I am from Telangana, I am not a Naxalite – By Sheena Roy

Published on Monday, February 22, 2010
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Today, I went and saw the movie called ‘I am khan, I am not a terrorist’. The movie is about a Muslim man suffering from a type of autism called ‘Asperger’s Syndrome’ who suddenly finds himself branded as a terrorist after the September 11th incident in US. As a law-abiding man with simple ideals, he doesn’t understand why he is accused of being a terrorist. The moral of the story was that there are only two kinds of people, good and evil, and they exist everywhere in all races, regions, and religions.

A few people brought to my attention that in some pro-united Andhra forums, and groups, any person asking for Telangana is termed as a naxalite. The members are claiming that the Telangana supporters are instigators of violence, and they are T-rouble makers of the worst kind who are disrupting the peace and tranquility in Andhra Pradesh.  The accusers are educated Andhra people who have some form of fear that they will be driven out from Hyderabad if Telangana state is formed and Hyderabad becomes the capital of this new state.  Being a moderator of the Telangana forum, I will say that this kind of rhetoric is not just confined to the pro-United Andhra forums. Most of the administrators continuously monitor our walls for inflammatory speeches and try to moderate them. But still a few escape our close watch.  Some people attack the Andhras with equal fervor as they attack the Telangana people.

Firstly let me say clearly that I am all for the bifurcation of Telangana region from Andhra Pradesh. I don’t want the people to break up because of language, or because I have hatred for the other side. In fact, I enjoy the food, the movies, the literature belonging to the Andhra region. My reasons for the de-merger of the state are political, economic, and administrative. I think that ‘Unity’ is a politically correct word and in normal circumstances, every sane person would want people to be happily united. The key word here is in ‘normal circumstances’.

I strongly believe that smaller states are better for administration, especially with the high populace in India. India has already separate three states in the recent years into six. The three new states, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarkhand have stated higher GDP growth since their formation.

Secondly, I believe that there are regional imbalances because of the uneven political representation in the state. The Seema Andhra people have a majority in the state, they have roughly 75 more representatives than Telangana. In the last 56 years, they have enjoyed their leaders at the helm as the chief minister of the state. Only four times, the Telangana chief ministers have come to the power and three out of the four times, they have been pulled down by the Seemandhra leaders before they fulfilled their tenure.

Because of the weak political representation, most of the irrigation projects in Telangana were put on the back burner, not maintained, and those that started were drawn and built to give more water to the Seemandhra regions than the Telangana region. When I tell this fact to my Andhra friends, they told me that our farmers are too lazy, so they didn’t want the water but just the dole outs from the state. Some told me that since Telangana region is a plateau, the lift irrigation is more expensive.  Painstakingly I did research and found that majority of the projects are not lift irrigation, and that the government did not make any efforts to implement drip irrigation, minor lift irrigation projects that are less expensive to curtain the over usage of ground water. This resulted in depletion of ground water. The farmers took loans from the banks to dig bore/tube wells. But they needed electricity to run the borewells. Electricity was scarce too because there were no power projects in Telangana. So the farmers failed miserably and defaulted on their loans. In the last decade, Telangana ranked the highest in terms of farmer suicides.

90% of the white-collar bureaucrats in the government are from Seemandhra. When a Telangana person does all the due diligence and goes for a mining permit, somehow the permission is given to a native of Andhra. 95% of the government contracts go to the Seema or Andhra businessman. This monopolization suppressed the Telangana people and you can name probably a handful that are millionaires, while there are hundreds of people from Andhra who can claim to be millionaires and even a couple of billionaires.

The corruption and greed of Seema Andhra leaders and businessmen is another reason why I believe it would be best for us to divide. The government (i.e. Chief ministers and powerful politicians belonging to SeemaAndhra) gave away lands almost free of charge to several Andhra policians and businessmen for favors received. The lands in Hyderabad and surrounding Telangana villages were given on the pretext of creating industries for employing locals, but instead were turned into real estate ventures. Today about 167,000 acres of government land is in the hands of Seemandhra people.

When it comes to funds distribution, the inequality is glaringly visible. The universities in Andhra enjoy a lot more funds, and every year a new university pops in that region while the Telangana universities are always squeezed for money and almost bare facilities.

