all through the last 5-6 years until december, 9, 2009, when you put so much more trust in delhi than in your own people?

band-aid

first, you drive a truck over people:

Hyderabad, March 10: Most students are jumping into the T-agitation bandwagon with the hope of getting government jobs.

Ironically, this is mentioned even in the suicide notes of those who took their lives for the cause.

“People like me will get jobs if Telangana state is formed,” read the suicide note left behind by S. Yadaiah from Ranga Reddy district who immolated himself in broad daylight in the Osmania University campus last month. “Please don’t stop this movement till Telangana is achieved.”

Many students blindly believe that their lives would become secure once the new state is formed because they will all get government jobs.

“People from other walks of life aren’t affected like students as they all hope to get jobs,” said Mr G. Niranjan, general secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee. “But politicians are making contradictory statements leaving students in distress.” The number of students who prepare for government jobs is very high in OU campus. With the T-agitation getting fresh energy, many told their friends that they would be working in government offices in Telangana state within a year. But their hopes were dashed by the uncertainty that followed. [emphasis mine].

then you offer them band-aid.

go, junk your hypocrisy

jaithirth rao asks:

The Congress, the BJP and the Left are all supporters, although the enthusiasm of all their members is suspect. The SP, the RJD and the BSP are opponents and are very vociferous and obstructive about it. The mystery remains: are the supporters pro-women and are the opponents anti-feminist? Does this simplistic analysis say it all? [emphasis mine].

the bill, in its present form, is unfair. but i doubt that matters to the hindu parties (the congress, the bjp and the communists). their twisted idea of gender justice ignores caste and creed altogether. or should i say: conveniently ignores caste and creed? if this bill is enforced, in its current form, it'd increase the already bloated upper caste over-representation in houses of legislature by a huge margin, at the costs of the lower castes and the muslims, primarily. the obcs, muslims, other religious minorities and hundreds of small castes among the dalits and adivasis are already under-represented in the state assemblies and parliament. this bill would not only take away a large portion of the current obc and muslim shares in elected houses, but also close the door on any growth in their numbers for a very long time. the ruling classes seemed to have had enough of all the insubordination from the impure since mandal and mayawati. they seem to say: enough! this shall remain a hindu nation.

and how will this hindu bill affect the fortunes of those from the impure castes who joined the telangana movement?

the separatists in telangana have a lot in common with the crusaders fighting for a hinduised form of gender justice in delhi. they have also been able to fashion a story of injustice that revolves around one single, overarching reality: geography. their sense of geographic justice too looks at caste, creed and also gender issues as reflecting only minor injustices. but a lot of aspiring district level politicians from a few obc castes had joined the separatist movement in the hope that the formation of a new state would increase their chances of getting into the state assembly. how? that's a difficult question to answer, but they seem to think that a new state would change existing political formations and pave the way for the growth of new parties. one can't imagine how that'd happen, considering the two major parties haven't suffered any change in their support bases in recent times. and the only other party which had made some progress, in spurts, in the region was the trs.

what does the trs think of those from the impure castes? not much, it'd seem. one incident, from a few months ago, which involved the brutal assault on a former party mp, an adivasi, for daring to speak up against kcr, illustrates what the doras at the helm of the party think of insubordination from those from the lower castes. this news story has more details:

A prominent rebel leader of TRS, who is among a dozen leaders who have raised the banner of revolt against party president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, after the recent election debacle, Mr. Naik, a Lambada, lodged a complaint against the TRS leadership invoking provisions of SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities Act) in the Banjara Hills police station. In retaliation, TRS leaders filed a separate complaint accusing him of abusing them by caste name. Trouble broke out in the party headquarters shortly after the emergency meeting began around noon when Mr. Naik walked in to participate in the proceedings without an invitation from the party. Though he was stopped at the gate, Mr. Naik managed to go near the meeting hall where he was cornered by a group.

He took the party workers by surprise by raising pro-Telangana and pro-KCR slogans. One of them even chaired him on his shoulder. The workers tried to persuade him to return stating that his resignation had been accepted. Mr. Naik had, in an open letter, challenged KCR to reply to questions raised by the former or else treat it as his resignation letter.

