Telangana - Survival Of The FITTEST

Why do Telanganas cry fowl, when it comes to jobs? After all in any job, it is the fittest who survive.

Before I begin to answer this question, let me first let people know that I completely agree with the statement

"Only fittest survive"

So, why do I speak for Telanganas jobs? It is a level playing field in any case.

When two lions fight with each other over a territory, the fittest lion survives and passes its genes to the next generation. This is survival of the fittest.

What happens when a lion and a cub fight over a territory? Obviously the cub is destined to lose, it is destined to die. It can win nowhere. Do you call this survival of the fittest or murder of a juvenile?

Am I comparing Andhra with a Lion? Yes but it is relative vis-a-vis Telangana.

I would call them a cub in relation to Madras Presidency (Telugu would not survive and grow on the face of great attention being paid to majority Tamil)

So, why did this conflict arise? Why should Andhra and Telangana fight for survival?

When the merger happened, people of Telangana were fully aware that they would be like the cub competing with lion. So there was opposition for the merger.

The opposition was nullified by granting few safeguards to Telanganas (called Gentlemen's agreement, few items are listed below) that 

·        We would not compete

o   All govt. Jobs in Telangana including Hyderabad would belong to Telangana

o   Revenues generated in Telangana would be spent only in Telangana

o   A regional development board would be set up

o   Any critical decision(decisions like land in HYD being sold) would not be made without approval from the regional development board

o   CM of the state will be from Telangana in alternate terms, and when CM is not from Telangana, the deputy would be from Telangana.

This agreement was never implemented, and violated as early as 1956 when the state formed. The seeds for demerger were hence sown right after the merger.

The murmurings developed into a huge struggle in 1969 that consumed close to 400 lives. The party that stood for separate state won 11 out of 12 loksabha seats in the region. The other seat did not go to anti-demerger thought as well.

The central government promised that the safeguards will be renewed. PV Narsimha Rao from Telangana would become CM of the state and enforce these safeguards.

He lost his job when he tried to implement the safeguards because majority of MLA’s (non-Telangana regions always had majority by virtue of their population) opposed this.

The safeguards like 6Point formula, 8Point formula etc. were violated right after their being made statutory safeguards in 1969.

In 1985, NT Rama Rao was CM and he passed GO 610 to implement a part of this safeguard in 107 of 200+ departments. This involved repatriating 65,000 non-Telangana employees in 107/200+ AP Govt. departments. The figure of 65,000 was a huge under estimate in that many people produced mulki certificates that were not verified. These 65,000 have not been repatriated till date.

The Girglani commission setup during then CM Naidu's term to find GO610 anomalies found close to 300,000 people who needed to be repatriated. Meaning the safeguards was being violated all along.

To add insult to injury, Hyderabad which was always considered part of Telangana would be called a free zone. The physical size of Hyderabad was increased by more than 3 times in the name of Greater Hyderabad and the area made non-accessible to people of Telangana for jobs.

This is when KCR launched his fast-unto-death.