Remembering Balagopal

A One in a Century Rights Activist

K G Kannabiran

K Balagopal metamorphosed from a committed believer in the Naxalbari movement to a human rights activist, defining the terms of his transition. In doing so, he rejected the choice of social transformation by violence, opting instead for such change through a struggle for rights. But the problem is that rights campaigns by themselves will not lead to social transformation. As a lawyer, Balagopal showed himself as the only lawyer of the poor of his generation with a reputation for competence. The poor knew that he was about the one lawyer who believed in their right to life. In his competence that equalled the lawyers of the affluent he was visible. Balagopal made the Court conscious that he was appearing for a citizen or a collective of citizens for whose benefit the Constitution was created.

Writing about Balagopal is like scripting the history of the human rights movement. For him the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the announcement of the rights that inhered in the people and the societies in which they lived. The third preamble to the Declaration “if man is not to be compelled to have recourse as a last resort to rebellion against tyranny and oppres¬sion, that human rights be protected by the rule of law” became the focus of all his human rights activities. Writing about him involves penning his metamorphosis from a committed believer in the Naxalbari movement to a human rights activist and he defined the terms of his transition. The movement came at a period of crisis in the late 1960s and the only method governments knew to tackle unrest was to unleash repression. Pre-constitutional laws intended to suppress anti-colonial struggles were all adapted by the president of India by way of abundant caution. By the time the Naxalite movement arrived at Srikakulam, the Constitution was around 18 years of existence; Nehru, “the fixed asset” we inherited, was dead in 1964 and, after some delays, the dynastic succession was found to be the proper thing for the country. Post-independence, the Marxist-Leninist (ML) movement threw a comprehensive challenge to the Constitution and its value system.

The Madras Suppression of Disturbances Act of 1948 adapted belatedly and of doubtful validity provided the fig leaf of legality for the government of integrated Andhra Pradesh (AP) to be used against the nascent Naxalite movement. Of interest is the fact that the same law that was introduced to contain the Telangana Armed Struggle was adapted by the president and used to prevent the spread of the Naxalite movement. The forest areas from Srikakulam to Adilabad were declared Disturbed Areas; the phenomenon of “encounters” was brought on to the agenda. The brutal methods employed remained unnoticed and a few hundreds were arrested in the Srikakulam tribal areas. More than a thousand activists were shot before the proclamation of Emergency in 1975. Warangal produced many fine intellectuals at this time who con¬fronted the repression, making that town the storm centre of revolutionary activity. Varavara Rao, who belongs to Warangal, played a pivotal role in the movement. It was the pedagogues in AP who led this movement which spread like forest fire.

In Radical Politics

After the Emergency, in 1977 this gross impunity was targeted, first by the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) appointed Tarkunde Committee, followed by the Justice Bhargava Commission of Enquiry, which was later aborted by the Chenna Reddy ministry. It was during this period that Balagopal entering the Regional Engineering College, Warangal, witnessed the brutality employed by the police against Naxalites. This set the course of his future. He became an ardent adherent of the poli¬tics of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (People’s War Group) [CPI(ML) (PWG)] and later he joined the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC). In 1983, he became the general secretary of the APCLC. At around this time he was implicated in the Police Inspector Yadagiri Reddy murder case and was arrested under the National Security Act (NSA). This was later withdrawn.

Balagopal’s early writings, incisive and exquisite, show that he was of People’s War persuasion. Even after he came into the civil liberties movement, his style was polemical, and he was always unsparing in his criticism. He extrapolated the Marxist polemical style into the civil liberties movement. I told him so, though then I was perhaps alone in feeling this way since most of the members in the APCLC were from the outer fringes of various factions of Naxalites. This zero tolerance style can be perceived in his reviews of A R Desai’s compilation of peasant struggles or of feminist writings on the Telangana armed struggle and encounters. Had he continued in the ML party, he would have been the leading Marxist-Leninist ideologue of the Maoist movement. Or perhaps he would have been apprehended and shot, to be included in the roll call of dead/martyrs with which Gaddar’s performances always begin (yerrarani jenda eniyaloo). The ML party needed in the civil liberties front a powerful mind to confront the establishment and broadcast the atrocities perpetrated on them. Writing about these would also help spread the movement.

Although Balagopal never lost faith in the politics of social transformation, he found the ML party’s arbitrary political practice objectionable. After the break with the politics of the People’s War Group, he could no longer reconcile the vision with arbitrary practices. The vision demands acceptance of all the distortions. He rejected Marx because the system based on his thought produced distortions even after the Soviet and east European experience as in China. He appears to have had in mind an inchoate idea of social trans¬formation which would be catalysed by people trained in rights advocacy who would discipline the Right, the Left and governance. To my mind, he was moving closer to the ideas of Tom Paine that the government, like a dress, is the badge of lost innocence. He began to believe in the total empowerment of the people where leaders would only exercise the delegated authority of the people. The existing representative system, in this view, strengthened perhaps by the 73rd and 74th amendments, could be the instrumentalities through which peoples’ empowerment would manifest it.

An Unsettling of Faith

In an interview published in Prajatantra in March 2001 on the Telugu novel Rago, Balagopal expressed the view that the Marxist world view is deficient in certain respects and that his philosophical investigations had reached a certain satisfactory stage. However, having said that, he never completed the task of elaborating upon his philosophical position. He was not the first either to make such a statement. Before him, M N Roy, expelled from the Comintern (the Third International), talked about transcending Marxism and formulated his thesis paving the way for the emergence of the Radical Humanists. Although this group did not make any headway in politics, it was prominent in the civil liberties movement. V M Tarkunde, advocate C T Dharu from Gujarat, and M V Ramamurthi from Andhra come to mind.

Communist parties, whether they are parliamentary or “extremist”, have a tra¬dition of intolerance of criticism and of difference of opinion within the party. Balagopal therefore had to part company with the CPI(ML) (PWG) for his unsparing criticism of the party. In a collection of writings published in Telugu in 1998 on The Three Decades of Naxalbari (a collection of essays where Manoranjan Mohanty, G Haragopal, Venugopal, and Varavara Rao, among others, were contributors). Balagopal also wrote a piece entitled “The Darker Side of the Naxalite Movement” (Cheekati Konalu) in which his first sentence was: “There are many who would like to write about the Naxalbari movement, but I am going to write about the darker side of the movement”. His essay alone, among the articles published in the collection, was forthrightly critical of the arbitrary political practices of the movement. This called for a very high order of intellectual courage and the outspokenness of his style unfailingly revealed to the reader the seamy side of their political practice. It is reminiscent of the collection of essays by people who were drawn into the communist movement edited by Richard Crossman (1949) entitled The God that Failed. Just as The God that Failed did in the 1950s, Balagopal’s essay created a stir, an unsettling of faith in some of the sympathisers and others who had hopes in the movement. But unlike The God that Failed, Balagopal’s essay did not have any lasting impact nor did his departure from the movement leave a lasting impression on the movement or bring about any visible change towards the Maoists among the people with whom he worked.

Sceptical about the Marxist world view, Balagopal moved away from the idea of a revolutionary restructuring of the society in Marxist terms where violence plays the midwife. He also moved away from Mao’s thought summed up in a very catchy aphorism “Power flows from the barrel of a gun”. From a creative figure of speech used by Marx to an emphasis on power from the barrel of the gun was a quantum leap.

Balagopal did not opt for social trans¬formation by violence. He opted for social transformation through a struggle for rights. The problem is that rights campaigns will not lead to social transformation by themselves. When we talk about rights we are using the concept of right in the context of state power, and in the con¬text of social domination in hierarchical societies by the higher castes in the social order. Though Balagopal’s critical essay led policemen to purchase quite a number of copies of the book, it did not lessen the attack on human rights activists.

A Great Rights Activist

The characteristic response of the PWG was polemical badgering – not introspection and correction. The attack from the party made it impossible for him to continue in the APCLC without friction and with dignity. But Balagopal’s career as a human rights person did not come to an end. He found¬ed the Human Rights Forum in 1998 and by the time of his death he became known as one of the finest defenders of human rights in the country. This break made him a great rights activist. I am not aware, however, of any writing of his comprehensively setting forth his views on rights.

One thing I know is that rights by them¬selves do not have a “transformatory” character. The Declaration of Human Rights 1948, in the third Preamble to the Declaration states that if these rights are ignored, governance will become tyrannical and the response is rebellion and that observance of these rights will ensure a stable government. Such an enunciation has an overtly political content. These are in the nature of prescriptions for the political stability of states. The stress, since the second world war, has been for a gradual and slow qualitative transformation in the state and its governance. Rights advocacy alone may not help bringing about social change, although it would create the awareness of rights and justice that will strengthen movements for social transformation. In fact, human rights activity is vibrant when it is linked to the politics of a party with a vision or in the fight against authoritarianism and for a return to liberal democracy.

Balagopal was very close to me. Our association started in 1983 when he was elected to the APCLC as its general secretary and we were together until 1993 when after around 15 years I stepped down from the president’s position. We met almost every day during the 10-year period. From 1994 when I was elected president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), we were operating in the same sphere and we used to meet often and exchange notes. After his entry into APCLC we continued to fight human rights violations with more determination. He was possessed of a fine mind that commanded his pen. He first assisted me in the Warangal Enquiry Commission against police excesses where they beat up some elected representatives. It was, I think, in 1997. By the time he had acquired a law degree from Bangalore. It was in Warangal that I got him his first black coat that would enable him to sit beside me and assist me. I later moved for his enrolment as an advocate and he helped me in the Bangalore Conspiracy Case (1992-99) against Naxalites which ended in a total acquittal.

When the Deendar Anjuman was banned in 2000 (and the ban extended in 2002) under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967, we appeared together before the tribunal constituted under the Act. We had sittings at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi. That matter is pending in the high court.

Mauled by the Police

Balagopal was mauled and brutally attacked by the police quite a few times but this never demoralised him. I distinctly remember when the first chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Ranganath Misra along with Justice Fathima Beevi held their sitting in Hyderabad in 1995, they visited Warangal for a day. When the Commission was holding the sittings in one room, in another Balagopal was pummelled in the presence of people present there. The press reported the fact and the chairman was hesitant of taking cognisance of the fact. In the evening I called the chairman about the incident and he was not willing to proceed against the police. He was going to Nalgonda the next day. I told him I would be at Nalgonda too. When I was asked to sit next to the members, there was a protest and I went down from the elevated platform. I was also surrounded and fisted in the presence of the chairperson and the other member. The chairman of the NHRC saw this but, helpless, left in a huff. Anyway, in the full dressed enquiry in the guesthouse at Hyderabad on four encounters they held that three encounters were homicides, re¬quired investigation and prosecution, and in one incident they held we could not prove a case. The state government never complied with the report.

A People’s Lawyer

We have been challenging encounter killings at various levels. In 1997 we secured a judgment, which recognised that these killings were homicides and needed examination. Later a full bench reversed this decision with some wishy washy reasoning and so it was referred to a larger bench of five judges. We argued and placed our views before the larger bench along with other colleagues in 2008. The full bench returned a unanimous verdict that killings need to be investigated after the crime is reported. This case is pending in the Supreme Court. Balagopal and I appeared together in all these matters.

