The Politics of Division

Now that the once United Andhra Pradesh is bifurcated, let me write what this might result in politics in terms of development, resources, culture and the overall impact of it on Telugu identity.

Firstly let us see who blundered and got bludgeoned in recent elections as a result of this. The Indian National Congress party paid the price and got decimated in the general elections. Not only in the state of Andhra Pradesh but also in entire India. This is a testament to the resolve of the people who could see the crimes done by that Party. It looks like INC knew that they were going to be losing anyway and just like desperate and bound to loose villains would anyway throw all the bombs at their climactic scenes, it took the bait of separating the state of AP into two, in the hope of salvaging the situation at least in Telengana region. But they got routed there too. Good riddance. How naive or stupid some of the leaders from their party assuming TRS will be allying with them or even merging with them just based on the words of it’s leader KCR. The guy is a blatant liar to the core and everyone knows this, except possibly the high command of Congress party! what a bloody silly drama they enacted!! It is very clear Congress knew they cannot counter the resurgence of TDP after their dismal performance last 5 years. So what they do is to usurp two snakes namely KCR and YS Jagan giving both of them legitimacy in their ’cause’. what is their ’cause’? One says he is born to right the wrongs done in Telengana and the other says he is the savior of people because he is son of earlier CM YSR who ‘supposedly’ did everything for the people. It was evident both created the problems to perpetuate their continuance as power brokers but no one was daring enough to expose these idiots. Instead at some point or other every party has hobnobbed with them and legitimized these bastards as a righteous political leaders. Every party including the left parties are responsible for this but more so the party in power at the time, the Congress Party. It was unleashing these dangerous political entities, one is based on jingoistic principles and one based on politics of death and money. It very well knew that directly facing the opposition in traditional battle of elections is formidable, instead trying to divide the votes based on these sentiments and power of money is better. The Party itself doesn’t want to house these directly as history will record this in their books. In stead they want to prop up these nincompoops into power or to get sizable part of constituencies and hence divide and form a coalition. In any case this plot failed, in that those parties they usurped did win but chose not to be seen as having a truck with congress party. But the damage they have done is not over yet. Next couple of paras I will try to outline what problems the divided states will face.

 

KCR will be CM of Telengana region by the time this article is published. But his crusade is not complete yet. His party did not get carte blanche in recent elections but got simple majority. So this guy will get to work immediately after being sworn in. First he will rake up issues to stop projects like Polavaram and sharing resources like coal from Singereni and river waters. He will continue to lie to Telengana people that they are still being looted and that they need to still fight for things. This he has to do, to further consolidate his power. Not only these but he will start removing the cultural identity of several eminent telugu people from Telnagana region and in particular from Hyderabad. Saying many of these are not from Telangana region. This will no doubt ignite passions of several naive people from Telengana, particularly youth. To date this guy is not known to have done anything when in power, even when he as a union minister under alliance with congress party. It is because he doesn’t seem to have any really bright ideas to govern people by offering constructive ideas or development of infrstructure. He can say to Telangana people, look because of my ideas we got a city like Hyderabad and keep hoodwinking them. But he can create other problems. He thrives on discontent and hence will be a massive problem for not only the separated part of Andhra Pradesh but also to Telnagana in the longer region. On the other hand if all of a sudden he changes his tone and becomes very considerate because he now has some power and becomes wise enough to run conciliatory politics, he might consolidate in a legitimate way. But I doubt if he ever does that.

 

Coming to the other party that won sizable seats in the divided Andhra Pradesh region, YSRCP. Congress party nearly succeeded in putting this party to legitimacy and providing as a ‘viable’ alternative to TDP. After YSR’s death, congress party thought of cashing in the sympathy in it’s favor but did not expect his own son was even more ambitious. This voluptuously corrupt rich politician is still a savior to many people under the guise of his father’s welfare programs. People try to legitimize this guy saying corruption is common place and not that uncalled for. As long as we are getting our own benefits, however paltry they are and however temporary they are, what if he is amassing wealth? He ‘deserves’ them! as per many people’s complicit agreement of this notion. How else can we explain this party gets even these many seats in assembly and Parliament! It looks like several ‘supposedly’ respectable persons also supporting this party saying and hoping it is not just it’s leader but it has to be the discontent that the state is divided and that this is the only party (the party from last CM Kiran Kumar Reddy was not even a party of any strength) that was ‘supposedly’ opposing the bi-furcation. Some people willingly or unwillingly believed this, but luckily they did not vote this party to power. Otherwise together KCR and Jagan would have had a field day in looting the entire state in ways that are unimaginable. However since this party now got sizable strength in the divided AP assembly, they will try to create as much ruckus as possible and try to block any progress. I hope TDP will be sufficiently alert to expose the fallacies of this brutish party and save the rest of the AP to get even more impoverished.

 

Now The party that won in divided AP, TDP, is not entirely blameless. At sometime or other it did hobnob with TRS and may be even some elements of YSRCP (prior to YSR coming to power). If it does not get it’s act together now, this might be the last chance for this party to be in power. This party was known to have given undue power to a particular community in it’s hay days and if people doesn’t see it as belonging to all, it will not survive. It appears to have corrected that in this election by offering enough seats the all communities and castes in an equitable way. The politics of caste are still a bane in india. Like I mentioned in the other article, only the current youth who are really not bothering about caste nowadays, or even marrying their better halves out of caste, are the only hope that can decimate this debilitating malady ailing India.

 

There are some prominent people who could have made some difference in not getting the Undivided AP to this state. In particular Chiranjeevi, who launched a party and even got a sizable support in 2009 elections, went ahead and idiotically merged his party with congress not knowing what an absolutely nefarious party it is. History and Telugu people should never pardon this guy be it his naiveté or blatant foolishness to seek power through an established party rather than by his own strength. He could have made a difference had he stayed by himself and possibly allying with TDP, parties like YSRCP should not have gotten credence. He is a tacit culprit in this whole thing. His brother Pawan Kalyan on the other hand seems to have better political vision and possibly saved the situation a bit by making sure at least some people to see the fallacy that was being perpetrated by Congress, YSRCP and TRS. Hopefully guys like him will get more credence so the people will have some sane leaders.

 

I am not a fan of BJP or it’s ideals but they probably deserve a win this time, if they are committed to development as opposed to hindutva. Narendra Modi, it’s leader and current PM seems have a track record of developing his state, so there is hope. But his biggest challenge now would be to control his own party not to start movements like Ram Mandir to ignite passions of people and keep the country forever divided. It will be another boon to Congress Party. Hopefully they will not be foolish enough to do that sort of things. One of the unstated problems when a party wins an election is the problems caused by it’s own people. It is the same thing that happened to Obama when he failed to reign in banks, his own party people would not endorse his measures when they had super majority and then they allowed the extreme right wing nutheads to gain even more credence. It is always the people who are ‘supposedly’ supporting you, even if they are in your own family, that you should be aware of more since they can easily mislead you and after a point it will not be in your control. I hope Narendra Modi will not fall into this trap, so he can do something substantial during his reign.