As Mr. Naik insisted on attending the meeting on the ground that it was convened as a follow-up to his letter, the workers pushed him up to the gate where he took his car to proceed to the house of a former TRS Minister A. Chandrasekhar who was expelled from the party only Sunday night. Emerging from Mr. Chandrasekhar’s house with a torn shirt, Mr. Naik rubbed his nose on the floor seeking forgiveness from the people of Telangana for committing “the sin of being a part of TRS”. He threw sand in the air as he cursed Mr. Rao and his family. Accompanied by Mr. Chandrasekhar and another expelled leader J. Balakrishna Reddy, Mr. Naik drove to the police station.

but mr.naik hasn't given up on telangana, and is now trying to garner support from the bjp and its most rabid hindutvavaadi, narendra modi. as i said, there are too many wanna-be legislators, especially from a few obc communities, in telangana, and their support for the movement is fuelled by expectations of future growth in opportunities. but this bill will definitely greatly reduce opportunities for obcs among them. until now, obc representation in the andhra pradesh assembly has hovered around 15%, on an average, through the decades. now, it'd seem like even 15% would be an unachievable goal in the next assembly. after having consistently played along with their upper caste patrons in propagating vigorously a loose, insubstantial but colourful narrative of regional discrimination, and downplaying and ignoring caste and gender based injustice in the past few years in pursuit of their own narrow ambitions, what do these impure aspirants think of this new turn of events, i wonder.

a state within a state

p.s. krishnan, an ex-bureaucrat who had worked in andhra pradesh for long, and had also served on the mandal commision, in v.p.singh's team and as adivsor to arjun singh a few years ago on the obc reservations issue, suggests an innovative solution to the telangana issue:

The widespread demand for the establishment of Telangana State has met with opposition in the Andhra area on two grounds: (a) The general sentiment against division of the linguistic State of Andhra Pradesh and against the division of the Telugu-speaking people; (b) Apprehension about protection of Andhra interests in Telangana, especially in and around Hyderabad city, and particularly the protection of the large number of people of Andhra origin who came to Hyderabad because it is the capital of their State and made it their home. Leaving aside a handful of big industrialists and realtors, they belong to the middle class, the lower middle class and even unorganized labour who have invested a lifetime’s savings in Hyderabad and Greater Hyderabad over two or three generations. Most of these properties are no more than a house or a residential plot or investments in some small trade or profession.

It is possible to reconcile the sentiments and fulfil the aspirations of both Telangana and Andhra people by adopting the following measures for which a Constitutional framework exists, and to which suitable modifications / adaptations can be made:
(i) Establishment of an Autonomous State of Telangana within the State of Andhra Pradesh.
(ii) The Autonomous State of Telangana should have its own Legislature and its own Council of Ministers.
(iii) The Legislature of the Autonomous State should have power to make laws for Telangana in respect of matters enumerated in the State List or in the Concurrent List. Power to make laws includes power to repeal or amend existing laws with prospective effect in the interest of the people.

Whether every item in the State List and Concurrent List should be brought within the purview of the Legislature of the Autonomous State of Telangana or whether a few items of common interest, e.g., law and order in Hyderabad/ Greater Hyderabad, should be kept out is a matter to be settled by detailed negotiations.

In the case of the latter, if it is agreed to by all sides in detailed negotiations, it could be brought into the concurrent list or a new category of concurrent list involving the Autonomous State of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and the Indian Government.

iv) This will also mesh with the larger concern over terrorists targeting major cities of India, including Hyderabad, for which mega policing, aerial surveillance, etc., are being thought of but will be possible only with Central participation.In that case, what is done for Hyderabad in the present context will become a model in respect of other metropolises of India in the larger context also.

v) A mechanism can be created, maybe an expert commission or some other, for equitable sharing of water resources between the Autonomous State of Telangana and the Andhra area of Andhra Pradesh. In addition to this, there can be, on the basis of negotiations, a permanent expert commission to pursue matters on a continuing basis taking off from the award that will be issued by the commission set up under statute.

vi) Formula for sharing of taxes, especially taxes generated in Hyderabad city, can be evolved on the basis of correct financial principles and available statistics by an expert body and through negotiations. There is the experience of what was done in this regard about 40 years back as part of the budgetary exercise.

vii) Hyderabad, which is embedded within Telangana, should continue to be part of Telangana and capital of the Autonomous State. The futility of any effort to alter this should be evident from the aborted move in the late 50s of the last century to separate Bombay (now Mumbai) from Maharashtra as a Union Territory and the delay this caused in the formation of the linguistic States of Maharashtra and Gujarat and the bitterness that this delay gave rise to and the agitations that it set off for a few years and other events of that period ending with the bifurcation of the bilingual State into Maharashtra (including Mumbai) and Gujarat.

