People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 31
August 04 , 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 31 August 04 , 2013 |
Editorial
AFTER years of
prevarication, the
Congress party’s working committee has adopted a unanimous
resolution that the
state of Telangana, carved out from the present state of
Andhra Pradesh, will
be soon established in the coming months.
There are, however, various steps which need to be taken in order to
translate this decision
into a reality.
Once the union
cabinet approves this
decision to form a separate state of
Telangana, the central government will seek resolutions for
the creation of a
new state from the current Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly
and the
legislative council separately.
Once the
president of
The Congress party's
prevarication on
the issue of separate state of Telangana is nothing new. More than four
decades ago (from 1968
onwards) after a violent agitation that saw large-scale loss
of property with
over 300 lives lost in police firing, an agreement was reached
for ensuring the
development of the Telangana region and eliminating its
relative economic
backwardness. In
1973, the then Congress
government at the Centre introduced the 32nd amendment to the
constitution
which come into force in 1974. The constitution was amended by
adding Article
371 D, "Special provisions with respect to the state of Andhra
Pradesh" which, amongst others, provided that the president "may by
order.....provide
.....for equitable opportunities and facilities
for the people belonging
to
different parts of the state, in the matter of public
employment and in the
matter of education, and different provisions may be made for
various parts of
the state".
The history of the
last four decades
is witness to the fact that all promises and assurances made
to the people of
Telangana to eliminate their relative backwardness were, by
and large,
betrayed. It is
the Congress party,
leading the governments both at the centre and in the state,
for long periods
during these four decades that is primarily responsible for not
redeeming the assurances made to the people.
However,
another
step that may be required to be taken to pave the way for the
formation
of the state of Telangana would be to repeal Article 371 D
from the Indian
constitution as this would become infructuous.
A constitutional amendment to this effect may have to
be adopted by the
parliament before the state of Telangana could be legally
formed.
Historically, it
must be
recollected that
the Telugu-speaking
people fired the
first salvo, after
independence, for a linguistic reorganisation of the states. The martyrdom of
Potti Sriramulu, galvanised
the movement for Vishalandhra. This soon found a reverberation
in the movements
of Aikya Kerala and Samyukta Maharashtra.
It was the strength of these massive popular struggles
that eventually
led to the linguistic reorganisation of the
The mishandling of
the situation by
both the central government and the state governments led by
the Congress party
in various states of the country has now given rise to a large number of
demands from various
parts of the country for the formation of separate states. Soon after this
announcement of the Congress
Working Committee decision on Telangana, a three day bandh
call has been given
in the
Therefore, while the
current process
for the formation of the state of
Telangana is on, it is of utmost necessity that people must
maintain peace and
tranquility and shun the proclivity to succumb to provocation. At the same time, it
is the responsibility of
the central and the state governments headed by the Congress
party to maintain
peace and normalcy.
(July
31, 2013)
