After Nehru’s death, Smt. Indira Gandhi, in her father’s footsteps, became
a staunch champion of socialism. Mrs. Gandhi’s socialist economics were
pushing the country deeper and deeper into poverty. Politicians were clueless
about why the economy was floundering despite their best intentions. Nizam
Telangana economy suffered along with the rest of the country. Poverty in the
region created an ideal environment to incite people against each other.
Ever since the formation of the Andhra Pradesh state, there have been
occasional rumblings of dissatisfaction by the disgruntled Nizam Telangana
leaders who failed in their demand for a separate state in 1956. The Nizam
Telangana leaders had two main grievances: the first one related to employment
in government services, and the second one involved using the balance of
funds from the Telangana region.
According to the gentlemen’s agreement, jobs in the Telangana region
were reserved for locals. Ironically, Nizam Telangana leaders violated this
agreement in certain instances, and often for good reasons. For example, when
teachers were not available in the Nizam Telangana region, they were hired
from other regions. The local Telangana leaders running the zilla parishads
made these hiring decisions. There were violations in other government
departments, and these violations happened in all ministries, including under
the very eyes of the Nizam Telangana ministers.
According to the then Deputy Chief Minister J. V. Narasinga Rao,
hailing from Nizama Telangana, there were 107,000 non-gazetted employees
in the Nizam Telangana region in 1969. Out of these, about 4.5% were nonmulkis
1,600 were teachers, 1,800 were nurses, 400 were stenographers, and
the remaining few came from other departments.
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