At the same time, since formation of the Autonomous State of Telangana does not require the division of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad can also continue to be the capital of Andhra Pradesh. Thus, the dispute and problem relating to Hyderabad can be avoided.

viii) Andhra interests that have grown in Telangana, especially in Hyderabad city and its surroundings in the last half-century, should have all lawful protection in the Autonomous State. In particular, a system should be created under the proposed Constitutional route to ensure law and order, and security and sense of security, for the people in Greater Hyderabad.

The advantages of the above route are that a) Telangana will get autonomous statehood while preserving the existing Andhra Pradesh State and b) the unfortunate bitterness that has grown between the people of the two regions may also disappear with the emergence of an agreed solution as is possible on the above basis.

This opportunity can also be utilised to provide Constitutional systems for the protection of the people of the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and their lands and other interests and also to provide proper Constitutional, legal, institutional and organizational systems for securing the economic, educational and social advancement of SCs, STs and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, including BCs of Muslim and Christian communities.

The autonomous State concept was earlier applied in the case of Meghalaya which, of course, later became the State of Meghalaya. But, the situation in Andhra Pradesh is more propitious than it was in the case of Assam. The “ethnic” difference between the Assamese (Ahomiya) plains people of Assam, and the Khasi and Jaintia and Garo tribes of the erstwhile Assam / Meghalaya Autonomous State / Meghalaya State does not exist between the people of Telangana and Andhra. The disturbing external factors experienced in Assam do not exist in Andhra Pradesh. Further, the political experience and maturity of the people of Andhra Pradesh promise longevity for this Constitutional arrangement of autonomous State within a State in the case of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

If it comes about and succeeds it will not only help resolve the present impasse in Andhra Pradesh in a positive way and put the people of the autonomous State of Telangana and of Andhra Pradesh on the path of development, welfare and equality, it will also set up a model for resolving similar aspiration-based movements in regions of other States. This issue cannot be wished away or brushed under the carpet.

Realizing the strong sentiments in favour of linguistic States (which also had a democratic justification), the Constitution- makers provided in Article 3 for formation of new States. This was utilized on several occasions. Also, the Indian leadership showed resilience in the matter of Article 343 and the Eighth Schedule and its expansion from time to time. All these helped meet powerful regional/linguistic sentiments (which also had a democratic content) and simultaneously strengthened India’s federalism and unity.

i think a division would be disastrous, for many reasons, for both the telugus and india. the current level of 'sentiments' in favour of telangana don't reflect a permanent divide, in my view. and these kinds of 'sentiments', history tells me, have a way of changing shape and even location and may reincarnate as new upheavals in coastal andhra or rayalaseema in the near future. this is not a 'problem' that the ruling classes of india can 'manage' and 'deal' with over a couple of years and go back to being the same ruling classes of india, later. because the telugus seem to have been around even before there was any india, and political schisms over centuries haven't been able to cause any serious damage to their ability to separate and regroup. and separate and regroup.

so i find some of krishnan's suggestions interesting, because they seem to take a saner, more mature approach to dealing with this 'problem', not because i agree with them totally.

hope?

hope this will at least stop female foeticide in upper caste hindu families. hope, they'll stop producing obcs and muslims and stick to girls.

the excuse makers

why do people attack artists, filmmakers, actors, writers? because the attackers think the artist, filmmaker etc in question has produced something that offends their 'sensibilities'. a recent trend has been to attack artists, filmmakers etc even for expressing their views on some issue not connected with their work. the telangana separatists have now moved even beyond that: a couple of months ago, they started attacking film shoots and screenings of films starring relatives of some film personalities who had expressed their views on the political unrest in the state. now it seems like things have taken on an even more surreal tone: random separatist bands attack film shoots just because they're happening in their neighbourhood. some news stories on attacks in recent months, starting with the the latest:

Allu Arjun and Gunasekhar were filming action sequences for their film Varudu, at Moosapet in Hyderabad, when T-activists belonging to TSF and NSUI tried to barge their way into the shooting spot and disrupt the shooting. However, their bid was foiled by the Kukatpally police. The schedule got affected, albeit for some time.

The activists, who identified themselves with the aforementioned unions, came out in shoals of 50-100, and shouted loud slogans in favour of Telangana. When the situation grew tense, the police were called in.

