Re-emergence of 'Telangana' identity

Post the Emergency period, Andhra and Karnataka were the two states that did not face anti-Indira wave and, when the Janata coalition collapsed in three years, the Congress returned to power. The new slogan, however, was not garibi hatao but the unity and integrity of India. This period also marked the transition from the politics of ideology to the politics of identity.

The public humiliation of T Anjaiah by the then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi, coupled with the frequent change of Chief Ministers at the instance of the Congress High Command, created the ground for the rise of NTR and his brand of politics. His popularity in both the Andhra and Telangana regions on account of his mythological and social roles in Telugu films soared further on the rhetoric of welfare state — which the Congress had been abandoning. His TDP was an assertion of Telugu pride and identity. As Hargopal put it succinctly in his lecture on the evolution of Telangana state: 'The pan-Telugu identity resulted in the eventual subjugation of other regional identities within Andhra Pradesh. It had always been a case that such subsuming forms of identity politics — instead of negotiating with sub identities — left the space and scope for aggressive re-emergence of sub identity politics. The rise of Telangana identity at the turn of the millennium was thus part of the social and political dynamics of societal change which received a further fillip when Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were carved out of MP, Bihar and UP respectively. Moreover, the clash amongst the Kapus, Kamas, Dalits, tribal communities, and women as a group broke the 'TDP consensus' and paved the way for the assertion of the Telangana sub identity.

NTR was ousted by his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu who projected himself as the CEO rather than the CM of the state. A large section of the national (English media projected him as a 21st century CEO who would transform the landscape through IT, e-governance and foreign investments. Hyderabad became the 'poster city' of India's liberalisation, but the contrast with the districts in the immediate vicinity of Hyderabad — Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy, Medak and Nalgonda — only aggravated the feelings of neglect. The withdrawal of government from health and education, and the increasing visibility of 'private providers' for these services further alienated Telangana.

The TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) emerged from this deep-rooted discontent and deprivation; as people rallied to the call for a separate state, both the pan India parties — the Congress and the BJP — were compelled to support the statehood demand, especially as they had supported the formation of new states in the Hindi heartland. Thus, the BJP extended its support to Telangana as early as 1997. Real momentum was built in 2001, when K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) resigned from the TDP and floated the TRS. In the 2004 elections, TRS, in alliance with the Congress, won 26 assembly and five Lok Sabha seats, thereby making its mark on the political firmament.

TRS became part of the UPA-I, and the demand for a separate state was included in the CMP with riders on 'consultations and consensus'. In 2006, the Committee for Consultations on Situation in Andhra Pradesh (CCSAP), popularly called the Srikrishna Committee after its head — former CJI BN Srikrishna. The committee did not give any conclusive report except to state that the development of all the regions of the state, including Telangana and Rayalaseema, should be 'balanced'. It submitted its (inconclusive) report in 2010.

Meanwhile, fed up with procrastination on the part of the Congress leadership, TRS quit the alliance, and wonder of wonders, entered into an alliance with the TDP and the Left, but got a major drubbing as YS Rajashekhar Reddy of the Congress had been able to contain the movement (much like Pratap Singh kairon in Punjab) by applying both patronage and coercion against his opponents. His sudden death in a helicopter crash in 2009 left a leadership vacuum in the state Congress, and KCR began his fast unto death in December of that year. Perhaps the MHA looked into the aftermath of the earlier hunger strikes, especially that of Potti Sriramulu, and the Union government announced that it would start the process of forming the state of Telangana. To step up pressure on the Union government, a Telangana Joint Action committee — comprising political and non-political groups — was formed under the leadership of the Osmania University professor M Kodandaram Reddy. A similar JAC also came up in Andhra under the leadership of Prof Samuel of the Nagarjuna university. Although these committees were headed by academics, it was clear that they were not really autonomous, and both were actually advocacy groups for their respective causes. It was also quite clear that the 'genie was out of the bottle', and that even if the political parties wanted, the chasm had widened. Internally, the TDP, Congress and the BJP were a house divided, because their leaders and workers had no option but to support the 'majoritarian' view in whichever region they were.

The demand for Telangana was also articulated by folk artists, especially those which engaged with song and dance in village level programmes called 'Dhoom-Dham', where songs relating to the demand for a separate state and injustices to the region were received with a hearty applause. Elected representatives, especially from parties like TDP and Congress, which were perceived to be anti-Telangana were heckled and humiliated. The electronic media also took upon itself the task of organising live debates and opinion polls called 'Dasha-Disha' (direction and destination). This was also a forum in which people from all walks of life, especially those not directly engaged with politics, were invited to participate.

Finally, in 2013, the UPA announced the formation of Telangana, and even though there were loud protests by the Seemandhra MPs, and the Andhra Assembly rejected the resolution by a voice vote, President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Telangana Bill in 2014, with Hyderabad as the joint capital of both the states for a period of ten years. However, such was the animosity between the two newly formed states over distribution of assets as well as cadre allocations, that Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra CM, decided to carve out a new capital of Amravati.

TRS won the first elections to the state in 2014, and KCR was elected as the first CM of the state. He won the second term in 2019 with an even higher majority.

Views expressed are personal