Based on the weaker political power, lower per capita income, lower literacy rates, lower employment numbers, and less number of acres that are irrigated in Telangana, and increasing greed of the Seemandhra leaders, I believe that a division is absolutely necessary.  Added to this are the growing animosities between the two people, the mental anguish and fear from both sides.

So what happens to Hyderabad? Hyderabad being in telangana region will have to stay as the capital of Telangana. The state capital for Seemandhra region needs to be selected, the money and seed capital for the infrastructure needs to be given to the Seemandhra people. The people who will lose the government jobs will need to be repatriated to their region. If Andhra people want to remain where they are, they should remain where they are – after all, Hyderabad is in India and we are all Indians, as an Indian, you or I should have the right to stay where we want.

I want to be fair to the Seema Andhra people in Hyderabad. Most of them are ordinary people who came to Hyderabad because it is the capital of A.P, they found jobs and settled here. Some of them have been in the city for 25 years or more. They fear that they will be sent back if Telangana comes, their jobs will be in jeopardy and their lands will be seized. Being a moderate and educated person, I would like to impress upon them that unless they are in a state government job, they have nothing to fear. But like Khan’s mother said, there are good and evil people in the world, and some evil people do threaten violence against the ordinary Andhra and Seema people with dire consequences. Will this increase or decrease if Andhra Pradesh remains united? I believe if the separation happens quickly and smoothly, people will live and let live. The longer the agitation is let to simmer, the worse the consequences will be.

I have a lot of friends who have had mixed marriages. I sympathize with their plight. They want the state to be united. They want their kids to have one native state, now they have to go through the same identity crises that most of the American Born Indian kids go through. Who do they show loyalty to? Where do they live? This is a delicate problem, but this is not the same kind of problem that the Telangana farmers are facing, this is not the same kind of problem that the Telangana unemployed youth are battling. Their agitation is for food, shelter, and education not for emotional comfort.

Are people from two different states not marrying today? How are the children from such marriages coping with the situation? It’s not like we are going to be two states speaking two different languages, right? It’s not like we are building a wall between our regions.

The only culprits here are the leaders from both sides, who have a lot more to lose or gain if Telangana comes. These are the people who have acquired lands illegally in Telangana and worry that people will start looking closely into their activities or people who want to grab power.

The rhetoric on both sides is increasing day by day. The hostilities on internet forums is reminding me of ‘Road Rage’. On the road, people try to cut each other off, they curse, they yell obscenities when someone breaks the rules, the drivers show their middle fingers, and sometimes they even shoot each other when a crazy person loses his or her cool. I think this is probably because we are pretty sure we will never see that person face to face in a party or workplace. The same phenomenon is taking place on the forums, facebook, Orkut, Myspace groups, and fan pages. Under the guise of anonymity, we take swings at each other, trying to be as crude and as insensitive s possible.

On the Telangana forums, every Andhra person is a leech, a bloodsucker, or a Shylock. But most of the Andhra people are your co-workers, your neighbors, and your family members who probably had no idea that all these injustices were happening in Telangana. They were blissfully ignorant all this time, and now that the shit hit the fan, they are bristling at the personal insults and attacks against them. The telangana people show insensitivity about the migrants, screaming slogans like ‘idli sambar go back’,  ‘Andhra Bhago’ etc.

Telangana people should stop blaming the ordinary Andhra person. Their only fault is staying silent and blind when injustices were happening and enjoying the favors bequeathed upon them by their leaders. It is perhaps not a deed done with deliberation, but with oblivious ignorance.

The Seema Andhra leaders today are trying to term Telangana people as naxalites, trying to create a fear in the Center and suppress the student movement. This propaganda has moved to the internet, now the Andhra people take pleasure in calling all Pro-Telangana people naxalites. They too show their indifference and apathy when young kids from Telangana die, committing suicides.

Andhra people should stop thinking that these demands are because the Telangana people are against them. The movement was born ‘For’ the Telangana people, not ‘Against’ any other region.

In these circumstances, it is foolish to stay together and beget violent thoughts or deeds on both sides. It is a merciful thing if the center grants the separation of Telangana as quickly as possible when there is still some love and respect between us.

I am from Telangana, I am not a Naxalite.

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