Balagopal was the only poor people’s lawyer of his generation with a reputation for competence. People knew that he was about the one lawyer who believed in their right to life. He wrested the right to audience from the court. In his competence that equalled the lawyers of the affluent, he was visible. He made the court conscious that he was appearing for a citizen or a collective of citizens for whose benefit the Constitution was created. His was a radical approach to the Constitution but he was bound by institutional norms. He accepted the law as defined by precedents but did not stretch the limits of the principle or break new ground to innovate a principle to advance the jurisprudence of the poor. My view, on the contrary, has always been that appearing for the poor and as lawyers for social change one should always at¬tempt to break new ground or innovate and strive for its acceptance. We must make the contentions and the conceptions we innovate familiar in courts if they are to be accepted later. The legitimacy of the status quo and against social transformation is so strong in courts that it becomes necessary for lawyers of the poor to acquire the competence to contend with the opponents of social change. What is important is that poor people should be able to engage competent lawyers, more competent and much more committed than the lawyers for the affluent. He built up a credibility, which assured respect from judges. Balagopal was a person of tremendous physical and moral courage. He remained untouched by fake encounters only because of his moral stat¬ure and fearlessness. Balagopal’s sudden death is a setback to this tradition.

We had initiated the trend of looking at law and the Constitution quite radically and Balagopal carried this trend forward and argued in a way that would embarrass socially sensitive judges. This jurisprudence of insurgence that we brought on to the agenda received a setback with his untimely death. When C V Subba Rao of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) was alive, he gave me the book Law and the Rise of Capitalism by Michael E Tigar and Madeleine Levy during one of my visits to Delhi. It was here I read about the concept of Jurisprudence of Insurgence. They illustrated this by Fidel Castro’s attempt at stalling Batista’s coup by filing a proceeding before the Cuban Court for the arrest and prosecution of Batista for attempting to engineer a coup and which was dismissed. Batista successfully engineered a coup and a few days thereafter Fidel Castro was produced before the court for trial of a conspiracy. Today Castro is with us as the leader of the only socialist country after surviving innumerable attempts of assassination.

A long time back, when I was busy with the Commission of Enquiry chaired by Vashishta Bhargava in 1978-79, I used to discuss the politics of the communist movement with comrade P Sundarayya. One day I told him that it was time for him to draw a balance sheet of his life and I asked how he proposed to do that. He was old and after talking about the split in the movement he told me that several brilliant young people were shot and, tears welling in his eyes, continued “and for the people to produce even one such leader it might even take a hundred years. That would be the scale of setbacks”.

That statement of Sundarayya now comes back to me. To find another like Balagopal might take another 10 decades. A brilliant candle extinguished before its time. I weep for Balagopal – he is dead.

………….
K G Kannabiran (kg.kannabiran@gmail.com) is an eminent human rights lawyer and the National President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.

Source: Economic & Political Weekly, November 14, 2009 Vol xliv No. 46

TRS will not contest GHMC elections: KCR

Express News Service: 06 Nov 2009

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has, as expected, announced that it will not contest the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

Addressing a news conference here today, party chief K Chandrasekhara Rao said that as these elections were not important, the party decided to keep away from the elections.

“The GHMC elections do not merit the party’s attention. Fighting them is nothing but indulging in cheap politics,’’ Rao said.

Instead, his party was making an elaborate plan for the indefinite fast to be launched by him in the last week of this month at Siddipet, he said. He had already asked the people of Telangana region to be prepared either to participate in the victory celebrations following the formation Telangana state or his funeral procession.

As part of intensifying the agitation for separate state, Chandrasekhar Rao said he would submit memoranda to all constitutional heads _ President, Governor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition LK Advani, and presidents of all political parties.

“Since we have a much larger agenda like attainment of a separate Telangana we have decided not to participate in the GHMC polls which is a minor issue having no great consequence,’’ he pointed out.

The TRS leader said that all Telangana employees’ associations decided to take part in the `pendown strike’ and it was an indication that the movement would pick up momentum as happened in 1969.

Rao said he would meet Governor ND Tiwari and Chief Minister K Rosaiah tomorrow. He would also visit Delhi for two days from November 9 to submit memoranda to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani. During the two day-visit, Rao would also meet heads of all political parties and many Central ministers.

The TRS leader hoped that both the Central Government and the political system in the country would respect the democratic right of the Telangana people. If they did not react positively, they would be held responsible for the consequences, he warned.

The TRS will organise 15,000 public meetings under the supervision of an 11-member delegation from November 6 to 11 across the region to prepare the people and enlist their support to Chandrasekhar Rao’s proposed ‘indefinite fast.’ The Telangana Rashtra Samithi Vidyardhi Union (TRSVU) will organise nearly 3,500 gate meetings at all Intermediate, degree and other professional colleges and other educational institutions in the region.

About 25 leaders will conduct Assembly constituency wise party workers meeting for three days from November 7.

According to the Telangana Vidyavantula Vedika (TVV), Telangana freedom fighters, Telangana writers associations and cultural troupes will also take up several mass contact programmes in the region. Sixty-eight bar associations will also take part in the programme.

Chandrasekhar Rao demanded that all the political parties should make their stand clear on the Telangana issue.

He alleged that the main Opposition party, Telugu Desam, had changed its earlier stand on Telangana issue. He asserted that his party was different from other parties and hence decided not to contest the GHMC elections.

Source: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=TRS+will+not+contest+GHMC+elections:+KCR&artid=Rz|WCrx3H8c=&SectionID=e7uPP4|pSiw=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=EH8HilNJ2uYAot5nzqumeA==&SEO=

TRS disinclined to contest GHMC polls
Special Correspondent, The Hindu, 31 Oct 2009

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has said that it was disinclined to contest Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections but a final view in the matter would be taken at its State executive meeting on Monday.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of the Polit Bureau which discussed the issue on Friday, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao said most of the Polit Bureau members were unanimous that the party should not enter the polls. However, a couple of them from Hyderabad felt the need to give their followers an opportunity to face elections.

The party would consult its Hyderabad-based leaders and different organisations in the next two days and leave the final decision to the State executive which will declare its stand in the form of a resolution.

The party also bought time to make up a decision because the High Court was expected to deliver its judgment on staying of elections on Monday, Mr. Rao said.

The TRS president allayed apprehensions of the cadre about delay in the event of the party deciding to enter elections as they would still have three more days to file nominations.

He condemned the hasty step of the State Election Commission in issuing the election notification though the Supreme Court had clarified that the election process was subject to the final order of the High Court.

However, the matter was still pending in the High Court. He also found fault with the SEC in inviting political parties for consultations after the notification was issued.
Misdeeds

The elections were a conspiracy to divert the attention of people from large scale land transactions by government.

The party was more interested in exposing the misdeeds of the government than contesting elections, he added.

source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/31/stories/2009103155910100.htm

TRS finds alibi to skip polls

October 31, 2009 Deccan Chronicle
By Our Correspondent

Hyderabad, Oct. 30: A nervous Telangana Rashtra Samithi is likely to skip the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls despite demanding that the capital city should be part of a separate Telangana state.

The TRS, which also took up the issue of police recruitment in Hyderabad in real earnest recently, is using the indefensible pretext of intensifying the Telangana struggle for not contesting the GHMC polls. Political observers see it is a face saving gesture.
It is learnt that the TRS, which is essentially a rural party, is worried about how the urban voter would react to its recent slogans.

Initially, the party planned to go it alone and contest 100-odd seats with focus on 25 to 30 seats in its strongholds.

However, there were serious apprehensions among some senior leaders that the party might face a drubbing in the cosmopolitan city which would dent its image further. It has barely recovered from the poor show in the recent Assembly polls.

This decision is likely to disappoint TRS leaders and cadre and will also evoke criticism from advocates of united Andhra Pradesh.

The TRS politburo, which met under the chairmanship of the party president, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, here on Friday, felt the party should stay away from GHMC polls and instead prepare for the Telangana struggle.

The TRS Hyderabad city president, Mr T. Padma Rao and senior party leader, Mr Nayani Narasimha Reddy, were keen to fight the elections to keep up the morale of city leaders and cadre, but Mr Chandrasekhar Rao dissuaded them by saying that 95 per cent of the politburo members were opposed to the TRS contesting the polls.

He also said it would take away the focus from his ‘fast unto death’ programme from the last week of November if there was no favourable response from State and Central governments on their demand for carving out a separate State.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao, however, added that the final decision on the GHMC polls would be taken at the party’s executive committee on Monday after getting feedback from the city leaders and cadre. “For us the struggle for separate Telangana is more important than polls,” he said.

At the same time, he also criticised the State Election Commission for announcing poll dates unilaterally without consulting political parties as is the norm.

Source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/trs-finds-alibi-skip-polls-568

State Committee meeting of TRS to decide on GHMC polls
Hyderabad | Friday, Oct 30 2009 IST

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President K Chandrasekhra Rao today said the party would take a decision whether to contest or not in the coming local body elections for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) at the state committee meeting on November 2.

Addressing media persons after the politburo meeting of the party, he said 95 per cent of the members expressed their opinion not to take part in the elections while the rest were in favour of contesting the polls.

The matter would be decided after discussing with the members at the state committee meeting on Monday. The party would also discuss with the Telangana Government Employees Associations, Students organisations and others on the issue before taking a final decision, he informed.

Stating that the State Election Commission (SEC) had issued notification for the GHMC elections without holding a meeting of leaders of all political parties, Mr Rao said the notification issued by the SEC was ‘undemocratic.’ The TRS would intensify its agitation to achieve separate Telangana and organise stirs against land grabbers in Telangana region, he said.

(UNI) — 30MS38.xml
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20091030/1373084.html

Editorial- The Hindu

Journalism for sale

India’s elections, which in mid-2009 brought 415 million voters to the 1.18 million ballot units in 834,944 polling stations and were mostly peaceful, may be one of the wonders of the world. But it is widely understood that in 2009 the free, fair, and democratic attributes of these elections have been compromised as never before by the large-scale, illegal, and scandalous use of money power — which, to a considerable extent, involved recycled dirty money garnered through corruption in executive and legislative office. The role of the Election Commission of India in curbing booth capturing, intimidation of voters, and some other kinds of electoral fraud has won public appreciation. But as P. Sainath points out in his article, “The medium, message and the money,” published in The Hindu on October 26, 2009, “it is hard to find a single instance of rigorous or deterrent action” by the ECI in the face of such a serious danger to the democratic process. That is a large question that needs to be addressed in depth and in all its complexity by the various players in the political system.

The new shame is the extensive and brazen participation of not insignificant sections of the news media, notably large-circulation Indian language newspapers in two of India’s largest States, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, in this genre of corruption — which a politician speaking at a Hyderabad media seminar memorably characterised as a “Cash Transfer Scheme” from politicians to journalists. Sainath’s article exposes the phenomenon of “coverage packages” exploding across India’s most industrialised State during the recent Assembly election.

Candidates paid newspapers different rates for well-differentiated and streamlined packages of news coverage. Those who could not or would not pay for the packages tended to be blacked out. The Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists has, on the basis of a sample survey conducted in West Godavari district, estimated that newspapers across the State netted Rs. 350 crore to Rs. 400 crore through editorial coverage sold to candidates during the 2009 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Some candidates even recorded the expenditure incurred in purchasing editorial coverage in their official accounts submitted to the ECI. With some senior journalists drawing its attention to this new-fangled cash transfer scheme in Andhra Pradesh, the Press Council of India has constituted a two-member committee to inquire into the matter. What to do about such a shocking breach of readers’ trust (which is unlikely to be confined to Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra) by the so-called Fourth Estate will form the subject of a follow-up editorial.

Source: The Hindu, 30 October 2009 http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article41149.ece

భయాంధ్రప్రదేశ్‌!

