In 1953, the Fazal Ali Commission was set up to reorganise the states of the Indian republic. The committee’s recommendation to create states on linguistic lines indirectly paved the way for the creation of Andhra Pradesh. The committee itself did not advocate the merger and left it to the people of Telangana as stated in Para 386 of the commission report: ‘After taking all these factors into consideration, we have come to the conclusion that it will be in the interest of Andhra as well as Telangana if, for the present, the Telangana area is constituted into a separate state, which may be known as the Hyderabad state with provision for its unification with Andhra after the general elections likely to be held in or about 1961, if by a two-thirds majority the legislature of the residency Hyderabad state expresses itself in favour of such unification’. From this it can be concluded that:
n The SRC opposed the unification of Andhra and Telangana, and preferred them to be separate entities as described above
n The provision to unify was left to the people of Telangana only after the 1961 elections if a two-thirds majority of Telangana legislators felt it necessary.
Additionally, the following must be understood in the context of the Fazal Ali Commission:
n The clincher for unification was not the SRC recommendation but the gentlemen’s agreement, between B Gopal Reddy, chief minister of Andhra and B Rama Krishna Rao, chief minister of Hyderabad, which was violated from the outset
The case for small states can be argued with two parameters of macroeconomic statistics from the ministry of statistics and policy implementation. The first parameter is the percentage increase in GDP for states between 1999-2000, when the smaller states were created and 2007-2008. The overall GDP of India increased by 75 per cent in this period. During the same time, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal recorded more than 100, 150 and 180 per cent respectively, much above the rate at which the national GDP increased. This clearly indicates that the smaller newly created states have been a step in the right direction.
Experts have often argued that the creation of smaller states has been at the expense of the states that they were created from. The second parameter, the percentage contribution of states to the national GDP, helps us in negating the myth about smaller states growing at the expense of the states that they were created from. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh each contributed the same amount to the national GDP. While Bihar’s and Madhya Pradesh’s contribution increased by 0.01 and 0.06 per cent respectively, Uttar Pradesh’s contribution to the national GDP increased by 1.2 per cent in the same time. This is more than Chhattisgarh’s percentage increase in contribution of 0.64 per cent to the national GDP, the highest increase amongst the three newly created smaller states.
On the February 12, 2010, the Union government announced the terms of reference of the Justice B N Srikrishna Committee. The committee’s mandate was to examine the situation in the state of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the demand for a separate state of Telangana as well as the demand for maintaining the present status of a united Andhra Pradesh. It is necessary to appreciate the precedents of the last 60-odd years to understand the decision by the BJP to boycott the Justice Srikrishna Committee:
n The gentlemen’s agreement of Andhra Pradesh (1956) was signed between Telangana and Andhra leaders before the formation of the state of Andhra Pradesh in 1956. The agreement provided safeguards with the purpose of preventing discrimination against Telangana by the government of Andhra Pradesh
n The discontent with the gentlemen’s agreement and the fact that the commitments that had been agreed were allowed to lapse led to agitation of 1969 that resulted in widespread violence and deaths of hundreds of people including 369 students
n The government promised to correct the violation to gentlemen’s agreement in jobs, budget allocations and educational facilities via the six-point formula in 1973
n In 1985 the Telugu Desam Party issued GO 610 to implement the six-point formula and the presidential order on reservation of jobs for locals in Telangana region
The disparities around employment, water and revenue are well documented and available in the public space. The various governments of Andhra Pradesh at different points of time have agreed to the fact that Telangana areas have been neglected which in turn has led to various commitments being made to set the disparities right. The setting up of the Srikrishna Committee is thus a redundant exercise that aims at diluting the support for the Telangana movement.
Critics have pointed out that the 2009 state assembly elections saw a diminished mandate for the Telangana movement as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), got just 10 seats of the total 50-odd seats it contested in. However, one must also note that all parties in Andhra Pradesh had vowed to seek a political solution for the Telangana issue. Today there seems to be a psychological divide between the two regions and a commission whose report has no legal binding will not do anything to remove the divide but will just exacerbate it even further. Separate statehood for the regions of Andhra and Telangana seems to be the only tenable option.
(The writer is the president of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh)