Washington D.C. 30th August 2013 - The Telangana issue resurfaced in the parliament session of Lok Sabha on friday as members of a political party in AP who returned after five days of suspension and dragged the proceedings to a standstill. The result? As expected, it's adjurned more than once and not much progress was made on critical issues of the economy, like the monetary value of the INR and the steps that needed to be discussed in order to rebound the rupee back to acceptable levels.
Since a decision was made on Telangana last month that the bifurcation would be taking place, there was celebration in hyderabad and the surrounding areas and a week later, people's preoccupation with other issues became rather apparent. But, what is the future looking like for Telangana and Andhra after bifurcation? What are the issues that we need to understand and prepare for the volatile times when the transion would be taking palce? And how are we going to tackle street hooliganism that normally is seen as inevitable during any major transition?
These issues are common for both fronts of Telangana and Andhra. So whatever solution we come up with should be inclusive of the situation of the people from both of the new states. And since we live side by side, intertwined heavily on cultural, industrial and historical basis, it is imperative that we solve our problems together. We split the cake but we eat it together. So what are the primary issues that are lying ahead that need to be solved?
Impact on the common Middle income worker
Towns and cities make up two-thirds of the Indian Gross domestic product. Like other states, Andhra Pradesh has millions of people living in Towns and cities. Consider Hyderabad. It has a population of nearly 7 million people from people from all over the country with the vast majority from the regions of Andhra and Telangana. The majority of these people are working in the service sector and Hyderabad houses the highest number of Special economic zones and it is the largest contributer to the GDP of India. Of all these, it's the capital of the current state of Andhra Pradesh and according to status quo, it will be a shared capital of the two new states for the next 10 years.
These statistics tell us, that there is a significant portion of population that's from working class and an industry booming with innovation and there exists a potential threat of a fragile political situation that can downward spiral into a chaos in case the transition is not peaceful. We need to address this. We need to frame a blue print of how the transition would be, detailed in the simplest way possible and how to make the least noise with respect to the tranquility and freedom of the people of the city, and how to make the least impact on the economic integrity of the city.
Any major movement be it freedom, activist or political has a majority of peaceful working class people. However, protests and movements all over the world is infiltrated by a few bad apples who would dare to cross the line of free speech and tolerance and cause havoc to the movement itself. They might be a handful, but their actions can spiral into something that everybody looks forward not to encounter. We would call these few handful of hooligans, "Bad apples" and we would discuss how to tackle the issues that might be caused by these bad apples.
For example, let's consider 4 people in any part of the two new states, who's economic and social background is as follows. These people represent people of similar backgrounds facing similar issues:
- Swathi an IT professional working for a reputed multinational in the Hitech city,
- Ram a shopkeeper of Automobile spare parts,
- Mahesh a construction worker who's livelihood depends on the casual wage he gets every day and
- Annapurnamma who's a retired Government worker and a senior citizen living off on her pension for livelihood and medication.
All of them go about their daily tasks and chores and get home and relax. Though they might be having a positive outlook on the transition, they fear to encounter certain situations:
Swathi during the transition, fears having the major roads blocked by a sea of protesters, the lack of a reliable transport system to get to her office which may results in a delayed submission of a Business report for a company based in the USA, which will impact the timelines and in turn, can impact Swathi's reputation and credibility. Swathi's potential problems may also include harassment by a few bad apples who would definitely be found in any street protest around the world.
Ram who's a shopkeeper fears to have his shop closed and vandalized by the bad apples and fears that he would need to bear the losses or property damage and lack of business which might take months to recover.
Mahesh's fear as a wage worker, is having his family skip dinner in order to save for loss of work for the day.
Annapurnamma fears lack of Medical shop access for her medicines, and the nonavailability of banks to transact money to but the medicines and food supplies and to pay her bills. Mahesh and Annapurnamma's loss is on the higher side because their life can be affected in a way which can physically harm them and their families.
These are just a few of a range of issues that can potentially arise.
What can be done
As a part of an action plan, we need to address the above issues, and make sure that the people are least affected by the due transition of power and we need to make sure that it's as peaceful as possible. Increase of police force and its mobilization ability, and registration of protesters by the concerned parties is the basic step that can be taken. Also, political parties can carry "Briefing sessions" about how to behave during a protest and about the etiquette, about Do's and Don'ts of it.
The long term solution for discrimination and hate in work places and schools based on the region of origination of people is to start thinking about it today. People from both Telangana and Andhra should be peaceful and treat their coworkers with respect and this should be encouraged by politicians who need to be role models for people to follow.
The Government must make sure there is no ambiguity with respect to the political and administration structure and it's function for the two new states. They need to take the opportunity of having "dual governance" for 10 years to establish a roadmap for future individual administrations that are going to be in place. These 10 years are the most crucial to avoid any future problems with regards to sharing resources, income, labor and waterbodies.
Moreover, after the formation of Telangana, the government must ensure that Hyderabad and other parts of the Telangana region remain friendly to Investors, foreign and domestic, so that the economy of the state is maintained and developed further for Telangana region to prosper. Through our friendly relations, and peaceful economic cooperation we can make sure that our states are in the frontlines of leadership and as the biggest players in economic contribution to the country.