-కె.బాలగోపాల్‌
భయం నుంచి బయటపడి ధైర్యంగా ఆత్మస్థైర్యంతో మాట్లాడేటటువంటి ఆ ప్రజాస్వామిక విలువను కాపాడుకోవటం కూడా చాలా ముఖ్యమైన పనైపోయింది ఇవ్వాళ మన ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్‌లో. ఆత్మ స్థైర్యం, ధైర్యం, నిర్భీతి, ఈ ప్రజాస్వామిక విలువలు లేకపోతే హక్కులసాధన అయ్యేపనికాదు, ఇవి లేకపోతే మనం హక్కుల కోసం కొట్లాడట మనేది సాధ్యమయ్యేపనికాదు. అది చెప్పటం అవసరమని నేననుకుంటున్నాను.

సమాజం భయపడుతూ ఉంటే, నిజం చెప్పటానికి భయపడుతూంటే, అబద్ధాన్ని అబద్ధం అనడానికి భయపడు తూ ఉంటే ఏ హక్కులు సాధించుకుంటాం? దళితులు గానివ్వండి, కార్మికులు గానివ్వండి, ఉద్యోగులు గానివ్వండి, ఎవరైనా గానివ్వండి, సత్యాన్ని సత్యం అనగలగాల, అసత్యాన్ని అసత్యం అనగలగాల, నాకిది న్యాయమూ అని నిర్భయంగా చెప్పగలగాల.

అది సాధ్యం గాని చోట హక్కులు అనే మాటకు అర్థం ఉండదు. ఈ రాష్ట్రాన్ని భయం ఏలుతూ ఉంది. ఆ భయం నుంచి ఈ రాష్ట్రం బయటపడలేదు అని – పడింది అని ఒకవేళ అనుకున్నా ఎప్పుడైనా- రాజశేఖరరెడ్డి మరణం తరువాత జరుగుతున్నటువంటి పరిణామాలు స్పష్టం చేస్తా వున్నాయి.
ముఖ్యమంత్రిగా ప్రమాణ స్వీకారం చేసిన వ్యక్తి తన కుర్చీలో కూర్చోలేడు. ధైర్యం చాలడం లేదు.. తన తోటి మంత్రులు పని చెయ్యకపోతే, ఎందుకు పని చేయడం లేదు అని వాళ్ళనడగకుండా, ‘ఏం? మంత్రి ప్రతిరోజూ సంతకం చేయాలా సెక్రటేరియట్‌లో కూర్చోని?’ అని వాళ్ళ తరఫున ఆయనే జవాబు చెప్తున్నాడు. అడగటానికి ఆయనకు భయం. రాజశేఖరరెడ్డి చనిపోయినాక రాష్ట్రంలో ఎవరో అన్నారంట, ప్రతి పెద్ద ఆస్పత్రిలోను కూడ రోజుకో ఇరవై అయిదు ముప్పై అయిదు మంది గుండెపోటుతో వస్తుంటారు, పోతుంటారు, కొందరు మళ్ళీ ఇంటికి పోతుంటారు అని.

ఇవ్వన్నీ గూడా ఆ చావుకు సంబంధించిన మరణాలే అని బుకాయించారని ఒక ఆంగ్ల పత్రికలో ఆంగ్ల మీడియా చెప్పవలసివచ్చింది. మనకు« ధైర్యం చాలడం లేదు. ఇక్కడ మీడియాకు ధైర్యం చాలడం లేదు. ఇక్కడ వ్యాఖ్యాతలకు ధైర్యం చాలడంలేదు. అన్నిటినీ తీవ్రంగా విమర్శించే వ్యాఖ్యాతలుగా టివిలో కనిపించినటువంటి మహానుభావులు, పేర్లు చెప్పొద్దు, బాగుండదు, వాళ్ళకి సాధ్యం కాదు.

ఎటువంటి సమాజంలో జీవిస్తున్నాం మనం? ఈ సాధ్యం కాకపోవడం, నిజాన్ని నిజం అనలేకపోవడం, కొందరిలో భయం కావచ్చు, కొందరిలో అవకాశవాదం కావచ్చు, రెండూ కూడా ప్రజాస్వామ్యానికి వినాశకరమే, ఎందుకంటే, నిజాయితీ లేకపోతే, భయం ఉన్నా నిజాయితీ ఉండదు, అవకాశమున్నా నిజాయితీ ఉండదు, నిజాయితీ లేకపోతే ప్రజాస్వామ్యముండదు.హక్కుల సాధన సాధ్యం కాదు. హక్కులు సాధించుకోవడం సాధ్యంకాదు, ఇటువంటి సమాజంలో బ్రతుకుతున్నాం మనమూ అనే ఓ సిగ్గుపడే పరిస్థితి, బుర్ర రాములు అననే అన్నాడు. మనకు వాస్తవానికి ఉంది నెలరోజులుగా. అరే, గమనించలేదే మనం, ఇంతటి దౌర్భాగ్య పరిస్థితులలో మనమున్నామని మనకు మనమే చెప్పుకోవలసి వస్తుంది.

ఎట్లా దీన్నించి బయటపడాలా అనే ప్రశ్న వేసుకోవలసివస్తుంది. హైదరాబాద్‌లో బ్రతికిన వాళ్ళకు ఓ జ్ఞాపకం తప్పనిసరిగా వస్తుంది. ఎవ్వరూ మాట్లాడలేకపోతున్నారు. జగన్‌మోహనరెడ్డిని ముఖ్యమంత్రిగా చెయ్యకపోతే ఇది జేస్తాం అది జేస్తాం అనడం, ఇక్కడా అక్కడా దౌర్జన్యానికి పాల్పడటం చూస్తూ ఉంటే, హైదరాబాద్‌ నివాసులమైన మాకు 1992 జ్ఞాపకం వస్తుంది.
ఒక ముఖ్యమంత్రిని దించి మరొకరిని ఎక్కించడానికి పీకలు కోసిన ఆ మారణకాండ జ్ఞాపకం వస్తుంది. తండ్రి పీకలు కోసి ఆ రోజు ముఖ్యమంత్రులను మార్చాడు. కొడుకు అదే పని చేస్తాడా అన్న భయం. మీకిది అతిశయోక్తిగా అనిపియ్యవచ్చు బయట వాళ్ళకు. హైద్రాబాదులో బ్రతికిన వాళ్ళకు, చూసిన వాళ్ళకు, ఆ ఘటన కాలంలో అక్కడ జీవించిన వాళ్ళకు సహజంగా వచ్చేటటువంటి సందేహం.

ఎందుకు అనలేకపోతున్నారు ఈ విషయాలన్నీకూడా, ఎందుకు మాట్లాడలేక పోతున్నాం? ఈ జాతి, హక్కుల సాధనకు యోగ్యమైన జాతేనా? ఈ జాతి ప్రజాస్వామ్యానికి అర్హతున్న జాతేనా, ఈ తెలుగు జాతి? విమర్శకులుగా, మేధావులుగా, ప్రగతిశీల వ్యక్తులుగా పేరుబడ్డ వాళ్ళు, భయంలోపల తమ అవకాశాలు వెతుక్కుంటూ, దౌర్జన్యం లోపల తమకు అవకాశాలు వెతుక్కుంటూ, పోతూంటే, ఈ జాతి భవిష్యత్తు ఏమిటీ అన్న ప్రశ్న.

మేధావులు, బుద్ధిజీవుల పాత్ర ఎక్కువగా అంచనా వేయనక్కరలేదుగాని, నిజాయితీగల బుద్ధి జీవులు ఉండటమనేది ఒక సమాజం పురోగతికి ఒక అవసరమైన విషయమది. వాళ్ళ చేతిలో అంతా లేకపోయినా గూడా, నిజాయితీ ఉన్న బుద్ధిజీవులు లేరు ఈ ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్‌లో, ఈ తెలుగు జాతిలో, ఎంత బాధాకరమైన పరిస్థితి. భయం సంగతి పోనివ్వండి, రాజశేఖరరెడ్డి పథకాలలో భాగంగా ఒక ఇందిరమ్మ ఇల్లొచ్చినటువంటి ఒక బీదవాడు ఏడిచి, ఆయన చనిపోయాడని ఏడిస్తే నేనర్థం చేసుకుంటాను.

తనకు తెలిసింది అంతే ప్రపంచం, అంతకంటే సమగ్రమైన వివేచన తనకు సాధ్యం కాదు, ఆ సమాచారం లేదు, ఆ విశదీకరణ తెలియదు. ఆరోగ్యశ్రీ పథకం వల్ల, చాలాకాలం నయం కానివాడు, రోగం నయమయిన వ్యక్తి అయ్యో రాజశేఖరరెడ్డి చనిపోయాడని ఏడిస్తే నేను అర్థం చేసుకుంటాను. అంతకన్నా సమగ్రమైన విశ్లేషణలో అంతర్భాగంగా దానిని చూడటం ఆ వ్యక్తికి సాధ్యం కాదు. కాని దేన్నైనా ఒక మొత్తంలో చూడాలి, మొత్తంలో భాగంగానే ఆ భాగానికీ అర్థముంటుంది, మొత్తానికీ అర్థముంటుంది అని విశ్లేషించుకునేటటువంటి ప్రగతిశీల సంప్రదాయమున్న ఈ రాష్ట్రంలో, ఈ సంక్షేమ చర్యలు అన్నీ సంక్షేమచర్యలేనా? ఆ ప్రశ్న వేసుకోవచ్చు.

కొన్ని అవును, కొన్ని కాదు, కొన్ని ఆయనవి కానేకాదు. అదట్లావుంచి, ఏమి తీసుకుని ఏమిస్తున్నారు? ఇది ఇవ్వటానికి ఎంత తీసుకుంటూవున్నారు, ఏమి గుంజుకొని చేతిలో కొంత బెడుతున్నారు, ఎంత గుంజుకొంటున్నారు ఎంత పెడుతున్నారు అనే ప్రశ్న వేసుకుంటే తప్ప ఈ మొత్తం అర్థం గాదు, దాంట్లో భాగం అర్థం కాదు, ఆ సంక్షేమం అర్థం గాదు, అనే ఒక ప్రాథమిక విశ్లేషణ వివేచన చేయలేకపోతున్నారు అంటే అది భయమైనా, అది అవకాశవాదమైనా, ఏదో తమకోసం పొందామనేటటువంటి ఆకాంక్ష అయినా, దౌర్జన్యానికి భయపడి నోరు మూసుకునే పరిస్థితి అయినా, చాలా బాధాకరం.

ఎక్కడనుంచి వస్తున్నాయి ఇవన్నీ గూడా? ఎందుకు అకస్మాత్తుగా ఈ పదిహేను సంవత్సరాలలోనే, కోట్లాది రూపాయలు దీనికి దానికి మరొకదానికి పేదవాళ్ళకు ఇస్తున్నాము, ఇవ్వగలుగుతాము మేము అని కొందరు ఇస్తున్నారు? నేను ఇంకా ఎక్కువ ఇస్తాను అని ప్రతిపక్ష నాయకుడు చంద్రబాబు నాయుడు గారైతే ఫ్రీగా డబ్బులే ఇస్తాను, నగదు బదిలీ అన్నాడు.