This is the second time that Varudu's shooting has been disrupted by T-activists.

another :

The Telangana activists along with the workers of the mines in OCP-3, Ramagundam stalled the shooting of the movie. Rana was surrounded by Telangana activists and was not allowed to move until he said "Jai Telangana". Earlier the shootings of Manchu Manoj, Allu Arjun and Jr NTR were disrupted by the Telangana agitators. The Telugu Film industry condemned the attacks and stated that politics shouldn't be attached to the film industry. However the attacks are continuing and the state government is not able to provide enough security for the film shootings.

and another :

Hyderabad, Dec 24 (IANS) Continuing their attacks on film shootings, pro-Telangana protestors Thursday targeted actor Mahesh Babu's film at Vikarabad in Ranga Reddy district, police said. Dozens of protesters barged into the shooting area and set fire to the sets and two vehicles in the district, about 100 km from here. The actors and other artists had to run for cover. Police said no one was injured in the incident.

This was the third attack by pro-Telangana groups on film shootings in and around Hyderabad in as many days.

and another :

In yet another indication of mounting trouble for the Telugu film industry due to the growing regional divide in the state, a group of pro-Telangana activists attacked the shooting of a film featuring young actor Manoj, son of actor and producer Mohan Babu.

Workers of Telangana Rashtra Samiti attacked the film shooting unit at Pet Basheerabad in outskirts of Hyderabad and ransacked the cameras and other equipments. They shouted slogans in support of Telangana state and against Mohan Babu for his anti-Telangana stand.

The situation could be brought under control only after the police rushed to the scene and disperse the Telangana activists. The police also booked a case against both the sons of Mohan Babu- Manoj and Vishnu allegedly attacking the media personnel who had gone there to cover the incident.

you might have some serious differences with people who attack artists for writing something, or painting something. how do you begin to understand people who attack artists just for being artists? can you think of any other political groups in the world which have attacked artists just for being artists? not many, i think. the senas come close, the taliban are a better fit. and both of them, like the separatists, have also raided or attacked sporting events or sportspersons. how do the ideologues of the movement feel about climbing up, or down, into such an exclusive club, i wonder.

some separatists might offer this excuse: they're andhraites. does that make it better? or, this: their relatives/father/mother/uncle/brother-in-law/distant cousin doesn't support the idea of a separate state. yes, the excuses sound even worse than the attacks.

the costs of rice

andhra pradesh needed around 32 lakh tonnes (rough estimate) of rice in 1961. it produced around 40 lakh* tonnes, according to an estimate of the international rice research institute. forty years later, in 2001, it required around 68 to 70 lakh tonnes. it produced around 93 lakh tonnes. from around 25%, the surplus had increased to 32%-- did that ensure less malnourishment in andhra pradesh than in kerala which produces only one-fifth as much rice as its population needs? no.

the average resident of kerala is richer than the average resident of andhra pradesh: per capita gdp in kerala is around 23% higher than in andhra pradesh. as for malnourishment, it's much higher in andhra pradesh, of course. but according to a recent report prepared by the u.n. world food program (unwfp) surpluses producing andhra pradesh is also much more food insecure than kerala:

New Delhi: India's mineral-rich state Jharkhand is the most hungry and thirsty state in the country and also among the states that has the poorest of sanitation facilities.

According to a report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India prepared jointly by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Jharkhand has replaced Orissa from top of the list of hungry states in the country.

The report, which is a corollary to the Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India that was released in 2001, also ranks the country 94th on the Global Hunger Index of 119 countries.

"On the composite index of food insecurity of rural India, states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are found in the 'very high' level of food insecurity, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat", the report said.

The better performers include Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, all of which report an Index value below 0.53, it added.

Surprisingly, economically developed states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka find themselves in the category of high food insecurity in the report. [emphasis mine].

so, what did andhra pradesh gain from producing so much rice? nearly twice as many people were employed or underemployed, one can safely assume, in 2001, in the production of a little more than twice as much rice as in 1961. it'd seem like all that talk of technology-intensive farming that the green revolution had supposedly ushered in was just that: mere talk. because the green-revolutionary technology only seems to have increased the surpluses marginally because most of the increase in output could as well be attributed to increase in labour employed. by pursuing a model of development that placed less emphasis on people, andhra pradesh seems to have achieved efficiency in neither production nor distribution. this has produced a society more riven by more social and economic inequalities, more deprivation and discontent than it originally started with.

if we consider the pure economic costs now, ignoring the human, ecological, and even political and social costs, they seem to be much higher than the gains: the government pays rs.1,000 as m.s.p for every quintal of paddy now, which is as just as much as the farmer spends to produce it. and for more than two decades his gains have been as bad. isn't it time somebody started calculating the total real costs, not just the economic ones? especially those who are promising the people of telangana that a new state would mean more water and rice?

