My Take on Telangana Issue !

For the last few months, Telangana and whole Andhra Pradesh are getting boiled in this turmoil. Everyone has an opinion and so do I..and here it is.

I’m a Telanganite, born in Warangal, brought up in Hyderabad. My wife is from Coastal Andhra and I have a lot of loved ones from that area, my brother in law is from Rayalaseema and I have spent 4 years of my life in Rayalaseema (engineering in Kurnool). So I feel I have some kind of attachment towards all areas of AP.

Since November, a lot of people asked me “Do you support separate Telangana movement or Samaikhyandhra Movement? “. Huh....now do I need to support or believe in one of these movements? Friends, let me tell you that for me “Both these movements are sooooo UNREAL”. I don’t want to be part of either movements or political gimmicks.

To those who support separate Telangana movement:

Do you think your life will change if separate state is formed? What has separate state to do with development? Let’s assume for a while that all those statistics about backwardness of Telangana are correct. But how can you assume that a new state, a new CM can change things? There are some inherent issues which can never be solved by changing boundaries of the state. The only group of Telangana that would get benefitted would be political fraternity and nobody else. Get it straight.

Do you think there would be no differences among various areas of Telangana? When we say that Telangana is backward compared to Andhra, so is Adilabad compared to Hyderabad. So once Telangana state is divided, shall we start a new movement for separate Adilabad or Nizamabad as they are more backward compared to Hyderabad or Warangal? Then a separate state for mandals, towns??? Where will this end? Any answers????

Do you honestly feel that you don’t need any cultural exchange from Andhra people? Can you let go your love and passion for Telugu film industry, media, radio, Kuchipudi art form and other forms of entertainment which is predominantly sustained by people of Andhra origin?

Can you start accepting the fact that pilgrimage centres like Tirumala, Srisailam, Annavaram, Sinhachalam and beautiful cities like Vizag, breathtaking scenes of Godavari districts, culinary delicacies of Krishna and Guntur don’t belong to us anymore?
You may answer that all these don’t matter if we get our own Telangana. But brothers, just realize that we may get our own state of Telangana, but in this bargain, we will loose a lot, and a part of our identity too. Is it worth?

To those who support Samaikhyandhra:

Don’t you think that this so called Samaikhyandhra movement has been started by vested interests only to claim Hyderabad and all statements regarding “unity of Telugu people” are fake?

I heard people saying that Telangana without Hyderabad or Andhra`s contribution is like a begging bowl. Do you know that
- Most of the flow area of R. Godavari, R. Krishna is in Telangana and if Almatti saga is repeated in separate Telangana, Andhra can no more claim itself as a granary of rice. Period.
- Legacy or heritage of Telugu people roots back to Kakatiya Empire flourished in Warangal. There is no other place in AP which reflects Telugu grandeur or heritage as much as Warangal does.
-Singareni Collieries produce coal for most of South India and employs some 80,000 people;Ramagundam boasts one of the India`s largest thermal power station which produces electricity to many areas of South India.Ranga Reddy district is one of the most industrially developed districts with resources which can support large scale industries. Sirpur, Nirmal and lot of places support mid and small scale industries.
- Bhadrachalam, the second most revered pilgrim center, Basar the only Saraswathi temple in India attact thousands of devotees.
- If you still feel that Telangana is only about Hyderabad, think again buddy.

Hyderabad: The bone of contention. My friends from Coastal Andhra are heard saying that they are the people who developed Hyderabad. A small piece of information for all those who come from this school of thought
- Hyderabad is a city with history of more than 400 years. It was the richest area of British India, well before anybody can think of "developing it"
- People from Arabic world came, conquered and built state of the art universities (Osmania), hospitals, reservoirs (Gandipet, Himayat Sagar), monuments (Charminar), improved the way of life of Hyderabadis well before there were similar facilities in the rest of the country. But they never claimed that "only they developed" Hyderabad.
- People from Britain came, conquered and built railways, made Secunderabad the headquarters of South Central Railways, established convent schools and missionaries, built roads, highways and raised the standard of living. But they never claimed that "only they developed" Hyderabad. - Marwadis, Gujaratis, Parsis, Sindhis came to establish various businesses. So did people from Andhra, Rayalaseema and also from other parts of Telangana.
- Everybody contributed to the development of Hyderabad, but...but...nobody did it with the noble intention of "developing Hyderabad". They did it for their own livelihood and prosperity. Dare to disagree?
- Hyderabad is not developed only because it is a capital of Andhra Pradesh. If that’s the logic, how can Mumbai be a commercial and entertainment capital of India instead of Delhi? And how can New York be a financial capital and Los Angeles the entertainment capital of US, instead of Washington DC? Development occurs where there are resources.

How many people from Andhra or other parts of AP accept Telangana slang, culture as their culture. Telangana slang is always and only subject to ridicule and in movies, used only by comedians and villains. Even our very own Megastar did not / could not use the Telangana / Hyderabadi slang in Shankardada series though the hero of original version in Hindi used mumbayya slang. May be because "people won`t accept that" and the very people now talk about "unity of Telugu people and one state for all Telugu people". When KCR does his drama of hunger strike unto death or when Lagadapati Rajagopal performs his share of acting, they are trying to become Demi-Gods or future CMs of their respective areas and to support them in their political ambitions, people like us become fools and few people die too. Pathetic !

So it doesn`t make any sense for me to support either separate Telangana or Samaikhyandhra movement. I always belong to Andhra Pradesh and I wish all the people of the state respect each other and live with each other.

I would love to sing "maa telugu thalli ki malle poodanda" and also recite "naa Telangana koti ratnala veena". I love my identity as an Indian, as an Andhraite, as a Telugu speaking person and as a Telanganite.
Jai Andhra, Jai Telangana, Jai Rayalaseema (for me Samaikhyandhra is no more a good word). Your comments?