ఏమిటీ దీని వెనకాలనున్నటువంటిది, ఇది ఇవ్వడానికి? ఇచ్చేవాడే ఆయన గెలిచుంటే, కొంతగాకపోతే కొంతైనా ఇచ్చుండేవాడు, ఇవ్వాళ గాకపోతే రేపైనా, ఈ దాతృత్వం వెనకాల, ఈ సంక్షేమం వెనకాల ఉన్నటువంటి ఒక టోటాలిటీ ఏమిటి? ఒక మొత్తం ఏమిటి? నరసింహారెడ్డిగారు చెప్పారు, ప్రపంచీకరణలో భారతదేశం భాగం అయిన తరువాత మిగులు చాలా పెరిగింది.

ఆ మిగులు విదేశీ మారక ద్రవ్యంలోనూ ఉంది, దేశం లోపల కన్సాలిడేటెడ్‌ ఫండ్‌లోనూ ఉంది. ఆ మిగులు నుంచి ఇవ్వగలుగుతున్నారు, చెయ్యగలుగుతున్నారు. ఆ మిగులు నుంచే అనేక సంక్షేమ పథకాలు అమలుచేయగలుగుతున్నారు. కానీ ఆ మిగులు పొందడానికి, ఆ ప్రపంచీకరణ అమలు చేయడానికి ఎంత లాక్కొంటున్నారు అదే ప్రజానీకం నుంచి, ఏమేమి గుంజుకుంటున్నారు అదే ప్రజానీకం నుంచి. ఒక హక్కుగా, ఒక పాలనా బాధ్యతగా, ఈ ప్రజానీకానికి అందవలసినటువంటి విద్యగాని, వైద్యంగాని, రోడ్లు గాని, రవాణా సదుపాయాలుగాని, వీటి మీద పెట్టవలసిన ఖర్చంత గూడా ఆపేసి, తగ్గించేసి, కార్పొరేట్‌ పెట్టుబడి కోసం, ఇన్‌ఫ్రాస్ట్రక్చర్‌ మీద ఖర్చు పెట్టుకొంటూ పోతున్నారు.

వైద్య వ్యవస్థ ఎట్లా నాశనమయ్యింది? విద్యావ్యవస్థ ఎట్లా నాశనమయ్యింది, రవాణా వ్యవస్థ ఎట్లా నాశనమయ్యింది, ఆ డబ్బంతా ఎక్కడికి పోయింది? ఇన్‌ఫ్రాస్ట్రక్చర్‌కి పోయింది, కార్పొరేట్‌ ఇన్‌ఫ్రాస్ట్రక్చర్‌కు పోయింది. అది మనం చూస్తూనే ఉన్నాం. ప్రజానీకానికి నిత్య జీవితంలో జీవనం కల్పించే ప్రకృతి వనరులు భూమి, నీళ్ళు, అడవులు, గాలి, 2 లక్షల ఎకరాలు ఈ రాష్ట్రంలో వాళ్ల నుంచి గుంజుకొని, ఈ కార్పొరేట్‌ సెక్టార్‌కు ఇవ్వబడుతున్నాయి, ఇవ్వబడ్డాయి కొంత.

అవంతా తీసేసుకొని, ఆ కార్పొరేట్‌ కంపెనీలకు ఇన్‌ఫ్రాస్ట్రక్చర్‌ తయారుచేసి, సదుపాయాలు తయారు చేసి, వాటిని ఆహ్వానించి, ఆ పెట్టుబడుల నుంచి, దాన్నించి వచ్చిన గ్రోత్‌ రేట్‌ నుంచి సంక్షేమం ఇస్తే, ఆ మొత్తంలో భాగంగా చూచినప్పుడు ఈ సంక్షేమానికి అర్థమేమిటి? చూడలేకపోతున్నావా నువ్వు? ఎందుకు చూడలేకపోతున్నావు? ఆ దృష్టి నీకు ఎందుకు లేకుండా పోతుంది? ప్రగతిశీలవాదులు, అభ్యుదయవాదులు, విశ్లేషణ చాతుర్యం ఉన్నవాళ్ళు అని పేరుపొందిన వాళ్లు. నేను అవకాశవాదమే అనుకుంటాను. అందుకే బుద్ధిజీవులు, తెలుగు బుద్ధి జీవులంటే ఇవ్వాళ సిగ్గుపడుతున్నాను. బహిరంగంగా ప్రకటిస్తున్నాను తెలుగుజాతి బుద్ధి జీవుల పట్ల నేను సిగ్గుపడుతున్నాను. నరసింహారెడ్డి విశ్లేషించి చెప్పుకుంటూ వచ్చారు.

ఆయన ఒక మాట అన్నారు. మనం హక్కుల గురించి ఎన్ని కోణాల నుంచి మాట్లాడినా, ఏమేమి చెయ్యవచ్చు, ఏ విధంగా మనుషుల మధ్య సౌభ్రాతృత్వాన్ని గాని, స్నేహంగాని, సహకారాన్ని గాని పెంపొందించుకోవచ్చు, ఏ విధంగా పరస్పర సహనం పెంపొందించుకోవచ్చు మతాలు కులాలు వీటి పట్ల, అని ఎన్ని మాట్లాడుకున్నా, ప్రపంచీకరణ, నయా ఉదారవాద పాలనా విధానాలు, ఆర్థిక విధానాలు, వాటి ఫలితంగా భౌతిక వనరుల పంపిణీ, వనరుల వినియోగం, దాన్నించి వచ్చే ఫలాల పంపిణీ వాటిని ఏం జేస్తున్నారు అని చూడకపోతే, మనం జేసే మిగిలిన పనులన్నీ గూడా అపరిపూర్ణంగా వుంటాయి.

సంపూర్ణంగా ఉండవు. దానిమీద తీవ్రమైన విమర్శ పెట్టాల్సిన అవసరం ఉంది. దృష్టి పెట్టాల్సిన అవసరం ఉంది. అవన్నీ మర్చిపోతే ఎట్లా? తెలియకకాదు, నరసింహారెడ్డిగారి మాటలు ఇదే మనుషులు గతంలో వినకా కాదు. చాలా బాధాకరమైన పరిస్థితి. ఇవ్వాళ భయం నుంచి బయటపడి ధైర్యంగా ఆత్మస్థైర్యంతో మాట్లాడేటటువంటి ఆ ప్రజాస్వామిక విలువను కాపాడుకోవటం కూడా చాలా ముఖ్యమైన పనైపోయింది ఇవ్వాళ మన ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్‌లో. ఆత్మ స్థైర్యం, ధైర్యం ప్రజాస్వామిక విలువలు, ఇవి లేకపోతే హక్కుల సాధన అయ్యేపనికాదు, ఇవి లేకపోతే మనం హక్కుల కోసం కొట్లాడటమనేది సాధ్యమయ్యే పనికాదు. అది చెప్పటం అవసరమని నేననుకుంటున్నాను.
……

అక్టోబర్‌ 2, 2009 అనంతపురంలో మానవహక్కుల వేదిక మూడవ రాష్ట్ర మహాసభల్లో కె. బాలగోపాల్‌ చేసిన ప్రసంగంలోని కొన్ని భాగాలు ఇవి. సుమారు మూడు సంవత్సరాల పాటు, ఈ అక్టోబర్‌ 7 దాకా, ‘ఆంధ్రజ్యోతి’లో ప్రతి పక్షం రోజులకు ఒకసారి బాలగోపాల్‌ వ్యాసాలు రాస్తూ వచ్చారు. నిశితమైన దృక్పథం, సరళమైన వ్యక్తీకరణతో ఆంధ్రజ్యోతికి ప్రతిష్ఠాకరమైన రచనలు అందించిన బాలగోపాల్‌కు కృతజ్ఞతాపూర్వకమైన నివాళి అర్పిస్తున్నాం.
-ఎడిటర్‌

Source: Andhra Jyothi 21 Oct 2009

Ministers squabble on Polavaram
October 31st, 2009
By Our Correspondent

Hyderabad, Oct. 30: A sustained campaign by a section of senior Congress leaders against the Polavaram project has irked their counterparts from the beneficiary districts.

This has come at a time when the Centre is all set to accord national project status to the Polavaram project. The Centre will bear 90 per cent of the project cost once it is accorded the national status.

Taking a cue from the Congress leaders, the Left parties and Telangana Rashtra Samithi have revived their demand for scrapping Polavaram and taking up a couple of minor projects in its place.

The pro-project sections are waiting for the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, to make the government’s stand clear not just on Polavaram but the entire Jalayagnam. Mr Rosaiah has reviewed every subject except irrigation. Sources said he postponed the Jalayagnam review twice.

The irrigation officials said the government would lose the grant of Rs 25,000 crore over a period of time if any of the projects were scrapped.

The earlier union minister of water sources, Prof. Saifuddin Souz, had identified 25 projects including Pranahitha Chevella for completion under the PM’s package for distressed districts.

The Centre accordingly relaxed norms and agreed to fund these projects under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme.

“Our leaders are even going against the spirit of Dr Manmohan Singh who wrote a letter to YSR asking him to ensure speedy completion of irrigation projects,” a senior minister from coastal districts pointed out.

The major irrigation minister, Mr Ponnala Lakshamaiah, said the Polavaram project would get clearance from the forest department and then the matter would be placed before the Union Cabinet.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/ministers-squabble-polavaram-592

GHMC polls on November 23
Times of India, 29 October 2009

HYDERABAD: The state election commission on Wednesday announced the much-awaited schedule for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections for which voting will take place on November 23.

This will be the first electoral test for the state Congress under new chief minister K Rosaiah. As per the scheduled announced by SEC commissioner A V S Reddy, nominations for the polls will be accepted from October 31 to November 6. November 10 will be the last date of withdrawals and polling will take place on November 23. The results will be announced on November 26 and the newly-elected 150 councillors will elect the mayor and deputy mayor on December 6.

This will be the first election for the GHMC since it was created in 2007. The 150 wards of GHMC are spread across five Lok Sabha and 25 assembly constituencies. The LS constituencies are Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Malkajgiri and parts of Chevella and Medak.

The last elections to the civic body was held in 2002 when it was known as Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and had a strength of 100 members. At that time, the Telugu Desam government was in power in the state. The elections in 2002 were held after a gap of 15 years. The MIM emerged as the single largest party winning 36 divisions, the TDP-BJP combine secured 37 divisions, Congress 20 divisions, TRS and Majlis Bachao Tahreek 2 each, and Telangana Sadhana Samiti and independent one each

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/GHMC-polls-on-November-23/articleshow/5174770.cms

MIM eyeing Mayor’s post
J.S. Ifthekhar

The Hindu, 29 October 2009

Party receives 332 applications for the 150 divisions

Hyderabad: ‘Shaher hamara, Mayor hamara’. That’s what the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is going to town with. The party has set its sights on the coveted Mayoral gaddi in the next month’s civic polls.

The Majlis confidence stems from the fact that a good number of municipal divisions fall under its bastion. However, the Congress with its 30 ex-officio members is in an enviable position to secure the Mayorship. The Majlis is aware of this and is therefore planning to annex a large number of divisions on its own. It views the sudden death of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, as a great setback to the Congress. “It has no charismatic leader to campaign in the city,” says Majlis president Asaduddin Owaisi.

Sought after: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi surrounded by ticket aspirants for the GHMC polls at the party office on Thursday (Photo: P.V. Sivakumar)

The BJP, he feels, is also in a disadvantageous position. Having supported unsuccessfully the Telugu Desam parliamentary candidate of Hyderabad, Zahid Ali Khan, the party’s vote bank in the city is totally decimated. The Majlis has also completed the exercise of receiving applications almost two months ago.

It has received a total of 332 applications for the 150 divisions and is not entertaining any new applications. “We will give good representation to women, SC, ST and BC candidates,” Mr. Asaduddin said. On Thursday, he held a first round of consultation with the party legislators at Darussalam. They were given the task of ensuring the success of party candidates in their respective constituencies. It is decided to kick off the party’s election campaign with a huge public meeting on November 1 at Dargah Yousufain in Nampally. There will be regular public meetings and padayatras thereafter.

The Majlis promises to ensure development of neglected areas, rationalise property tax and hasten the Building Regularisation Scheme.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/30/stories/2009103059520300.htm

TDP may not back TRS on free zone issue
Express News Service, 26 Oct 2009

HYDERABAD: Six months after the Assembly elections, the main Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has almost dumped its ally the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The TRS too is trying hard to move away from the TDP in order to get closer to the Congress.

As the experiment with the TRS failed to click in the Assembly elections, the TDP is now targeting the TRS leadership for its failure to carry forward the Telangana slogan effectively.

The TDP is now trying to project a picture to the people of Telangana that it is the only party which has been with the Telangana people through thick and thin.

The TDP leaders say that they launched agitations against `skull symbol on beedi packs’, Babhli project and other key issues. It was TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu who visited several villages in Mahaboobnagar and helped the flood victims by providing relief material.

“We thought that if all the Opposition parties sailed together it would help to dislodge the Congress Government in the State. But, the poll arithmetic proved otherwise,’’ said a TDP leader from Telangana.

In the wake of these developments, TDP is unlikely to support the no-trust motion being introduced by the TRS against the State Government on Hyderabad free zone issue.

If at all Assembly session is convened to discuss the no-trust motion, the TDP is likely to watch the reactions from Congress rather than supporting the TRS. TDP stand on free-zone is that the Government should not deviate from the Presidential order or GO 610. The TDP had already endorsed State’s move to file a review petition in the Supreme Court on free zone issue.

SC order on capital gives TRS fresh life

A Srinivasa Rao

India Today, October 28, 2009

Is Hyderabad not a part of Telangana, but a separate entity by virtue of being the capital of Andhra Pradesh? This issue is now the most hotly debated topic across the state. And it has given a new lease of life to the Telangana movement, which had almost been buried after the debacle of pro- Telangana forces in the recent general elections.

The whole controversy began with a Supreme Court judgement on October 9, declaring that Hyderabad was not a part of Telangana but a free zone insofar as recruitments and postings in government went.

Therefore, the Supreme Court ruled, people from all parts of the state would have equal rights in jobs, postings and promotions there. It meant the people of Telangana, who have been enjoying local area status in Hyderabad with 70 per cent quota in government jobs all these years, would have to forego the benefit and now have to compete with people from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema for such openings.

Hitherto, the state government had been treating Hyderabad as part of Zone VI, along with Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Medak districts for the purpose of government recruitments, postings and promotions. There are five other zones in the rest of the state.

The Zonal system was created as part of Presidential Orders issued in 1975, based on the six point formula worked out by the then Indira Gandhi government to undo the injustice caused to Telangana in recruitments, as a fallout of the historic Telangana movement of 1969- 72. But, the formula was violated more often than not, causing a lot of unrest among the Telangana employees.

In 1985, the then N T Rama Rao government issued a special government order (G.O 610) to repatriate all the employees recruited in the state in violation of the six- point formula.

But this GO, too, was flouted on a number of occasions. After the formation of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in 2001 reviving the Telangana movement, the Chandrababu Naidu government constituted a committee headed by retired IAS officer J M Girglani, who also ruled that Hyderabad was not a free zone, but part of Zone VI of Telangana. He said the Zonal system was applicable not only to state- level offices such as Secretariat, directorates, commissionerates and corporations and Group- I cadre recruitments; for the purpose of local recruitments such as in the Collectorate, police department and appointment of teachers, Hyderabad is part of Zone VI with locals entitled to a 70 per cent quota. Subsequently, the government started repatriating police constables and officers from Hyderabad to their respective zones.

Some of them first approached the State Administrative Tribunal and later moved the High Court, but both ruled that Hyderabad was part of Zone- VI in Telangana. Subsequently, they filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the HC order.

This has led to the Supreme Court declaring Hyderabad a “free zone.” The SC order has triggered a lot of unrest among the Telangana employee associations, which fear that candidates from Andhra would grab their jobs in Hyderabad. Senior advocate S Ramachandra Rao observed that the Supreme Court order was against the spirit of the Presidential Orders of 1975, which had nowhere mentioned that Hyderabad was a free zone.

The Telangana Employees’ Union president C Vithal said the verdict would lead to a further rift between Telangana and Andhra employees.

For the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has been down in the dumps for the last six months, the order has come as a god- sent opportunity to revive the Telangana movement.

Within a week, the TRS organised a massive public meeting of Telangana employees at Siddipet in Medak district, where its president K Chandrasekhara Rao declared that he would wage a protracted struggle to achieve a separate Telangana state.

He gave the call of “Telanganawale Jaago, Andhrawale Bhago,” evoking loud protests from Andhraites, and creating a tense atmosphere in the state.

KCR even called for a “Jail Bharo” programme on October 28 against the “Hyderabad- as free zone” order.

The state government led by Chief Minister K Rosaiah held an all- party meeting last week to discuss the contentious “free zone” issue and decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&issueid=111&id=68193&Itemid=1&sectionid=114

Economic & Political Weekly, October 24, 2009 vol xliv no 43
Commentary

YSR ‘Shock Deaths’ in Andhra

C Ramachandraiah

Over 450 people were reported to have died of “shock” following the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. While the high-pitched media coverage may have contributed to some of these deaths, it also appears likely that eager Congress workers gave money to poor people asking them to claim that the natural deaths of members of their respective families were due to “shock” at the death of YSR. This was a cynical move to pressurise the Congress leadership to make his son, Jaganmohan Reddy, the chief minister.

Over 450 people are reported to have died of shock in the days following the tragic death of the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (popularly known as YSR) in the helicopter crash on 2 September 2009. Though the helicopter carrying YSR and four others is now known to have crashed around 9.30 am on 2 September, the news of their death was telecast only on the morning of 3 September, i e, after a full 24 hours of suspense about the fate of the chief minister. That the helicopter was missing was itself confirmed only late in the afternoon of 2 September by the then finance minister (present chief minister) K Rosaiah.

YSR had emerged a mass political leader in AP after his padayatra during April-June 2003. Aided by a booming economy, a slew of welfare/populist measures and distribution of patronage through public work contracts and other means, he became a popular chief minister. His personal traits of helping those who approach him and taking care of the needs of his followers earned him supporters across the state.

The intriguing question is whether YSR’s personal popularity as well as the popularity of his welfare measures can explain the unusually large number of deaths in the state that were reported soon after YSR’s passing. The largest number of deaths (227) was reported on 4 September, the day of the funeral and on 5 September (107) a day after the funeral. Comparatively there were fewer “shock deaths” (62) when his death was confirmed on 3 September, after a 24-hour media-fed frenzy and suspense over his missing helicopter . Of the 289 deaths that were reported to have occurred on the 3 and 4 September, 91% (263) were due to heart attacks while the rest (26) were suicides.

The non-stop live coverage by television news channels of YSR’s disappearance and search operations could be one reason explaining such a large number of deaths. Breathless “breaking news” and high pitched “debates” raised curiosity and kept matters on the boil. The steady build-up of search operations, which soon came to be touted as one of the biggest such operations in recent history added to this mix of curiosity and tension. Since all this was happening towards the dawn on 2 September many might have watched TV throughout the night, and more so on 3-4 September until the funeral.

There are nearly 20 Telugu TV channels of various types, which continuously broadcast the events. In their ugly competition for viewership, these channels fuelled confusion and mystery till the death of YSR became irrefutable and some even peddled rumours after confirmation of this death. Once the deaths were confirmed, they started competing to telecast live visuals of wailing followers and archival footage of YSR’s speeches and actions. As life came to a standstill across the state, it is possible to argue that such continuous footage on the visual media might have had a numbing effect on the minds of his followers and also many others. Further, these TV channels played tragic film songs as background music, along with eulogies of YSR as a “god” and “saviour of the downtrodden”. By the time the funeral was over on the evening of 4 September, 33 hours had already passed since the confirmation of the deaths and more than 48 hours since the helicopter was confirmed missing. Once the funeral was over, these channels started telecasting the visuals of the crash site and the gathering of the mangled dead bodies into sacks and lifting them into the rescue helicopters above. These visuals, showing the gory nature of the deaths, might have further added to a feeling of depression.

Several relatives of those who died in the aftermath of YSR’s death told the media that the deceased were not eating properly since the news of the helicopter crash was confirmed and many of them collapsed after continuously watching TV visuals of YSR’s death. The role of the visual media (in inducing the deaths) in the events of this nature should surely be a matter of concern.

Faking the Number of Deaths?

Given this role of the media, there still remains a suspicion about the number of “shock deaths” attributed to YSR’s death. In simple language, it can be argued that the number of deaths has been faked; that many deaths which occurred due to varied reasons have been attributed to YSR’s death. It appears that many Congress leaders and government officials induced bereaved families to make false claims in a well organized manner. The victims’ families are known to have been promised financial help, at some places, including family pensions on the lines of widow/old age pensions, if they put out the story that the person died while watching footages of YSR’s death on TV. At some places, amounts ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 were reported to be distributed by the followers of YSR’s son, Jaganmohan Reddy, and more was promised once he became chief minister “As if tutored, everybody said that the person died while watching the funeral scenes on TV” . This should be seen in light of the fact that the ugly chorus of “Jagan for CM” was started by Congress leaders even before YSR’s body reached Hyderabad. The swelling “shock death” numbers were probably meant to show, YSR’s popularity and to convey that Jaganmohan Reddy, as YSR’s son, was the only person capable of taking on that mantle and fulfilling the aspirations of the people.

The age of the victims and the regional distribution of deaths gives further credence to the suspicion on the number of “shock deaths”. Of the 289 deaths that were reported during 3-4 September, age details were available for 249 persons. Of these, 76 victims (31%) were 60 years and above including 24 persons of 70 years and above. Of the 289 deaths, the largest number was from Warangal district (37) in Telangana followed by East Godavari district (33) in coastal Andhra whereas the number was very small in YSR’s native district of Kadapa (8), where his patronage was at its maximum. Warangal is a centre of the separate Telangana movement whereas YSR was a staunch supporter of an integrated Andhra Pradesh. Rangareddy district, which surrounds Hyderabad city, reported only two deaths on 3 September and none on the day of the funeral. This district has witnessed an unprecedented real estate boom, while many information technology parks and special economic zones are located in it and many fortunes here were directly linked to YSR’s rule. The two very poor districts in Telangana, Mahbubnagar and Adilabad, together reported only 10 deaths. The three north coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam reported only three deaths on the first day and 13 deaths the next day (during 3-4 September). This skew surely indicates that it was not only the shock of YSR’s death among those who benefited under his chief ministership and where he was most popular which accounts for these deaths.

AP has witnessed a large number of suicides of farmers and the rural poor over the years due to crop failures, rising debts and rural distress. YSR tried to temporarily ameliorate some of the problems through welfare/populist measures. Any small help that reaches them was hugely welcomed by these distressed people. Equally so, any perceived loss of those benefits (as might have been felt by them after YSR’s death) could have led to fear and depression These distress situations, aided by the continuous footage of the TV channels, might have resulted in a few deaths, but reports of such a large number raises doubts and needs deeper probing. In addition to the above, it is also worth investigating the linkages between the reporting of a large number of deaths from a few districts only and the overenthusiastic activism of the Congress Party functionaries and government officials in those districts.

