Telangana - The Land of Destiny or a Mirage? Part 2

Lessons for the downtrodden people - The power is in their collective hands. Nothing can ever take it away from them. Separate statehood struggle proved it beyond point. The struggle has to move out of books to minds and then into streets. Only then can it be a liberative force from whatever the problem is. Assertion of collective will can bring down monoliths. The challenge is to channelize it positively and wisely. It requires maturity from people and the leadership alike. Struggles need time to mature and vision just like a good wine which needs time for fermentation. The leader has to play the role of a master wine maker - identify the right grapes, right yeast and the right container. If the struggle loses its direction, focus or key people it loses the goal.

The struggle for Telangana was once betrayed by its leaders. The state of Telanagana cannot afford to be shortchanged again. The challenge of holding Telangana political leadership to their promises is one of the biggest challenges in front of people. The agitating leaders who are crying themselves hoarse cannot be pardoned if they fail in delivering tomorrow. They cannot give any more excuses after pushing all out for a separate state as panacea. People should understand this and not allow any further blame game in future on account of any reason - internal or external. If the people fail in ensuring this - they would have waged this long arduous battle in vain. They have to be vigilant all the times. The moment they stop the vigilance, rest assured, they will be short changed. All the tall promises will vanish and given a chance, even the leaders will vanish from the streets.

Lessons for the Prosperous & Dominant sections in a society

Growth can sustain only if it is inclusive. It cannot be the identity of few for long. They need to be generous in spirit and actions. Logic and science dictate that inequality/imbalance cannot remain forever. When the agitation for just demands was going on - the dominant group chose to stay silent - to a large extent that is. Instead of supporting the fighting souls it chose to stay silent. When written agreements and orders were being mutilated beyond recognition in action the enterprising group watched in mirth. It was reduced to a dull daily soap for them. It was not their problem. It was somewhere out there. That out there is right now bursting like a volcano under their feet and threatens to take out everything. The muted black&white hazy characters in the background of the soap opera have finally turned into the main subjects. They now have voice, shape, colour and the best dialogues. The run of events now threatens to destabilise the very base on which their supposedly secure futures did rest for a very long time. Time for introspection perhaps - not just in AP but elsewhere too.

Questions that need to be answered tomorrow ............. next post.

Telangana - The Land of Destiny or a Mirage?

Talangana State is hopefully around the corner!

Mr.Chidambaram, the union home minister has announced that the process for a separate Telangana State will begin soon. Six decades of struggle has finally resulted in a concrete step towards the much sought after separate existence. I am drowned in mixed feelings.

Happy - that a peoples' struggle finally won in this country after a long gap. Sad - the state which I belong to will be split into two. Happy - hopefully no more lives will be lost at the altar of this struggle. Sad - the state did not have a statesman leader to cater to the just demands of aggrieved people and hence it lead to this situation. Happy - people like me (Coastal Andhra Origins) wont be blamed unnecessarily in future for supposedly looting others' resources. Sad - it will not change the imbalanced power structure or inequity.

I am one, and I am secure in the knowledge that there are many more like me (from non - telangana regions) who have come to regard the Telangana area as their own land. Not as a land of destiny or as a land of opportunities but as a land which bestows a sense of belonging. It is my mooring point. It is a land of diverse cultures and THE land with the widest open arms - welcoming others into its fold. People here are known for their rustic and casual but warm nature. The language is liberating - free from all frivolous formalities. It is so enervating - destroys all barriers instantaneously for the open mind. It will remain all that and more to me.

I was born here, studied for most part of my life here, been working here and most of my friends are from here. The news of separation of the state though not entirely unexpected was a bit too soon for me. I expected a lot more resistance from Congress party and a lot more of compromise formulas being showered, hence, it's a surprise which evoked mixed emotions within me. I will try to summarize my feelings and ideas over the next few days through this blog.

This event being one which I closely observed holds a lot of lessons for a lot of people, including me.

For Political Struggles - Many may think that it is full of surprises but in actuality is a reaffirmation of history - Movements which can sustain their identity and voice over sustained periods are destined to succeed. The key is to "not give up" - "not relent under extreme duress". A movement needs to be broadbased at various levels to ensure secure anchorage and sustainability. A tree which can spread roots its' roots deeper and wider has greater chances to survive a drought or storm. Shallow ones are either blown away or wasted by withering. Telangana movement succeeded only because it could do both in many ways. It survived by going deeper - deeper when it was oppressed, deeper when it was sought to be erased by false promises of hope and wider - it garnered support from varied quarters - men-women, young-old, lawyers, students, government employees, police, journalists, political parties, naxalites, writers, politicians.. The list could go on. The recent struggle has been very successful in doing all these things and hence was able to bring pressure on the administration.

Struggles need to look beyond traditional political leadership for salvation. People of Telangana trusted Chenna Reddy and he sold them off. People trusted KCR - for a while. They decided to ditch him and forge ahead when it appeared that he broke his fast. That is when it truly became a mass struggle - when people chose to raise above party politics. He had no other option but to continue. He became a pawn in the hands of people rather than the situation being the other way around. He would have hopefully learned some lessons.

More to Continue........

Modern day Chameleon - Politician = Criminal

Modern day Chameleon - Politician = Criminal

Increasingly we find a situation of criminals morphing into politicians to escape the arms of law.

As part of National Election Watch (NEW) AP Chapter we have been trying to track the records of Politicians competing in elections and trying to occupy a high seat in society. The efforts have been on since a fortnight.

Data coming out through these efforts using RTI, Election Affidavits filed by candidates etc. is damning.

My dreams for clean political representatives seem to be in danger of remaining just that - Dreams.

In 2004 elections for the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh 52 candidates had various pending criminal cases against them. The number is out of a large number of 1890 contestants.

Mr.Padmanabha Reddy a Committee Member of NEW AP had obtained information on pending criminal cases against sitting MLAs, MPs, MLCs and their relatives under RTI Act. The information came after a long series of struggles by him for almost 4 months (Oct 08 to Jsn 09)

Rakesh, a good friend and myself did an analysis of the data.

The information obtained is the reason for my dreams being shattered. Out of 294 MLAs and 60 MPs from Andhra Pradesh, 60 MLAs and 10 MPs have criminal cases pending against them.

Complete details can be downloaded here.

It seems to be an indication of things to come and that has me worried. Congress (INC) has released a list of contestants for the Assembly in Andhra Pradesh. Out of 290 candidates we have data available as of now on 135 candidates. 20 have criminal charges pending against them. That is a whopping 15%. I am almost sure that the percentage will not go down even on getting info about rest of the candidates.

We held a press meet on the same issues on 23rd March 2009. The following is the press coverage.

Deccan Chronicle

Times of India

Hindu

Eenadu


Andhra Jyothi













We will be comparing the affidavits with information available with us and bring to the notice of Election Commission if there are any discrepancies.

The Battle has started to realise our dream of Clean Politics. Let us start with candidates and keep up the efforts to expose these dirty and tainted candidates to the voters.