Overall, the people from both sides should be aware that it's only a political boundary that separates the new states and is still and forever interconnected by the long historical and cultural roots that define Telugu and Telangana culture.
Rohit A Venkata
Since a decision was made on Telangana last month that the bifurcation would be taking place, there was celebration in hyderabad and the surrounding areas and a week later, people's preoccupation with other issues became rather apparent. But, what is the future looking like for Telangana and Andhra after bifurcation? What are the issues that we need to understand and prepare for the volatile times when the transion would be taking palce? And how are we going to tackle street hooliganism that normally is seen as inevitable during any major transition?
These issues are common for both fronts of Telangana and Andhra. So whatever solution we come up with should be inclusive of the situation of the people from both of the new states. And since we live side by side, intertwined heavily on cultural, industrial and historical basis, it is imperative that we solve our problems together. We split the cake but we eat it together. So what are the primary issues that are lying ahead that need to be solved?
Impact on the common Middle income worker
Towns and cities make up two-thirds of the Indian Gross domestic product. Like other states, Andhra Pradesh has millions of people living in Towns and cities. Consider Hyderabad. It has a population of nearly 7 million people from people from all over the country with the vast majority from the regions of Andhra and Telangana. The majority of these people are working in the service sector and Hyderabad houses the highest number of Special economic zones and it is the largest contributer to the GDP of India. Of all these, it's the capital of the current state of Andhra Pradesh and according to status quo, it will be a shared capital of the two new states for the next 10 years.
These statistics tell us, that there is a significant portion of population that's from working class and an industry booming with innovation and there exists a potential threat of a fragile political situation that can downward spiral into a chaos in case the transition is not peaceful. We need to address this. We need to frame a blue print of how the transition would be, detailed in the simplest way possible and how to make the least noise with respect to the tranquility and freedom of the people of the city, and how to make the least impact on the economic integrity of the city.
Any major movement be it freedom, activist or political has a majority of peaceful working class people. However, protests and movements all over the world is infiltrated by a few bad apples who would dare to cross the line of free speech and tolerance and cause havoc to the movement itself. They might be a handful, but their actions can spiral into something that everybody looks forward not to encounter. We would call these few handful of hooligans, "Bad apples" and we would discuss how to tackle the issues that might be caused by these bad apples.
For example, let's consider 4 people in any part of the two new states, who's economic and social background is as follows. These people represent people of similar backgrounds facing similar issues:
- Swathi an IT professional working for a reputed multinational in the Hitech city,
- Ram a shopkeeper of Automobile spare parts,
- Mahesh a construction worker who's livelihood depends on the casual wage he gets every day and
- Annapurnamma who's a retired Government worker and a senior citizen living off on her pension for livelihood and medication.
All of them go about their daily tasks and chores and get home and relax. Though they might be having a positive outlook on the transition, they fear to encounter certain situations:
Swathi during the transition, fears having the major roads blocked by a sea of protesters, the lack of a reliable transport system to get to her office which may results in a delayed submission of a Business report for a company based in the USA, which will impact the timelines and in turn, can impact Swathi's reputation and credibility. Swathi's potential problems may also include harassment by a few bad apples who would definitely be found in any street protest around the world.
Ram who's a shopkeeper fears to have his shop closed and vandalized by the bad apples and fears that he would need to bear the losses or property damage and lack of business which might take months to recover.
Mahesh's fear as a wage worker, is having his family skip dinner in order to save for loss of work for the day.
Annapurnamma fears lack of Medical shop access for her medicines, and the nonavailability of banks to transact money to but the medicines and food supplies and to pay her bills. Mahesh and Annapurnamma's loss is on the higher side because their life can be affected in a way which can physically harm them and their families.
These are just a few of a range of issues that can potentially arise.
What can be done
As a part of an action plan, we need to address the above issues, and make sure that the people are least affected by the due transition of power and we need to make sure that it's as peaceful as possible. Increase of police force and its mobilization ability, and registration of protesters by the concerned parties is the basic step that can be taken. Also, political parties can carry "Briefing sessions" about how to behave during a protest and about the etiquette, about Do's and Don'ts of it.
The long term solution for discrimination and hate in work places and schools based on the region of origination of people is to start thinking about it today. People from both Telangana and Andhra should be peaceful and treat their coworkers with respect and this should be encouraged by politicians who need to be role models for people to follow.
The Government must make sure there is no ambiguity with respect to the political and administration structure and it's function for the two new states. They need to take the opportunity of having "dual governance" for 10 years to establish a roadmap for future individual administrations that are going to be in place. These 10 years are the most crucial to avoid any future problems with regards to sharing resources, income, labor and waterbodies.
Moreover, after the formation of Telangana, the government must ensure that Hyderabad and other parts of the Telangana region remain friendly to Investors, foreign and domestic, so that the economy of the state is maintained and developed further for Telangana region to prosper. Through our friendly relations, and peaceful economic cooperation we can make sure that our states are in the frontlines of leadership and as the biggest players in economic contribution to the country.
Overall, the people from both sides should be aware that it's only a political boundary that separates the new states and is still and forever interconnected by the long historical and cultural roots that define Telugu and Telangana culture.
Rohit A Venkata
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