Divided on a separation

Political parties in Andhra Pradesh are pulling in different directions on the Telengana issue. The TDP has opposed the State's bifurcation while the Congress(I) is a house divided, writes S. Nagesh Kumar.

TELENGANA. THE demand for Statehood for this backward region of Andhra Pradesh has risen once again. There had been a lull for years since the violent agitations of 1969-70 and 1972-73. But the creation of the three new States of Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Uttaranchal last year has revived the issue.

But the political parties in Andhra Pradesh are pulling in different directions. The TDP and the Left have taken a clear stand opposing the State's bifurcation, the Congress(I) is a house divided and the BJP is in a fix as its high command does not approve of the State unit's Kakinada resolution favouring Statehood for Telengana.

The new player is the Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) floated by Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who resigned as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly. He received a shot in the arm when thousands turned up at a TRS rally at Karimnagar on May 17, forcing sceptics to sit up and take note of his attacks on the Congress(I) and the BJP, whom he describes as villains number one and two, and the TDP Government for doing injustice to Telengana. Sensing his growing popularity, many smaller parties and even a Congress(I) MLA, Mr. R. Papa Rao, have made a beeline for the TRS.

Fearing erosion of their political base, 41 Congress(I) MLAs from the region revived the Telengana Congress(I) Legislators Forum and threatened to sit as a separate bloc in the Assembly if the high command did not endorse their demand. The AICC is, however, in no hurry having appointed a committee headed by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee to look into similar demands for smaller States by various PCCs.

The Telengana MLAs have the tacit support of the APCC president, Mr. M. Satyanarayana Rao, a former leader of the Telengana movement, who has written to the AICC urging it to take an early decision. This will be no easy task as party seniors such as Mr. Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy favour an integrated State and would not like the party to renege on the six-point formula, a settlement hammered out by Indira Gandhi and accepted by Congress(I) leaders from both regions.

The TDP is convinced that the issue of separatism has been raked up by out-of-power Congressmen as part of a deep-rooted design to sully the image of the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu. ``The Congress(I) wakes up to the reality that Telengana is backward only after it loses elections. The party is responsible for the backwardness of Telengana as it has stood to gain politically by keeping people poor and illiterate,'' Mr. Naidu alleged at the TDP's annual conference, Mahanadu, held at Visakhapatnam from May 27 to 29.

Shedding its initial hesitancy, the TDP Government went into overdrive providing sops for the region. Mr. Naidu announced completion of the Rs. 1,400-crore Sriramsagar irrigation project (Stage-I) within two years, advanced the date of releasing water into the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) to July 31 to irrigate 25,000 to 30,000 acres and stalled the sale of the Nizam Sugar Factory (NSF) to private parties.

At the Mahanaadu, Mr. Naidu claimed his Government had done more for the backward areas' development in five years than all the Congress(I) regimes in 30 years. It had allocated Rs. 3,320 crores for the World Bank- aided A. P. Economic Restructuring Project (APERP) and Rs. 3,500 crores for the poverty alleviation programme, with most of these funds going to Telengana. ``Only the TDP Government is in a position to develop Telengana because of the rapport it has established with the World Bank and the Centre. No other party can get so much money for the State,'' he added.

But the TRS' contention is that the spirit of the six-point formula has been violated by successive Governments. A Government Order issued by the NTR Government in December 1987 for repatriation of 58,952 Andhra employees from Telangana had not been implemented so far. Mr. Naidu's bias against Telengana is evident from his exertions to get a revival package from the Centre for the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant without showing a similar interest for the Fertilizer Corporation's sick unit in Ramagundam, it alleges.

The TRS says the Andhra region had used more than 600 tmcft of Krishna water compared to its share of 422 tmcft. Yet, some more projects were being built across the Krishna to benefit the coastal Andhra districts. The reference is to the Pulichintala project, a focal point of the current controversy as the Congress(I) and TRS are demanding that work be stopped. The Government says Pulichintala is a balancing reservoir which will provide 20 tmcft of water to the Bheema project in Telengana besides stabilising the ayacut in the tailend areas of the Nagarjunasagar project. The Congress(I) and the TRS contend that the project is aimed at providing water for the third crop in the Andhra districts while submerging the existing ayacut under the Nagarjunasagar left canal in Telengana.

Recently, four Congress(I) MLAs from Nalgonda led a large group to the project office at Nemalipuri village and destroyed records and maps. In response, other Congress(I) and TDP leaders closed ranks to protest against the politicisation of the project by their counterparts in Telengana.

The Congress(I) is so divided that two MLAs from Telengana exchanged heated words with their party colleagues at the CLP office in full view of television cameras.As for Mr. Naidu, he presides over a well-knit party organisation which elected him as TDP president for the fourth successive term at the Visakhapatnam Mahanaadu where there was no discordant note on Telengana.

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