Since mid-August when the State’s chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced his government’s intention to reorganise the 10 districts of Telangana into smaller districts for better governance, tensions have prevailed in the state. First it was over demands for districts that had been left out of the proposed list of new districts. Now that the reorganisation has taken place—in just about two months—protests have started about mandals. Just days ago, a youth immolated himself in Hyderabad over which district his native mandal Nagireddypet would fall under.
Before the announcement of the district reorganisation, there were no such protests.
The level of tension that has been generated in just about two months ought to give the state government pause. It ought to recognise the truth in some of the criticism levelled against it. If the entire process had not been done with such haste, if the public had been given more time and space to express its views, if the government had planned the reorganisation ‘scientifically’ rather than arbitrarily and had taken the time and effort to explain its thinking to the public, if it had taken opposition leaders into confidence and gained their support, then though the entire process may have taken much more time, it is likely to have been more peaceful. Instead, the government announced the plan virtually as a fait accompli, consulted with no one as far as can be told, gave the public 30 days to respond, pushed through its decision regardless of objections and obviously left at least some of its citizens feeling unheard and unseen.
When it deigned to accommodate some requests, it did so with the air of royalty conferring gifts upon the people. This is particularly unfortunate given that TRS, the ruling party, was long part of a people’s movement fighting for the creation of the very state it now rules. It would be wise for the government to reconnect with the people who voted it into power and carry them along in fulfilling its goals.