Open Letter to SKC on the demerger of Telangana
Honorable(s) Justice Mr. Sree Krisha, Mr. Duggal, Ms. Kaur, Mr. Sharif, and Mr. Singh:
My name is Sheena Roy, I reside in United States of America in the state of California.
I am representing the 7,000 members combining Telangana Fan Page, Telangana Group, Telangana – 29th State of India group on Facebook and writing this to you on their behalf.
I was astonished at how many Telangana NRI associations popped up across United States of America recently. Every major city in U.S. has a Telangana NRI Association (TENA) with events such as Dhoom Dhaam, Batukamma, Ugadi, Dasara and Diwali celebrations every now and then. Boston, SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, New Jersey, New York, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Houston, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Washington D.C, Seattle, even Portland, Oregon boasts of a TENA chapter. Then I just went on the Facebook (A social network) and saw that there are roughly 72 Telangana groups representing accent, culture, festivals, and political opinions of Telangana people. Curious about the phenomena, I went to Orkut, another social network and found even more forums and groups of Telangana people.
I was beginning to get the drift, but I was not completely satisfied. I was told that there are 14,000 blogs representing opinions of Telangana people worldwide, there are Telangana development forums in every major city where Telugu people live including the Middle Eastern, South East Asian, North American, European, and Australian countries. Every Telangana person who cared a little about Telangana talked or expressed their opinions vocally…they all want a separate Telangana that is politically autonomous, administratively autonomous, and financially independent from Andhra Pradesh. I was told that the TANA (Telugu Association of North America that represented the UNITED Andhra Pradesh) membership dropped by 40 percent. It looks like, in North America, the Telangana and Andhra people have demerged emotionally. This split even applied to the Temple board members and associations.
I was shocked to see this is even more pronounced within India. The people of Telangana have irrevocably separated emotionally from their counterparts in Andhra and Seema. Every major city had a huge congregation with over a lac of people, every single village and district conducted some kind of show in support of Telangana. Hyderabad itself had a multitude of these events representing various communities, genders, religions, and student groups.
The assembly seems like it is vertically divided into two. The Telangana ministers are performing their duties perfunctorily and sullenly without any passion or interest. They do not seem interested in the proceedings of the Assembly sessions. The MLAs from the ruling party have divided regionally, as did the MLAs from the major opposition party. Employees in Secretariat, Police, Revenue, and other government offices also segregated into their own groups. The same people who used to sit together to eat food, enjoy watching the movies together now looked at each other suspiciously. obviously there is no love lost between the Seema Andhra and Telangana people.
Hence I ask, do you think this union will work in the future? When people are this divided in their opinions, do you think that it is wise to force the Telangana people to live together with Seemandhra people? Can we operate in the Assembly, fighting about regional disparities on every single subject? Can the ministers even function while they are being threatened with bodily harm if they enter Telangana? Can a Telangana student get a fair treatment, when they think that the Andhra teachers are targeting them? What about the youth when they think that their job placements are fewer, their opportunities are minimal in United A.P? Do you want more Telangana youth to commit suicides because they are obsessed with the idea of Telangana?
Our answer is a resounding and emphatic ‘NO’ – People of Andhra Pradesh will not survive this in a UNIFIED ANDHRA PRADESH. Every self-respecting Telangana person wants a separate HYDERABAD/TELANGANA state. (I am deliberately calling this as HYDERABAD state, so no one would think that there is TELANGANA without HYDERABAD as it’s capital). Honestly, no Seemandhra person will be capable of living in Telangana with this kind of aggression, obsession, and political activism. The Hyderabadis or any other migrants, who have been living in Hyderabad or other T-regions for more than 25 years, should call themselves Telanganites and forget about their loyalties to the region they left behind.
Take a look around, TG people don’t want to see the Andhra dominated movies, and they want to ban Andhra goods to show their displeasure of staying in united Andhra Pradesh. They are threatening their leaders as well as the Seemandhra leaders not to set foot in their villages and districts until they are given a separate Telangana. The educated people are as divided and as invested as the rural Telangana people. The fight is for water rights that should not be ignored anymore. This fight is for the precious government jobs, and this fight is for self-respect of four crores of Telangana people. Telangana people do not want to be subservient anymore to the land grabbing, and opportunistic Seema Andhra politicians and businessmen.
As educated NRIs, we want to develop Telangana, fund rural schools, invest in our districts, but without the undue influence of the Seemandhra leaders who seemed to be diverting our positive overtures to their selfish interests.
Dear Sree Krishna Committee members, Please do not force this union on us anymore, we have irreconcilable differences, we have showed statistical proofs that Telangana has been treated unfairly under the Seemandhra majority rule for the last 53 years. Please do no break the hearts of Telangana people one more time, we have been betrayed many times before. We are peacefully requesting you to give your opinion that Telangana should be bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad as it’s capital.
Respectfully yours,
Sheena Roy
thomassheep
Apr 11, 2010 @ 02:21:59
Hi Sheena,
Well written.
I wrote a 10 page letter and sent it to SKC.
I highlighted in the following areas.
1. SeemAndhra cultural attacks on Telangana
a)broadly, from Andhra dominated telugu media.
b) Gross neglect of the historical importance of telangana and culture in the texbooks.
etc.,
2. Water-sharing issues and illegal and unfeasible water projects built on krisha and godavari catchment areas
3. Complete Andhra political domination and untouchability.
4. Self-respect movement from TELANGANA
5. So many committess (starting from Ali Fazal. Girgilani, etc.) and constituted committees declared and recommended in favour of telangana, and lopsided attitude of Andhra political leaders.
6. Illegal land-grabbing in the name of real estate companies in and around hyderabad by the Andhra-Seema bigwigs.
Few other facts covered too.
SRI4TG
Apr 11, 2010 @ 02:46:30
@Sheena
I am very proud of you. I too have written to SKC
My highlights are…..
From an historical perspective, Telangana and Andhra were never together for more than 600 years prior to their merger in 1956 to create AP, and therefore there evolved no common culture / interest to merge and hold these parts together. Speaking a common language (even when accent is different) is not a valid point to unite two regions to create a single state or country. There are many states in India and countries in the world living separately, in spite of sharing a common culture and a language.
Telanganites are not asking to restore their earlier Princely state / Kingdom.
Telanganites want to enjoy the fruits and benefits of democratic self rule by maintaining their self respect.
Telanganites are not asking to create a brand new state for them.
Telanganites, just want their state to get de-merged from Andhra, including their own capital city Hyderabad as well, with which they are associated since last 480 years, which was forcefully merged with Andhra 53 years back to create AP.
When there are 8 Hindi speaking states in India, why can’t we have two states for us.
When the various agreements and assurances given to Telangana people were not honored and implemented by the other dominant partner in this case, what moral right do they have to continue with us, and in what way it is justified.
When the very basis on which Telangana is merged with Andhra is not respected and is violated, where does the question of continuation of unified state prevail?
Is there any logic or strong reason to keep these both states together, in spite of one deceiving / looting / exploiting and dominating on other.
Is it not the responsibility of the Government of India to safe guard the interests and protect the rights and self respect of all the sections and regions of Indian Union?