In the end, it appears that the normal deaths of many common people came in handy for YSR’s (and his son’s) ardent followers to make political capital for their “Jagan for CM” campaign, oblivious to the rather sombre occasion of mourning.

C Ramachandraiah (crchandraiah@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad.

Bandh paralyses normal life in Gulbarga city
Special Correspondent, The Hindu 15 July 2009

Several organisations had called for bandh for varied reasons
• Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti wants Article 371 of the Constitution to be amended
• Karnataka Rakshana Vedike protests against delay in taking up road-widening work in the city

Gulbarga: Bandh was total in Gulbarga city on Tuesday. Normal life was paralysed with all shops, business establishments, both wholesale and retail markets downing their shutters in response to two separate bandh calls.

While the Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti and the Hyderabad Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industries supported by other organisations called for bandh demanding Amendment to Article 371 of the Constitution on the Telangana model, the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike called for Gulbarga city bandh to demand that an IAS officer be posted as the Commissioner of the Gulbarga City Corporation and also to demand that road-widening work be taken up in the city. Besides, the vedike activists protested against the lack of will of political parties to get Article 371 of the Constitution amended.

In response to the bandh call, the North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) authorities suspended its city and mofussil services since morning as a precautionary measure. The only saving grace for the harassed public in the absence of public transport was a few auto rickshaws that defied the bandh call and operated in the city.

Although no untoward incident was reported in the city during the bandh, there were many incidents of intimidation by the organisers of the bandh, particularly involving activists of the vedike. They reportedly forced closure of shops and forced auto rickshaw drivers to stop ferrying passengers in many interior localities. Total lawlessness prevailed in some parts of the city where supporters of the bandh erected barricades on the roads preventing free movement of traffic.

The police who were present in large numbers were a silent witness to the violation of law and open intimidation by the lathi-wielding vedike activists who ensured that the bandh was total.

Members of the Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti; Hyderabad Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HKCCI); Janata Dal (S); and Gulbarga Bar Association took out a procession from the Super Market to the Deputy Commissioner office where they submitted a memorandum urging the Union Government to amend Article 371 of the Constitution on the Telangana model.

Among those who participated in the procession were the former Minister and president of the Horata Samiti Vaijnath Patil; HKCCI president Umakant Nigudgi; Sulpul Mutt chief Sri Mahanta Shivacharyaru; Dalit leader Shivaram Moga; and district Janata Dal (S) president Shankaranna Voneykal.

The Karnataka Rakshana Vedhike protest was led by its state president Shivarame Gowda; president of the North Karnataka units of the vedike Sharanu Gaddige; and district president Arunkumar S. Patil.

The vedike activists burnt an effigy of Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar.

Source: The Hindu 15, July 2009 http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/15/stories/2009071555120300.htm

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`Extend Mulki Rules to Hyderabad-Karnataka’
Special Correspondent, The Hindu, Nov 20, 2006

More local people will be recruited to government posts
• The rules are in vogue in Andhra Pradesh
• Samiti had filed a PIL in the court in this regard

GULBARGA: The Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti (HKHS) has received a shot in the arm in its movement demanding equal share for the people of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region in recruitment to government jobs.

The Karnataka High Court admitted a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by it and issued a notification to the State Government on extending the Mulki Rules, which ensure recruitment of local people in government jobs, to the Hyderabad-Karnataka region as was being done in Andhra Pradesh.

President of the Samiti Vaijnath Patil, MLA, who is spearheading an agitation for the redressal of regional imbalances in development and job opportunities in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region said the two-member High Court bench headed by Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph had admitted the PIL demanding that the State Government implement the Mulki Rules, which was in vogue in the erstwhile Hyderabad province prior to the reorganisation of the States in 1956, and ordered issue of notices to the Government.

In its PIL the samiti said the Mulki Rules, which came into existence during the Nizam’s rule in 1928, were in practice till the reorganisation of States in 1956. While the Mulki Rules continued to be extended to the Telangana region, which was merged with Andhra Pradesh from the erstwhile Hyderabad province and were extended to the entire Andhra Pradesh, the regions which were merged with then Mysore State were not extended the Mulki Rule benefits in recruitments in government departments.

He said that the Mulki Rules provided for 80 per cent reservation for local people in all the recruitments for C and D posts for which the recruitments are done at the district level and 60 per cent reservation for the Class A and B posts which is done at the divisional level.

People in Andhra Pradesh were given another benefit of reservation in the educational opportunities by amending Article 371 of the Constitution and including the State under the schedule.

He said the State Government can implement the rules in Hyderabad-Karnataka region using provisions of Article 372 of the Constitution and it did not require permission from Centre.

Until the rules were extended to the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Mr. Patil said all recruitments to government posts should be suspended and legislators from the region should pressure the Government to concede to this demand.

http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/20/stories/2006112004720300.htm

Telangana Congress leaders oppose Polavaram

HYDERABAD: Making public their opposition to the construction of Polavaram project across Godavari, senior Congress leaders from Telangana have suggested construction of seven barrages to bring down the cost of the project and avoid extensive submergence of land.

At a meeting of party seniors at the residence of former Minister Palvai Goverdhan Reddy here of Friday, they felt that there was urgent need to discuss the fate of the irrigation projects in Telangana. The meeting, which was attended by former Home Minister K. Jana Reddy, MLCs – K. Yadava Reddy and K. R. Amos and former MLC B. Kamalakar Rao favoured redesigning of the project.

They concluded that the seven barrages could be constructed at half the cost of the present allocation for Polavaram. Leaders pointed out that Polavaram project involved extensive submergence of villages in not only AP but Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The barrages would reduce the scope for submergence of villages, facilitate more power generation and irrigate more land.

They also felt that there was immediate need to revive the activities of Telangana Regional Congress Coordination Committee (TRCCC) to not only discuss the irrigation projects but also the Supreme Court decision on Hyderabad as ‘free zone’.

Mr. Jana Reddy reportedly briefed the leaders as to how the disparity in the affidavits could have resulted in the latest judgement. He reportedly suggested that while filing a review petition was the best option, other way like seeking a central amendment was must to rectify the anomaly. The leaders lamented that proper care was not taken by the Government, when the affidavit was filed in the Supreme Court.

source: The Hindu, Oct 24, 2009 http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/24/stories/2009102460880700.htm

A Political Post- Mortem: Andhra Pradesh After YSR
By Kadempally Sudhakar

The sudden and tragic death of Y Rajashekar Reddy (YSR) left the Congress Party and his beneficiaries in a state of shock, void and dumb. No doubt YSR was the most powerful and crowed puller Congress CM AP ever had. Earlier Congress CMs were appointed and removed as per high command calculations and convenience. The important point is YSR rose to CM chair during Sonia Gandhi’s stewardship. The same YSR was a permanent dissident leader throughout his political career right from Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao era. It is only during Sonia’s time YSR came out of dissidence and took a historic padayatra throughout the state and came to power in 2004 defeating Chandrababu Naidu. No other previous congress CM had this kind of mass appeal and contacts. Main reasons for YSR’s victory in 2004 were Naidu’s lopsided policies, neglect of agriculture, farmer suicides. People saw in YSR a hope and fed up with Naidu’s World Bank policies which YSR used very well and saw him as a messiah. In 2004, Naidu was alone fighting the Congress, left, TRS, MIM combine. YSR gets full marks for Congress revival in the state and his valuable contribution at the centre.

Sonia was too happy with YSR for sending 29 crucial and largest number of Congress MPs to Lok Sabha which facilitated in forming a UPA led front government. Unlike previous congress chiefs’, Sonia acted with immense maturity, common sense, benevolent in choosing Dr Singh as PM. This strategy improved her image, popularity ratings, became stronger than before (like Indira era). It was clear that she left the governance to Dr Singh and she managed politics. This arrangement worked well and UPA was fortunate that during 2004- 2008 there was an unprecedented economic boom resulted in real estate, consumer goods, media, and infrastructure areas. Dr Singh govt did very well except couple of alleged scams in telecom sector, public sector privatization etc. UPA’s NREGS scheme helped them coming back in 2009 and of course BJP’s failure and left’s bankruptcy too helped. Still Rahul is on probation and training. The Congress High command had given full freedom to YSR since 2004 in both political and governance matters on TINA factor.

For YSR there was no looking back till his tragic death on 2nd September 2009. During his first tenure (2004-9) YSR was allegedly involved in many controversies related to his son’s properties, investments and its sources and business dealings. All opposition parties went to Delhi and submitted reports on YSR corruption charges to Congress President. By the time he became CM, all old horses in the state congress had become too old to walk and talk and they have no mass base or groups. Till NTR came into politics, there was no mass politics or public contacts by then the CMs. Mass politics were done by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv throughout the country and they did not allow any state leaders to do mass politics. Things have changed when Sonia took over the mantle. She did not change CMs as was done in the past and changed the perception in general about the working style of the party. YSR was lucky in many respects, during his period there was unprecedented economic boom, good monsoons, no credible and mass leader/s in the party and his only target was Naidu.

In earlier times, checks and balances were done by their own leaders. Since YSR was a dissident leader in most his career, hence he also knows how to control dissidents and he was successful. He cut off lines to all other leaders from high command and state in-charges in Delhi . He used Delhi model of mass politics in the state and made clear to his ministers and MLA, leave politics and governance to him and mind their own business. As a result of this, no other leader emerged or no scope at all, other senior leaders were too happy with their kith and kin getting MLA or MP seat or some projects. He had become invincible and the most powerful congress CM that AP ever had.

There were some serious and credible allegations against him by the opposition on irrigation projects, land dealings, power and mining projects, SEZs. Coastal corridor project, diverting water and other resources to Rayalaseema and his own son’s business dealings etc. His popular schemes like Arogyasree, Indiramma housing schemes, free power to farmers, 2kg rice etc certainly won the hearts of people but they have failed to reach the needy. With all these schemes, he went to 2009 polls with a promise to continue till the end.

Though he came back to power with a wafer thin majority (this is the first time in AP, a government is ruling with a slender margin) in the assembly and the number went to 155 down by 30. Congress won 50 seats with less than 2000 votes majority. But for Lokh Sabha Congress sent 33 MPs up by 4 when compare to 2004. One has to see these results with a critical and logical mind. When there are simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and assembly in a state, there will be a correlation between MP and MLA seats won by a party. In this case congress won 33 MP seats and assembly they should have won between 220 – 240 minimum on the contrary they won only 155. Hence the votes and seats of MPs won are not of YSR but they are for Dr Singh and Sonia. The Congress high command is fully aware of this fact (hopefully).

Implications of YSR policies and governance on the Congress Party

The congress party known earlier as upper caste party, but after YSR took over it was perceived as true Reddy party. YSR openly inducted his own people in the assembly, legislative council and other plum government posts including DGP and Aviation Corporation MD and VCs. He alienated especially backward classes and madigas in SCs in the political process. There is Tsunami which will surface and hit soon. He also ridiculed and humiliated Telangana people in all respects – be it water sharing, implementation of G.O 610, setting up name sake universities in Telangana, selling people’s land in and around Hyderabad in the name of SEZs. Out of 97 SEZs in AP nearly 45 are located in Hyderabad surroundings and mainly IT and real estate related areas.

Investments in AP: During his tenure not a single large project had come to AP. Instead gas is being taken away from AP by Ambani; minerals in the state are exploited by his kith and kin and brought BJP govt in Karnataka. Spent Rs 600 core of public money to build an express highway to the airport (for whose sake?). The opposition still demands a white paper on his achievements in this area.