* the paddy to rice ratio is 3:2.

sharing rivers, but not water

balagopal on river-sharing:

Small wonder then that not only the States of Karnataka and Maharashtra but the people of Telangana and Rayalaseema as well have always nursed a fully justified grievance about the distribution of the Krishna river waters. And even though there is no allocable water left in the Krishna river in terms of the Bachawat award, proposals aimed at watering the parched lands of Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, Cuddapah and Anantapur districts have been put forward in abundance. And the State government too, at various points of time – if only at election time in most cases - has promised execution each of these proposals. Not counting the minor proposals, the major ones alone would need about 200 tmc.ft of water: 40 each for the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (Nalgonda district), Bheema, Nettempadu, Kalwakurthi & other lift irrigation schemes (Mahbubnagar district), Galeru-Nagari and Handri-Neeva (for the four Rayalaseema districts), and Veligonda (the uplands of Markapuram division of Prakasam district). The profusion of the demands reflects the stark reality of heart-breaking drought in these areas.

from this article ('Pulichintala - A Test Case', by K.Balagopal) at the site which isn't small enough enough to think beyond rights that i had referred to yesterday.

i'd talked about perspective here, in response to some comments. going back to the article, let's look at balagopal's perspective:

According to a note circulated by the Irrigation department in the year 1998, the Pulichintala project is slated to use 982 million cubic meters of water from the Krishna river, which comes to about 13 tmc.ft. One tmc.ft of water is sufficient to irrigate six thousand to ten thousand acres, depending on whether it is used for wet cultivation or `irrigated dry’ cultivation. Taking the latter, these 13 tmc.ft of water would irrigate 1.3 lakh acres of land. How happy would any of the above districts from Nalgonda to Anantapur be to get at least this much irrigation water, though it is nothing compared to the 20 lakh acres that would be irrigated by all the projects all of them taken together have been dreaming of for decades now!

And what use is this project going to be put to? Not even to irrigate 1.3 lakh acres of as yet unirrigated land in Krishna district, but to ensure that transplantation of paddy in the Krishna delta under the old canal system takes place in June-July. Almatti in Karnataka and increased ayacut under Nagarjunasagar in upland Guntur and Nalgonda districts are said to have slowed down the arrival of water into the Prakasam barrage in the early monsoon weeks, thereby rendering transplantation of paddy in the months of June and July uncertain, and therefore 13 tmc.ft of water will be stored in the balancing reservoir at Pulichintala to be sent down to the Prakasam barrage at the appointed time so that the schedule of transplantation that the delta farmers are accustomed to is not upset. What solicitude!

krishna, and unsolvable problems like pulichintala have fuelled discontent in telangana for a very long period. but how is balagopal's perspective different from how those on the other side of the krishna think? from the perspective of the farmers in the delta, who wouldn't share any water even with their neighbours, leave alone those on the other side? when a discussion on rights doesn't start with drinking water and wet toilets, or universally recognized human rights, for the largest number of people, i don't see how even any reallocation of water between regions, would solve any problems. inequality is embedded deep in this perspective: higher needs should be met first. so, it's always the upper caste paddy farmer, in the three regions, whose 'parched lands' would be recognized first. millions of parched throats, in hundreds of villages all along the krishna basin region, can only wait forever. does the separatist movement look beyond this casteist perspective? or at a future beyond agriculture (as defined by the green revolution)?

politics can't be about toilets?

Hyderabad, Nov. 18: Despite targets periodically set by the government, sanitary facilities in most states in the country have improved little over the centuries.In Andhra Pradesh, 60 per cent of households in villages and 25 per cent in urban areas still do not have a toilet.

