Grievances of Telangana proponents
Proponents of a separate Telangana state cite perceived injustices in the distribution of water, budget allocations, and jobs. Budget allocations to Telangana are generally less than 1/3 of the total Andhra Pradesh budget. There are allegations that in most years, funds allocated to Telangana were never spent. Telangana JAC leaders say that only 20% of the total Government employees, less than 10% of employees in the secretariat, and less than 5% of department heads in the Andhra Pradesh government are from Telangana. [37][38][39][40] None of these allegations were proved wrong by the Sri Krishna Committee due to lack of data, and its choice to compare regions (Seema-Andhra vs Telangana) not its people (Seema-Andhrites vs Telanganites).
Proponents of a separate Telangana state feel that the agreements, plans, and assurances from the legislature and Lok Sabha over the last fifty years have not been honoured, and as a consequence Telangana has remained neglected, exploited, and backward. They feel that separation is the best solution.
History of the movement
In the years after the formation of Andhra Pradesh state, the people of Telangana expressed dissatisfaction over how the agreements and guarantees were implemented. Discontent intensified in January 1969, when the some of the guarantees that had been agreed on were supposed to lapse. Student agitation for the proper implementation of the agreement began at Osmania University in Hyderabad and spread to other parts of the region. [46] This agitation came to an end in September 1971 when people realised that the Prime Minister was not inclined to towards a separate state of Telangana.[47] Due to agitation in the Seema-Andra region in 1973 protesting the protections for Telangana, the central government diluted the protections in Gentlemen's agreement by initiating the Six point formula.
Various political parties were formed with a platform of pursuing statehood for Telangana, including the Telangana Praja Samithi political party in 1969, which won 10 out of 14 Parliamentory contituencies in 1971.[48][49] In the 1990s, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised a separate Telangana state if they came to power.[50] A new party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), was formed in 2001 with the single-point agenda of creating a separate Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital.
For the 2004 Assembly and Parliament elections, the Congress party and the TRS had an electoral alliance in the Telangana region that promised a separate Telangana State.[52] Congress came to power in the state and formed a coalition government at the centre. TRS joined the coalition government in 2004 and was successful in making a separate Telangana state a part of the common minimum programme of the coalition government.[53] In September 2006, TRS withdrew support from the Congress-led coalition government because of their failure to deliver on their promise to create an independent Telangana state.
In July 2008, Devendra Goud and other leaders such as E. Peddi Reddy resigned from Telugu Desam Party(TDP) and formed a new party called Nava Telangana Praja Party (NTPP) with Telangana formation as its main goal.[57] After extensive internal discussions, the TDP, the main opposition party in the state, announced its support for the creation of Telangana on 9 October 2008.[58] The Telugu Desam Party promised to work for Telangana statehood. The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), newly founded by film star Chiranjeevi, supported Telangana statehood.[59] The Nava Telangana Praja Party announced that it would merge with PRP after it concluded that there was not enough political space for two sub-regional Telangana parties that had Telananga statehood as their main agenda.
On 29 November 2009, TRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) started a fast-unto-death, demanding that the Congress party introduce a Telangana bill in Parliament. He was arrested by the government of Andhra Pradesh. Student organizations, employee unions, and various organizations joined the movement. General strikes shut down Telangana on 6 and 7 December. Student organizations planned a massive rally at the state Assembly on 10 December. The government warned that the rally did not have permission and deployed police troops throughout Telangana. All opposition parties in the state favoured creation of Telangana state at an all-party meet held on 7 December.
On 9 December 2009, Union Minister of Home Affairs P. Chidambaram announced that the Indian government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state, pending the introduction and passage of a separation resolution in the Andhra Pradesh assembly. KCR ended his 11-day fast, saying from his hospital bed that this was a "true victory of the people of Telangana."
Pro-Telangana supporters celebrated the central government decision, while those from the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions (Andhra region) protested. Due to protests in the Seema-Andhra region, On 23 December, the Government of India announced that no action on Telangana would be taken until a consensus was reached by all parties. Rallies, hunger strikes, and suicides continued throughout Telangana to protest against the delay in bifurcating the State. The all-party Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) started relay hunger strikes and threatened the resignations of all legislators on 28 January, demanding that the Centre spell out its intentions and create a timetable for change. On 3 February the government announced the five-member Srikrishna committee on Telangana that would look into the issue, with a deadline of 31 December 2010.