Public services: They are worst in the history of AP, be it health services, school education, police. The AP Council for Higher Education has become a broker agency for 500 odd third rate engineering and other so called professional colleges in the name of Fee reimbursement for SC/ST and OBCs is similar to Arogyasree scheme for financing private individuals. YSR govt had given free hand to employees a free hand “do whatever you want but don’t get caught red handed” and GOs issued to this effect.

Welfare schemes: Most of his schemes benefit only rich or corporate in the name of Arogyasree, fee reimbursement, housing schemes, ration cards etc.

Irrigation projects: It is a big joke, Mr Moily writes a book on micro irrigation and dedicates to YSR who believed only in major irrigation projects! YSR govt spent thousands of cores on irrigation projects without plans, permissions and public consent. Politicians conceived and designed all these projects. The latest floods in Kurnool, Mahabuubnagar are the testimony.

Financial situation: Is pretty bad, according to the present CM and former and current finance minister. The only income they are able to generate is liquor as per the plan. When YSR took over in 2004 the liquor income was Rs 3000 core whereas in 2009 it is projected as Rs 12000 core. According to a survey, almost 40% rural youth in AP lives on alcohol!

These are only few major policies and governance examples of YSR. Analysts say YSR would not come back to power in 2014 even if he was alive. He did narrowly escape in 2009 with all these schemes. It a huge task for the Congress High Command for its own making for setting right AP politics and they should be happy that they have another four and half years to go. As of now, looking at leaders and leadership in AP Congress, it is unlikely that Congress would come back in 2014 unless a miracle happens and unless congress high command acts swiftly on the issue of social justice in politics, governance, and punish those involved in scams irrespective of political affiliations to instill confidence in people. Otherwise Naidu need not work hard at all.

There are likely three scenarios/ options for Congress in 2014:

1. Function as they are now and hand over the baton to Naidu
2. Co-opt Chirnajeevi and comrades try to retain power
3. It does not matter to congress high command if AP becomes two parts or three parts as long as they get MPs to make Rahul as PM. So co-opt Chnadrashekar Rao and give Telangana and can cut Naidu to size.

Its a be a big lesson and challenge for the Congress high command in shaping future politics in AP and in the country and also a lesion for other political parties like BJP in particular ( example Modi and Yedyurappa).

- K Sushaker k.sudhakargoud@gmail.com

SC judgment spurs revival of Telangana movement
Deccan Herald News Service, Oct 18, Hyderabad:

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has decided to launch a peaceful agitation from next week to achieve its goal of a separate state. However, the TRS workers will not hesitate to face bullets if the government attempts to suppress the movement.

Announcing the new phase of the movement, TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, who has been lying low after the electoral rout of his party in May, said the party will launch the new phase at a public meeting in Medak district on October 21 followed by a week-long mobilisation of the cadres from division-level which will culminate in a “jail bharo” programme on October 28.

The immediate reason for the revival of the issue of a separate Telangana is the Supreme Court judgment of last week making Hyderabad city a “free zone” for recruitment of police, meaning the six-point formula, a guarantee given by the Centre, to protect the interests of people of Telangana in government recruitment will not be applicable in Hyderabad zone. The TRS has said it will file a writ in the SC appealing against the decision.

The government, too, has called for an all-party meeting on Monday to discuss the implications of the judgment. The TRS is also demanding equal share for Telangana in Krishna waters and wants the region’s share to be specified and allocated.

Rao said the interests of the people of Telangana could be protected only by amending the Constitution.

To put pressure on the Congress governments both at the Centre and in the state to grant statehood to the region, the TRS will intensify its struggle, he said.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/31149/sc-judgment-spurs-revival-telangana.html
………………………

File review petition against ‘free zone’ ruling: TNGOs

The Hindu 13, October 2009

HYDERABAD: The Telangana NGOs’ Central Union on Monday demanded the State Government to immediately file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its ruling on Hyderabad ‘free zone’ and order a comprehensive enquiry into the administration’s alleged inefficient handling of the case.

Leaders and members of the union took out a rally from the Telangana NGOs Bhavan to the Martyrs’ Memorial, near the State Assembly, demanding intervention of both the Central and the State Governments in the case.

They wanted the State Government not to implement the court order as it did in 1972 in the court’s ruling on ‘Mulki’ rules. If the order is enforced, the interests of Telangana employees will be in jeopardy, they alleged. The leaders contended that there is no mention of a ‘free zone’ in the Presidential Order.

Members of the union will stage dharnas in front of Collectorates in Telangana districts on Tuesday seeking intervention of the Governments and an announcement by Chief Minister K. Rosaiah clarifying the Government stand on the issue in view of varying interpretations by leaders of political parties.

K. Swamy Goud, president, G. Devi Prasad, general secretary, M. B. Krishna Yadav, G. Venkateswarlu, S. M. Hussaini, R. Ranjan, Saleemuddin and K. Venkateswarlu were among those who took part in the rally.

‘Implement G.O. 610’

Karimnagar Staff Reporter writes: The Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers Union Karimnagar district unit has decided to stage a dharna in front of the Collectorate here on Tuesday afternoon in protest against the Supreme Court’s decision of declaring Hyderabad as a free zone.
In a press note here on Monday, TNGOs’ president A. Satyanarayana and general secretary N. Narasimha Swamy said that Hyderabad is part of Telangana and cannot be included as free zone.

Demanding the government to implement G.O. 610, Girglani report, Presidential Order and Mulki rules, they urged the Supreme Court to rethink about the decision in the interest of development of backward Telangana region.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/13/stories/2009101352030300.htm

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KCR’s words on free zone puzzle TRS men
Express News Service, 12 Oct 2009

HYDERABAD: K Chandrasekhara Rao of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) remains as enigmatic as ever.

After praising Sonia Gandhi sky-high and describing her as a dayamayi (kind-hearted person), Rao has not ceased surprising TRS observers. The latest one came from his statement condemning his colleagues’s threat of plunging the State into anarchy if Hyderabad were to remain a free zone insofaras implementation of GO 610 is concerned.

The TRS chief said that declaration of Hyderabd as a free zone by the Supreme Court was a very simple issue and that the TRS leaders need not get worked up over it. He said it could be resolved by filing a revision petition in the apex court.

What has been puzzling the TRS cadres is the slow but unmistakable shift of the party’s stand from its avowed policy of fighting and espousing the cause of Telagnana. While he was praising Sonia Gandhi at one point of time, Chandrasekhara Rao said that he was first a resident of (united) Andhra Pradesh and then only Telangana man.

In another context, referring to flood victims, the TRS chief said that pain was same to everyone regardless of whether one was a national of Ethiopia or Uganda or Nagayalanka or Nakrekal (watch the order of the places).

Then he talks about the regular visit of people of Guntur and Vijayawada to Telagnana Bhavan, the headquarters of his party. “Several people from these two towns (which are in Andhra) who visit the Indo-American Cancer Hospital for treatment to their relatives come to Telanana Bhavan for shelter. We cannot deny. It is a human problem,’’ he said and wondered aloud whther people in Andhra would remain unmoved if a person from Telangana went to Vijayawada and met with a road accident.

This shift in the core philosophy of party coupled with praising Sonia Gandhi and insisting on a CBI inquiry into the projects constructed by the the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s government under Jalayagnam appears not to irritate the Congress national leadership and if possible please it by speaking words that it would like to hear.

As the high command is not in favour of YSR’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy and is never in favour of Telangana, the TRS chief is speaking words that would take him much closer to the Congress and extend any strategic help that the party might require in future.

What would be his pound of flesh in return for his help is not clear yet though the situation might help him regain his lost ground as regards the party’s presence in Telangana.

Source: http://expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=KCR%E2%80%99s+words+on+free+zone+puzzle+TRS+men&artid=|TkDeDpu17Y=&SectionID=e7uPP4|pSiw=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=EH8HilNJ2uYAot5nzqumeA==&SEO=
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KCR opts for softer line on Telangana
Deccan Chronicle, October 12, 2009
By Our Correspondent

Hyderabad Oct. 11: The TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekar, who is known for his adamant and ruthless attitude took a ‘U’ turn on Sunday when he condemned the statements of his party leaders against the Supreme Court judgement on making Hyderabad city a free zone.

KCR criticised the TRS legislative party leader, Mr E. Rajender, for making provocative statements on the issue.

Some TRS leaders threatened violence if the government not appeal against the Supreme Court direction.

“Issuing a threat of violence is not good and it has no place in democracy. I condemn such statements. After all the making Hyderabad a free zone for certain posts is small issue when it comes to Telangana state,” said KCR.

For the first time, he announced that he always wished the state should move forward and achieve all-round development. He directed his party to exercise restraint on the sensitive issues.

A few days ago, KCR had announced that he was first a citizen of Andhra Pradesh and then a Telanganite. Sources in the party disclosed that after massive defeat in the elections and observing the support that the late had YSR garnered across the Telangana, KCR had changed his mind.

Two days ago, KCR had made an acerbic comment on the irrigation minister, Mr P. Laxmaiah, regarding the projects under constructions in the Rayalaseema region. This had led to a high-pitched political debate between Congress and TRS leaders.

Source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/kcr-opts-softer-line-telangana-994
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‘City is free zone only for police’
Express News Service 11 Oct 2009

HYDERABAD: Members of the ruling Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Telangana Employees’ Union have said that the Supreme Court’s judgment treating Hyderabad as a “free zone’’ would be applicable only to the police department.

If this were to be extended to other departments of government then it would amount to violation of the Presidential Orders issued in 1975, they opined.

The Supreme Court, in its orders in a case filed by some petitioners(police inspectors) challenging the orders issued by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, dismissed the High Court orders and adjudged Hyderabad a “free zone’’.

The police inspectors who were transferred to their own districts by the government had first approached the State Administrative Tribunal and later moved the High Court. The High Court, in its orders, stated that Hyderabad fell under Zone-6 (which includes the districts of Nizamabad, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda and Hyderabad).

Talking to mediapersons here Saturday, senior Congress leader and MLC KR Amos maintained that the apex court’s judgment would be applicable only to the police department, and if the `free zone’ logic were extended to other departments it would go against the presidential orders.

Meanwhile, TRS Assembly Floor Leader Etela Rajender has demanded that the State Government call an allparty meeting and constitute a Cabinet sub-committee to discuss the issue. He warned of the revival of the 1969 Telangana agitation in the region if the “free zone’’ was made applicable to all other departments. The State Government should immediately act on the issue and take steps for its non-implementation, he added.

The TRS leader said there was a need for the government to adopt three zones — Telangana, Rayalaseema and Andhra zones — to do justice to the people of the regions concerned. He also urged the Government to take measures for total implementation of GO 610, and to adopt a “fair share system’’ in respect of State Secretariat staff.

Senior BJP leader Ch Vidyasagar Rao also called for an all-party meeting on the “free zone’’ issue. Telangana Employees’ Union president Vittal has said the Supreme Court’s verdict would do injustice to Telangana employees. There was scope for sharpening of “regional differences’’ if the Court verdict was implemented. The union was going to file a review petition in the apex court on the issue, he added

Source: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=%E2%80%98City+is+free+zone+only+for+police%E2%80%99&artid=dvfNs3mPWDA=&SectionID=xAV59odivTs=&MainSectionID=xAV59odivTs=&SEO=&SectionName=BUzPVSKuYv7MFxnS0yZ7ng==

Sadar festival of Hyderabad

Sadar is unique festival of Hyderabad. The pride of Yadavs.
A photo feature of the special festival by L Vidya Sagar captures the pride of Yadavs and how dear it is to the Yadavs.