Even when toilets are built, they are not used. Some 42 lakh individual latrines were built in the state in the last one decade, but 70 per cent of them are lying unused. Official statistics show that Andhra Pradesh tops the country in having the lowest number of working toilets.

politics is about rights, not toilets.

politics is about culture. it is about how the other guy wears a lungi, while you wear a dhoti and similar irreconcilable differences. not about all those little guys working in your fields wearing gochis. politics is about water for rice paddies. even if the whole land is flooded with surplus rice, and most taps are running dry, and most villages don't have taps. politics is about government jobs. it is not about coolies' jobs or cobblers' jobs or paanwallahs' jobs. politics is about the chief minister's post. it is about speakers' posts, about vice chancellors' posts, about advocate generals' posts, about police commissioners' posts. not about manual scavengers' posts or rat catchers' posts. or the people who are thrust into those posts. and others like them who are entrusted, by tradition, with similar posts. they can form associations to take out rallies in support of telangana, so that people recognize that they'd be grateful to hold those posts in a future telangana. that they're not going to break ranks. politics is about recognizing their right to not break ranks.

i was hoping to find a toilet here, but it's completely dry. toilets are not rights. how about people who have to clean up dry toilets? shouldn't any discussion of rights begin there? one learns once again from the separatist movement that the upper caste, hindu liberal, despite all his loud talk about rights, is a strict believer in the old, ordered way of life. he can lead you into a big battle over how to divide up rivers, lands and even subterranean wealth but never talk about what's in it for everyone. that was decided long ago in his favour, so it doesn't even occur to him that his sense of priorities isn't everyone's sense of priorities.

andhra is only slightly ahead?

i'd looked at two different perspectives which agreed on the view that telangana grew more in the post-reforms period in these two posts. this post looks at another. s. mahendra dev, of the centre for economic and social studies, looking at post-reforms development and growth in andhra pradesh in the paper 'Inclusive Growth in Andhra Pradesh: Challenges in Agriculture, Poverty, Social Sector and Regional Disparities' (thanks, swarup garu) observes (page 3):

Growth rates in district domestic product (DDP) and per capita DDP shows that 7 districts of Telangana (Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Khammam, Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar, Warangal and Medak) and 2 districts of North Coastal (Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam) recorded higher growth rates than that of state average. On the other hand, all the districts in South Coastal and Rayalaseema and three districts of Telangana and one district of North Coastal showed lower growth than that of state average. However, one has to see the quality of growth in Telangana and Rayalaseema districts.

some more interesting facts, relevant to some issues discussed in recent posts on this blog, can be gleaned from table 27 (page 33). for instance:

* of the nine districts that showed higher per capita gdp (or ddp) than the per capita gsdp of andhra pradesh (of rs.1300, in 1993-94 prices) in 2003-04, four were from telangana and five were from coastal andhra and none from rayalaseema.

* there was greater inequality within each region (in coastal andhra, per capita ddp in vizianagaram is rs.904 in 2003-04 while it is rs.2026 in neighbouring visakhapatnam; in telangana per capita ddp in mahbubnagar is rs.976 while per capita ddp in hyderabad is rs.1758) than across regions (median per capita ddp in telangana is rs.1192, while median per capita ddp in andhra-rayalaseema is rs.1220; median per capita ddp in coastal andhra is rs.1317 and in rayalaseema it is rs.1083).

but i am uncomfortable with the estimates in the table. mahendra dev says (at the bottom of the table):

Note: Per capita DDP is in 1993-94 prices
Source: Estimated from the data provided by Department of Economics and Statistics, GOAP

but the gdp/ddp estimates for andhra pradesh and india, in 1993-94 prices, are hard to find and this web page (published by the chandigarh government) offers very different figures for the gdp of andhra pradesh, in 1993-94 prices, from 1993-94 to 2003-04.

so, how did mahendra arrive at figures which are less than the figures offered elsewhere by around 90%? i'm sure there is a good explanation for this discrepancy. i think mahendra dev's estimates are probably based on 1980-81 or 1970-71 prices because i've noticed elsewhere that the recent estimates government of andhra pradesh put the state per capita gdp figures for 2003-04 somewhere around rs.19000 (based on 1999-2000 prices), which is nearly 15 times the figure of rs.1300 offered by mahendra dev's estimates. i don't think a change in base year, apart from growth, could account for such a huge difference. but the growth rate in gsdp offered by mahendra dev's estimates seems to match the growth rate indicated by figures (in the second page), and both the gsdp figures (for 1993-94 and 2003-04) too seem to be lower by a uniform 90% or so. it almost seems like all his per capita ddp estimates miss a zero at the end. so for the rest of this post, i am going to accept and use mahendra dev's figures to make some observations. but i hope readers will understand that they need to take my observations based on these figures as efforts to get a general sense of economic disparities within regions, than as accurate estimates.

