Aditi Phadnis: Telangana's identity crisis

PLAIN POLITICS/ K Chandrasekhar Raos dream of a separate state has still some way to go

At least one remnant of those movements thrives in Peru. The Sendero Luminoso guerillas are still following the armed insurrection route to empowering the peasantry and the working classes, with many admirers in this part of the globe.

Conditions in the Telangana area of Andhra Pradesh are completely different from Latin America "" but are also similar. "Down with the World Bank" is a slogan every Telangana villager knows.

In small towns and hamlets, the discussion is centered around the manner in which Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has virtually prostrated before the World Bank in structural reforms. In different ways, most people are saying the same thing: that in trying to think globally, Naidu forgot to act locally.

In Latin America,  poorly planned programmes for redistribution of wealth by -Marxist governments led to a financial crisis. In Andhra Pradesh, how a reformist Chief Minister like Chandrababu Naidu failed to see the theme of discrimination in development unfolding in Telangana is incomprehensible.

That the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the man behind it, K Chandrashekhar Rao, are going to be Naidu's nemesis is the worst kept secret of this election. But even after such a successful mass movement as the TRS, the people of Telangana are unlikely to get a separate state.

K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR, in local parlance) is the sort of man, who in better days, would have been a model for the New Andhra Pradesh Politician. He is well-read, highly articulate and has great intellectual clarity.

He belongs to an intermediate caste called Velama "" corresponding to Jats in North India. To give an idea of the caste in AP's social hierarchy, Velamas were kings in medieval India and are now rich landlords with a presence in two or three districts in Telangana including Warangal, Medak and Nizamabad.

Rao was in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and an MLA for four terms. In 1999, he was close to getting a ministership but was pipped to the post by fellow Vellama, former CBI director Vijaya Rama Rao who contested the 1999 elections and became first time MLA.

KCR might not have taken up cudgels on behalf of Telangana if he had become a minister. Anyhow, he left the party to form the TRS in 2001 ostensibly to right the wrongs done to Telangana all these years.

The fact is that KCR only did what many others had done before him.  Telangana has been backward for centuries. Remember, it never came under the British but was ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad  who did set up a few factories and a textile mill in Warangal in collaboration with the French, but avenues of employment were few and exploitation abounded, something Shyam Benegal has captured eloquently in his film 'Ankur'.

The most crucial infrastructure element -"" irrigation systems - was never developed systematically in Telangana although both the Krishna and the Godavari flowed through it. By contrast, the coastal Andhra region aggressively lobbied for and got a garland of canals that took river waters deep into East and West Godavari districts.

Nothing changed for Telangana over the years. The region became a stronghold of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and armed struggle came to India first in Telangana.

In 1956, when Fazal Ali presented his report on the linguistic reorganisation of states, Telangana first refused to integrate and then negotiated long and hard on the terms on which it would become part of Andhra Pradesh. What Nehru called a 'gentleman's agreement' was drawn up ""that Telangana would be recognised as "virtually" a separate state.

This hasn't happened 50 years later but the movement "" and feelings "" for a separate state continue to simmer. Congress Chief Minister M Channa Reddy cynically fanned the flames of the separate Telangana movement in the 1970s that led to bloody riots but ensured a permanent stranglehold of the Congress over Andhra Pradesh. When N T Rama Rao founded the Telugu Desam, the Congress found itself turfed out of coastal Andhra but retained its base in Telangana and Rayalaseema.

Now the chickens have come home to roost. Chandrababu Naidu has borrowed Rs 50,000 crore from the World Bank, say villagers, and not a paisa is to be seen in Telangana. "Why is that?" roars KCR. "Because we've never spoken up. We have to dig 500 feet to find water. Because of the World Bank, Babu has raised power tariffs and we have to pay double just to find water. One borewell goes phut, we have to dig another.  Now's the time to send the Bank Babu home".

The signs were for everyone to see. KCR set up the TRS in the winter of 2001. In the summer of 2001, AP had local body elections. The TRS took off so strongly  that the TDP got just 10 of the 20 Zilla Parishads, despite a triangular fight "" between itself, the Congress and the TRS. Realising itts potential, the Congress quickly did a deal witth the TRS for the Lok Sabha elections.

The consensus is that Chandrababu Naidu is unlikely to return to power in the assembly elections. This means that the Congress-TRS combine will rule AP. The problem is, because both belong to an intensely feudal background, KCR and the Congress Chief Minister designate, Y S Rajashekhar Reddy, detest each other. So who will be CM and who will be DCM is all open.

KCR is not an easy man to get on with. At least half a dozen of his colleagues who had joined up with him have threatened to walk out from the TRS because of his arrogance. Even the mild-mannered A Narendra who left the BJP to join the TRS is wary of KCR. Some colleagues in the TRS actually set up a separate Telangana forum but decided to disband it after saner counsel prevailed.

The official Congress stand on Telangana is that it supports another states' reorganisation commission to "look into" several statehood issues including that of Telangana. Friction between TRS and Congress will start from Day 1 over this.

The advantage could go to the TDP and coastal Andhra. The people of Telangana, who have fought for 50 years despite betrayals by their leaders, will soon realise that it will take another 50 to get them their state.