Festival for the buffalo- garlands of flowers & shells & tilak

Young & Old parade their decorated buffalo

Majestic buffalo- pride of a Yadav

Pride of Yadavs is all set for the parade

Traditional music to start Sadar festival.

Its Time for Yadav Sammelan

Yadav Ratna Sri Veerappa Yadav Giving traditional salaam

Buffalo Salaam! Salutes & Feats!!

Parade of best buffalo -Festival for young & old

Time for special skills! The feast of feats!!

Skilled Yadav & trained buffalo as hundreds cheer Vah Vah Yadav!!

The pride and festivity- Sadar

Commentary

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy: A Political Appraisal

K Srinivasulu
Economic and Political Weekly, September 19, 2009 (p. 8-11)

Even after Y S Rajasekhara Reddy won power in Andhra Pradesh in 2004 by tapping the widespread anger about the agrarian crisis, he retained the patriarchal benevolence and ruthlessness of the factionist politics of the Rayalaseema region. While YSR instituted many schemes to address the needs of the poor, this largesse was also designed to feed a network of supporters. YSR’s rule marked a clear departure from the time-honoured “politics of accommodation” in the Congress: perhaps for the first time, a uniquely parochial Reddy regime was put in place throughout the state. Turning the new approach of the Congress in New Delhi to his advantage, YSR managed to marginalise opposition to his leadership and thus emerged as the most powerful Congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in recent times.

The tragic death of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), along with four others, in a helicopter crash in the forested hills of Nallamalla on 2 September has suddenly altered the political landscape of the state and has left the major players in AP politics unsure about its fallout. The media blitzkrieg about the search for the missing helicopter helped build an emotion-laden hysteria among people, which surely contributed to the reported 200-odd deaths from cardiac arrests and suicides. While such immediate popular reaction to YSR’s unexpected demise points to his wide popularity it is also necessary to assess his politics in a more objective manner.

The most important contribution to YSR’s rise as a popular leader was from the padayatra he undertook in 2003 in preparation for the assembly elections the following year. Clad in a farmer’s clothes he walked 1,476 km through all three regions (Telangana, coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema) of the state. This padayatra enabled him to create a public image of a politician in touch with the grass roots. It also helped activate the Congress organization in local areas which had remained dormant as a result of the Congress being out of power for a decade. The padayatra not only enhanced YSR’s stature but was also crucial in evolving the winning slogans, strategy and alliances for the legislative and parliamentary elections of 2004.

Padayatra

The gross and visible neglect of agriculture and the rural economy by the Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu was the context which contributed to the success of YSR’s padayatra. The Andhra Pradesh countryside was experiencing an unprecedented agrarian crisis at that time, with a large number of suicides among the weavers and farmers being symptomatic of its gravity. It was this crisis that YSR tried to articulate through his padayatra. In alliance with the Left and the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS), the Congress’ election pitch promised to address this rural distress. The added promises of sympathetically addressing the Telangana state issue and of peace talks with the Maoist groups saw the Congress back in power.

Once in power, YSR sought to put in place an elaborate agrarian and welfare policy regime. Agricultural loan waiver, free electricity and input subsidies to the crisis-ridden farmers and the construction of major irrigation projects were important components of the Congress policy package for the farming sector. There were measures related to health, housing, pensions, education and a push to national schemes, specially the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. These measures became possible, partly because of the increase in the revenue of the state government due to expansion in economic activity during the growth years after 2005 and the increase in tax revenue as percentage of gross state domestic product (GSDP) from 5.2% in 1995-96 to 10.1% in 2007-08. These provisions were instrumental in giving a pro-poor and caring image to the YSR-led Congress government.

Decline of Public Services

If this populist image of being a munificent provider of succour to the poor and needy helped YSR’s government gain legitimacy among the masses, then its developmentalist image, built up by pumping massive investments into irrigation projects, roads, bridges, flyovers, etc, catered to its support base among the rich and powerful. These helped the regime build and strengthen its networks with contractors, builders, real estate developers, corporate operators of various hues and they became the support structure of the regime. Even the health schemes which offered corporate hospital treatment to the poor arguably benefited these corporate interests more than the poor patients as hundreds of crores from the budget meant for public health were diverted to pay insurance premia to the private sector. It can be stated with some confidence that the public health system in Andhra Pradesh suffered serious neglect under the Congress government.

SEZ Factor

The development activities like irrigation projects and the special economic zones (SEZs) were singled out by the opposition and activists for being mired in corruption. Andhra Pradesh, with 57 notified and 99 formally approved SEZs, has acquired a dubious distinction of being the leading state in terms of the number of SEZs. The proactive role of the government could be gauged from the fact that 30 of these SEZs have been developed by the state’s industrial investment corporation itself and some more by other government agencies. While as many as 95 SEZs are related to the IT and IT-enabled services sector, the number of multi-purpose SEZs is just eight. Most of these IT/ITES SEZs, instead of attracting new companies, have only resulted in the relocation of the old ones for availing tax incentives. This has raised serious doubts about their avowed role in advancing industrialization and they have assumed notoriety as means of land acquisition by dubious means. The resultant allegations of land scams and the large-scale displacement of rural population, especially by the irrigation projects, have resulted in protest movements emerging in many places. It is a sad commentary on the political parties that despite wide-spread popular discontent on this issue, there was no recognition, let alone articulation, of this in the electoral discourse. As a result, the popular discontent articulated by these movements, in some places supported by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil rights groups, remained localised. The allegations of corruption and scams, despite the fact that they were serious in nature, massive in scale and with prima facie evidence in some, thus remained abstract and could not impinge on YSR’s political fortunes.

The YSR regime responded to these charges with blatant disregard and recklessness. During his five years in power, YSR systematically cultivated a political culture of intolerance and highhandedness. If the Naidu regime perfected the art of manipulation in dealing with its own party men as well as the opposition, then YSR’s style exuded crudity and ruthlessness. He allied with the TRS and helped engineer a split in it, thus contributing to its marginalisation. He called the Maoists for talks (though he never personally appeared to be enthusiastic about them) but paved the way for their disappearance from the state. The media was also not spared. The media in AP, it should be noted, is highly politicized and divided along party lines. Thus, the media houses loyal to the other side were pursued ruthlessly till they moderated their stand. If his aggressive populism left not much space for the opposition, his gladiator style politics left them defenceless.

Intolerance of Dissidence

The most visible success of YSR has to be seen in his handling of dissidence in his own party. Historically, rival groups have always prospered within the Congress, however powerful the incumbent chief minister may have been. This feature has been both the strength and weakness of the party: strength when they, operating within certain limits, provided an internal corrective mechanism and weakness when they took the form of open factional war, as often was the case. It is the latter that often made the Congress a target of public disgust and opposition’s ridicule and was one of the major contributors to the rise of the Telugu Desam in the 1980s.

As someone who, for most of his political life, acted as a centre of such dissidence, YSR understood it better than anybody in the party. He thus focused his attention on dissidents in his party. Region and caste have been the traditional basis of factions in the state Congress. The emergence of the TRS caused a sense of insecurity among Congress leaders about Telangana and led to a vocal group consisting of senior and middle ranking leaders articulating the demand. YSR managed to effectively silence the Telangana demand within the Congress by neutralising their access to the “high command” of the party in Delhi and then rendered the TRS ineffective.

Control over State

YSR’s rule marked a clear departure from the time honoured “politics of accommodation” which characterised the Congress in AP. The party, though dominated by the Reddy community, has been known to aim at social balance by providing representation to different castes and communities in the party and the government. This was a result of caste being the basis of factional pressure. YSR blatantly violated this tradition and, perhaps for the first time, put in a uniquely parochial Reddy regime by giving positions of substantial power, both representative and nominated, to the members of this community. Despite this, the fact that other factions in the Congress could mount no visible resistance demonstrates the effective manner in which he curtailed their power. In this YSR was significantly helped by the changed manner in which the Congress in New Delhi under Sonia Gandhi has dealt with its provincial party units. Unlike earlier, when there were frequent intervention in the functioning of the provincial party and government, the Congress “high command” seemed inclined to allow the latter to function on their own unless matters reached a crisis. Turning this to his advantage, YSR managed to marginalize and suppress opposition to his leadership from caste and region-based factions and thus emerged as the most powerful Congress chief minister of AP in recent times.

If the cultivated self-image of being a generous patriarch who would go to any extent to fulfil the popular aspirations constituted one facet of his persona, then his intolerance of any form of the opposition, criticism and dissent whether from the opposition parties, media or within his party was evidence of his authoritarian personality. His intemperate behaviour towards his opponents, within the assembly precincts and outside has often been commented upon. After his re-election in the 2009 elections, he worked out a strategy to decimate the opposition by co-opting their active elements within the Congress. The media christened it “Operation Akarsh” (attracting: the members of the opposition into the Congress) and YSR boasted that by the next elections, there would be no party left capable of mounting any challenge to the Congress in the state. Rather than address the charges of corruption and cronyism levelled by the opposition parties, YSR’s method was to decimate the opposition parties to stave off challenges to his rule. He used the attractions of office and the blunt edge of government power to bring key opposition figures into the Congress and neutralise the rest. These were a clear demonstration of his scant regard for democratic norms and principled public life.

Rayalaseema Tradition

The coexistence of benevolence and ruthlessness may appear to be paradoxical, but when seen in the proper historical and social context of the political culture that he had grown up in, their interlinkage would become apparent. Kadapa district of Rayalaseema is known for violent factionalism whose ancestry is traced back to the palegallu (administrative -cum- military chiefs bestowed with the responsibility of law and order and revenue collection) of the Vijayanagara empire. These chiefs later transformed themselves into warlords. Over six decades of electoral politics, this region has evolved a distinct culture of factional feuds and violent end of the rival as the only mode of conflict resolution. The culture of tolerance, dialogue and accommodation is alien to this society. What governs the world of Rayalaseema factions is generous patronage of the leader and unstinted loyalty of the followers: loyalty is weighed in terms of the propensity to violence and readiness to sacrifice, including one’s life, and it is reciprocated by an indubitable assurance of support and generosity of the leader. The Telugu cinema directors and producers have found this world to be very fascinating and its celluloid representation quite lucrative. As a result we now have a separate genre of Telugu cinema known as “faction” films popular for their numbing portrayal of violence and destruction, which only help strengthen the culture of benevolence for followers and dependants and ruthlessness for opponents.

Having grown up in the political culture of Rayalaseema factionalism, YSR was very much part of it: his hunger for power, intolerance of any vacillation in his followers’ loyalty and his known trait to defend and protect “his men” almost by instinct, daring any consequence, were evidence of this. Even after he grew in stature YSR did not eschew this political culture.

In this context one is reminded of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent comment, in response to a query on the present bickering in the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, that emphasized the importance of a stable opposition as a prerequisite for a vibrant democracy. YSR by conviction and actions was antithetical to this view. If his success in marginalizing dissent within his party and government by stuffing them with his own men was quite visible, then his efforts in engineering political migration from opposition parties and his challenge to “finish” the TDP were quite illustrative of his warlord like posture. The persona of YSR happily combined images of being a benevolent provider and a determined pursuer of power. The patriarch’s aggressive pursuance of these images in his second innings would even otherwise have proved to be his autumn precisely because of the sheer burden of their contradictions.

K Srinivasulu (srinivasulukarli@gmail.com) teaches political science at Osmania University, Hyderabad.