a commenter here has tried to make the point that comparing the growth statistics of telangana with andhra-rayalaseema is like comparing similar statistics relating to ethiopia or iraq with the united states. i don't think so. as another commenter pointed out: comparing karimnagar with kurnool isn't so outlandish. it's more like comparing iraq with ethiopia. because, as we can learn from mahendra dev's paper, all three regions of andhra pradesh have more in common with iraq or ethiopia, when one looks at human development indicators, than with the united states. and when it comes to bland, purely economic statistics like per capita gdp figures, they've more in common with each other than many assume.

why comparing karimnagar with kurnool or guntur isn't like comparing ethiopia or iraq with the united states

i looked at the district-wise population figures on this page (census 2001)#, and a little calculation helped me arrive at rough estimates of what could be the ddp figures (based on the per capita ddp figures in table 27 in mahendra dev's paper), and then figure out the region-wise gdp figures and per capita gdp numbers for each of the three regions. after some very tiresome math i came up with some very rough figures (all figures are based on 1993-94 prices, as in the table, and pertain to 2003-04) which would help me gain an insight into region-wise differences in per capita gdp. these are, let me repeat, very rough estimates (i could be definitely be inaccurate, but i don't think i'm very wrong). so don't look for precision here, only an attempt to gain a sense of regional differences, and how comparable those differences are. i'm sure there are official estimates available somewhere, some participants at televised debates have quoted figures for even 2009-2010. but, anyway, here are my estimates (and my neck):

* the per capita gdp in telangana (all ten districts including hyderabad) is rs.1317 (approx), while the per capita gdp of the thirteen districts of andhra-rayalaseema is rs.1284 (approx) as in 2003-04, based on 1993-94 prices. not comparable?

* while the per capita gdp of the ten districts of telangana is rs.1317 (approx), the per capita gdp of the nine districts of coastal andhra is rs.1368 (approx) and the per capita gdp of the four districts of rayalaseema is rs.1087 (approx). not comparable?

some commenters have said that the gdp and growth figures of the districts of hyderabad and ranga reddy districts (the greater hyderabad capital region) inflate the overall gdp and growth figures of telangana. let's see how telangana looks without hyderabad and other growth-inflating districts:

* the per capita gdp of nine districts of telangana (excluding hyderabad) is rs. 1258 (approx), while the per capita gdp of the thirteen andhra-rayalaseema districts is rs. 1284, or 2% more. not comparable?

* the per capita gdp of eight districts of telangana (excluding hyderabad and ranga reddy districts) is rs.1195 (approx), while the per capita gdp of the thirteen andhra-rayalaseema districts is rs. 1284, or 7% more. not comparable?

* the per capita gdp of seven districts of telangana (excluding hyderabad, ranga reddy and medak districts) is rs.1138 (approx), while the per capita gdp of the thirteen andhra-rayalaseema districts is rs. 1284, or 13% more. not comparable?

one could go on. if one excludes the per capita gdp figures of visakhapatnam from the andhra-rayalaseema statistics (because it inflates the gdp figures of the area like hyderabad and the capital region inflate the gdp figures of telangana), the per capita gdp for the remaining twelve districts goes down to rs.1215 (approx), while the per capita gdp of seven districts of telangana (excluding hyderabad, ranga reddy and medak districts) is rs.1138 (approx). not comparable?

i think all those minor differences would become much more minor if one takes into account the simple fact that telangana started out on its journey to modernity, democracy and development a good two generations behind andhra-rayalaseema.

when a movement shifts, in spurts, from making wild charges of discrimination to colonization to cultural domination, and fails to substantiate any of those charges, one can clearly see that its campaign is built along the lines of similar 'cultural' movements like the 'ram janmabhoomi' agitation. when its votaries in their public pronouncements, repeatedly, fail to make a distinction between a small class of alleged oppressors and the whole ethnic group to which the class of alleged oppressors belong, one does not need to excavate the ram jamabhoomi years in one's mind to understand what's happening. it's happened before. the politics of the separatists is now mostly about hate-mongering.

