During the recent 2009 elections, hectic horse trading went on among
all the political parties. Every political party tried to milk the Telangana issue.
BJP announced that they would create a Telangana state within 100 days of
their government coming into power at the center. TDP, the party founded on
the platform of Telugu pride, which has long opposed dividing the state, put its
soul up for sale and entered into an arrangement with TRS. The new political
party, Praja Rajyam, also wanting to woo the Telangana voter, courted another
opportunistic separatist leader, Devender Goud, into its fold. The Congress Party,
while trying their best to delay a decision on Telangana, continues to say that they support separating the state. The Communist parties, CPI and CPM, who led the
fight to integrate Nizam Telangana with Kosta-Rayalaseema, sadly are now dilly-
dallying on the separation issue.
Why are all the political parties in the state pandering to the Telangana
issue? Is it because of the widespread belief among many that there is a strong
sentiment in favor of a separate state?
In 2008, to prove the strength of the separate state movement, the
overconfident chief of TRS and his party men resigned en masse from the 4
loksabha and 16 assembly seats they held. During the re-election campaign, the
TRS chief positioned the by-polls as a referendum on the Telangana state and
painted the vote for TDP and Congress as a vote against the Telangana state.
When the results were declared, a total of 45 lakh votes were polled. The
Congress Party got 15 lakh votes, TRS got 14 lakh votes, and TDP got 13 lakh
votes. As a result, TRS lost 9 of its 16 assembly seats and 2 of the 4 loksabha seats,
whereas KCR barely eked out a victory in Karimnagar. All this happened in the
TRS stronghold constituencies that they won just a couple of years ago.
In the so-called referendum held in TRS’s former constituencies, the party
received less than one-third of the vote. If the overwhelming majority of the
region wants a separate state, why did TRS go around shopping for a partner to
contest in the most recent elections of 2009? TRS tied up with the TDP and the
Communists—the two parties that historically opposed dividing the state but
recently changed their positions.
For the 2009 elections, after all the seat adjustments were made, TRS
contested in 45 assembly seats and 9 Loksabha seats in the Nizam Telangana
region. When the results were announced, TRS won a meager 10 assembly seats
and 2 Lok Sabha seats. So, is the case for a separate Telangana state that clear cut?
What would our ancestors think about this bickering among Telugus?
Would Kakatiya King Rudradeva, responsible for uniting the Telugu people,
approve the current infighting? How would Sri Krishna Deva Raya, who proudly
called himself a “Telugu Vallabha”, feel about Telugus bickering with each other?
How would Potti Sriramulu react to Telugus forgetting the discrimination they
had to endure barely a few decades ago when they were scattered across many
states? How would those millions of men who sacrificed their lives against
Islamic onslaught to protect our way of life feel about the current state of political
opportunism?
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