Three different states were
created in 2000. Two have been failed by their politicians. Another new state
has been created this year and the way it is heading, it looks to join the
league of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand in the years to come.
The sad story and the sad story
ahead - it’s all about the political leadership and the Telangana baton has
slipped to the hands of a dynast it seems. He is reaping much more than what he
sowed, when by the spirit of democracy - that should never be the case - something
that has seldom been the case in India .
He is the chief minister. His son
is minister. His nephew is minister. His daughter is a member of the Parliament
(MP). And he defends it. And he justifies it.
All in the name of democracy and
threaten to bury the voices, the media voices who, in his interpretation,
insult Telangana.
And he vociferously goes
undemocratic in doing so, assuming the role of courts and other watchdog
agencies in deciding and acting on culpability, the traits of a political
dynast, who always sees himself above the people who are the real currency of
his authority.
A dynasty and a political dynast
in making are ruling the newest Indian state, the 29th state of the
Indian Union.
A state of over 300 million
fought for separate statehood. It came after decades of struggle. Yes, there
were political leaderships to steer it but when it came to staking the claims,
the equations favoured KCR and his Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
But, Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao (or
KCR) cannot take the sole credit, at least for the final push that came in the
last 5-6 years, a final push that was not because of the movement on the
ground, but was hastened by certain other factors and the elements that wanted
to squeeze political mileage from the factors.
The credit also goes to a poll
wary Congress led-National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) government at the Centre which foolishly miscalculated and lost Telangana
and Andhra Pradesh both.
The credit also goes to the
violent agitation by the students in Hyderabad
that kept the issue burning feeding the media’s appetite for stories.
The credit also goes to the media
that made its scale big enough so as to look on screens, and therefore in the
minds across the country, and therefore in the thought-processes of the
politicians, that the agitation and the associated violence was engulfing the
whole region (of Telangana), and was a good opportunity to exploit politically.
And all these factors collectively
gave the final push to the Telangana movement.
And that gave us the first
Telangana government with KCR as its first chief minister, who from the day
one, looked strengthening his grip on the state to cement his family’s
political fortunes in a newly created state that comes with immense financial
and political opportunities. And these opportunities can be treated in any
possible way. It is circumstantial and it is personal.
KCR is acting like he is not a
democratically elected chief minister. He is acting as if he owns the state and
can run it the way he thinks.
So, he becomes the chief minister
and makes his family members important ministers. So, he sends his daughter to
the Indian Parliament. So, he comes with a misplaced survey within 100 days of
his government to ‘identify people’ or more precisely to segregate his
‘votebanks’.
So, the democratically elected
chief minister of the youngest Indian state threatens to ‘bury the TV Channels that
dare to insult Telangana’ - in a country that is also the world’s largest
functional democracy – a country that just rejected a political dynasty with
overwhelming majority that has ruled it for most of its independent
history.
See the words of this chief
minister (as quoted in an NDTV report) that clearly convey his undemocratic personal
preferences: “we will bury them some 10 km. We won't hesitate to break their
neck and then throw them out” – about TV channels TV9 and ABN Andhra Jyoti alleging
them of ‘being Andhrawallas’ and insulting Telangana.
And he has his hands deep in it.
These two channels are blocked across the state by its cable operators that
cannot happen without the state flexing its muscles.
Mr. KCR, you need to read the
signs and mend your ways after what recently happened in Delhi .
Don’t try to be a dynast. Be the
people’s representative for what you have been elected to the office. Work
sincerely, away from silly populist votebank measures, to meet the expectations
of a state that was carved out solely after being denied the development pie from
the combined Andhra Pradesh’s resources, even if contributing almost half to
it.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com