# i'm assuming there is no major change in the proportion (of total population of the state) living in each region in the period 2001 to 2003-04. even accounting for variations wouldn't affect my figures in a very big way, i think. please correct me if i'm wrong, anywhere.

how telangana grew more

some doubts were raised here on whether the rest of telangana grew as much as hyderabad in the post-reforms period. dr.jayaprakash narayan of loksatta seems to have looked at that question too. in a television chat show he has tried to answer a similar question:

mahesh:I need some clarification on what factor telangana districts are growing much faster than andhra region districts. Can u please ans me?
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan: I have presented many parameters and the growth in Telangana & rest of AP over 50 years. The facts speak for themselves. If you see the annual growth rates of gross district domestic product of various districts from 1994-95 to 2006-07, the facts are revealing. 1994-95 to 2006-07 - Annual average growth rate. AP: 6.68%.
Nalgonda: 7.38% Khammam: 6.99% Warangal: 7.57% Karimnagar: 7.53% Adilabad: 6.46% Nizamabad: 6.30% Medak: 7.34% Hyderabad: 10.41% Rangareddy: 9.32% Mahabubnagar:8.34%
Rayalaseema: Kurnool: 5.33% Ananthapur: 5.82% Cuddapah: 4.90% Chittoor: 4.73%
coastal AP Nellore: 5.09% Prakasam: 6.80% Guntur: 4.81% Krishna: 7.01% West Godavari: 5.79% East Godavari: 6.46% Visakhapatnam: 9.65% Vizianagaram: 5.81% Srikakulam: 6.58% you can see these trends - these are long term trends aggregate economic growth over 13 years for each district. The facts speak for themselves. [emphasis mine]

as you can see, in gdp terms, eight (of ten) districts of telangana of grew more than the whole of andhra pradesh in the period 1994-95 to 2006-07, while three (of nine) districts in coastal andhra, and no district (of four) in rayalaseema grew more than the whole of andhra pradesh and these figures match, to a great degree, the results of the study mentioned in my previous post. as i said in my previous post, for unbiased observers, it isn't hard to understand why a large number of districts in telangana grew more. most of them were growing from a lower base, and some like nizamabad had gone through this process much earlier and were now slackening, like many districts in coastal andhra. (also, you'd also find a great deal of other information on development in telangana in other fields too in that lok satta page which strengthen the view that telangana is growing more).

the study i had discussed in my previous post didn't look at gdp figures, but on page 8 of the report you'll find an explanation of why the results of their efforts to measure the 'level of economic activity' across regions differ slightly from gdp figures.

that telangana grew more than coastal andhra in the post-reforms period isn't inconsistent, in my view, with the fact that there are pockets of great distress in the region. it is true that cotton farmers have committed suicide in telangana through the nineties, and it is also true that the area under cotton cultivation has also expanded significantly. the number of farmers' suicides in telangana matches similar figures in vidarbha, punjab and other regions. but it is also true that yields per acre of paddy grown in karimnagar and other parts of telangana now equal or exceed yields in west godavari or guntur districts. mass migrations from mahbubnagar are also true, but so is the increasing number of students from telangana scoring well in board exams and highly competitive entrance tests. parts of nalgonda reel from the effects of high levels of fluoride contamination in the water they drink, but it is also true that other parts of nalgonda present a picture of economic vibrancy and prosperity. it is true that more young rural youngsters were killed in fake encounters than in many other 'naxal-affected' regions in the country, but it is also true that a large number of educated youth have also entered such modern professions as the the academia, law, media on the one hand and government, organized public and private sector industry and new age businesses like software on the other, over the last 2-3 decades.

across india, there are large pockets of distress in every village. rural india as a whole, 70% of the population, gets only 30% of the gdp. and even that small share of the pie gets divided very unevenly: probably 60-80% of it goes to 20% of the rural population. usually those with better and bigger landholdings, and of purer castes. so, there are always enough grounds for distress and anger and agitation. everywhere. i consider it a sign of the strength of the creative capacities of the growing middle class of fairly prosperous telanganis that they've managed to convert so successfully the deprivation and pain of the less fortunate majority into a movement designed to serve, solely, their own growing ambitions.

[ there is a large loony fringe among the separatists who dispute these kind of figures. many times even without looking at them. and dr.jayaprakash narayan's source of the data is probably the government of andhra pradesh, so more suspect in the eyes of the separatists'. but as these issues are discussed more, and at less acrimonious fora, i hope for their own sake that they would find other arguments to make their points in the future].