Telangana Now!

The Daily Chapter Of Telangana!

Whenever the union government is on the verge of taking a decision on the demerger of Telangana, forces opposed to the move demand that Hyderabad city be converted into a Union Territory. Some say it should be made into a specially administered region and declared as common capital for Telangana and Andhra states.

While these people cite all and sundry reasons for making Hyderabad a UT, the main reason is that they can’t digest the fact that Hyderabad would become the capital of Telangana.

Hyderabad is not the only city with migrants from other regions and states. In fact, no city in the world ever grows into a city, without influx of migrants. But, a few recent migrants to Hyderabad, are unnecessarily creating an issue over the status of Hyderabad.

The lobby that is raising the bogey of migrant’s safety again and again has vested interest on the city. This lobby fears that a new Telangana government would expose all their misdeeds in issues like illegal sale of government lands.

Added to this, some journalists, with half-baked knowledge about the issue, also frequently bring up the subject of Hyderabad as UT or Centrally Administered Region.

Let us examine some ground level facts that prove Hyderabad can’t survive even for 24 Hours without Telangana.

A cursory look at Telangana map confirms that Hyderabad is in fact the heart of Telangana. Hyderabad is surrounded by Ranga Reddy district, which in turn is surrounded by Medak, Nalgonda, and Mahabub Nagar – all three districts of Telangana.

The closest connection with the Andhra region is about 200 Kms away. It is precisely for this reason that Hyderabad cannot be shared with Andhra as a capital city. Making it a joint-capital is not only a senseless move, but will also deprive Andhra state of a very important growth engine – viz capital city.

Now let us examine how Hyderabad has a umbilical connection with Telangana to meet all its essential needs.

Water Supply:

Hyderabad depends on Telangana for meeting its drinking water needs. 5 projects that supply water to Hyderabad are located in Telangana. These are:

Akkampalli Reservoir, Nalgonda, Telangana
Manjeera Reservoir, Medak, Telangana
Osmansagar Lake, Ranga Reddy, Telangana
Himayat Sagar Lake, Ranga Reddy, Telangana
Yellampally Project (proposed), Karimnagar, Telangana

It is clear from the map above that all of Hyderabad’s water resources are located in the heart of Telangana.

What’s more, the city is completely dependent on Telangana to even dispose its sewage!

Hyderabad Metro Water Works and Sewarage Board empties Hyderabad city’s sewage into the Musi river, which flows through Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts in Telangana.

Power Supply:

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Zone draws power from the APCPDCL’s central power grid, whose 220 KV EHT sub-stations are located at Chandrayangutta, Shivrampally, Shapurnagar and Moula Ali – all four within Telangana area.

The Hyderabad Ring-main Transmission Scheme, the core of Power Supply system to Hyderabad, consists of five 400 kv Substations of Gajwel, Mamidipally, Ghanapur, Malkaram and Eddumailaram. All these are located in Telangana.

Even the HT transmission lines bringing power to Hyderabad city from Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam Hydel Power Plants and Kothagudem and Ramagundam Thermal Power Plants pass through Telangana districts.

So, it is clear that any attempt to separate Hyderabad from Telangana, is bound to anger the Telangana people, who in-turn can simply cripple the city’s power supply system.

Employee & Trade Unions

Another important dimension that should be kept in mind by the union government, before trying to meddle with Hyderabad, is that all the major government essential services are manned by employees from Telangana region.

In the recently held trade union elections, Telangana employee unions have swept the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, The Hyderabad Metro Water Works and Sewerage Board, and AP State Road Transport Corporation. A majority of field staff of AP Transmission Corporation belong to Telangana region.

All these employee and trade unions have been very active in the Telangana statehood movement.

Central Administration is Impossible

We have seen instances of some vested interests proposing some kind of Central Administration for Hyderabad city. In view of the dependence of Hyderabad on Telangana, such a move is impossible.

Telangana activists have warned several times that any attempts to separate Hyderabad from Telangana would be met with severe consequences. To demonstrate this, noted Telangana activist, Venepally Panduranga Rao, had sat on a protest deeksha at Kodandapur Water Plant – from where Hyderabad gets Krishna river’s water.

Telangana people have time and again reiterated that any attempt to impose Central Administration over Hyderabad would not be tolerated. Any such hasty move will only lead to massive agitation by Telangana people, which will only cripple the city.

A much debated, but an interesting discussion in Telangana movement is about Hyderabad. The question oft-repeated by some media pundits and political analysts is who gets Hyderabad post the formation of Telangana.

Hyderabad has held the status of a cosmopolitan capital ever since it was founded. As the founder Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah prayed to Allah, to fill his dream city with people like fish in a river, it was indeed granted.

True to its cosmopolitan, heterogeneous identity, the city has attracted and given shelter to people from across the globe. The Persians from Iran, Pashtuns from Karakoram region, Siddi’s from the African continent, Arabs from the Middle East have made it their home. They settled, flourished and blended so well with the local populace, that most of the tribes have almost forgot their origins, and call themselves Hyderabadis.

Well that was about the people from across the planet who naturlized in Hyderabad. The second set of peoples is from across the British Indian Empire. This set is quite exhaustive, in fact as many peoples as the number of princely states that reigned in India over the last 400 years. Most prominent among them are the Marathas, Kannadigas, Kayasths, Gujaratis, Parsis (from Gujarat), Anglo-Indians, Pardhis, Tamilians, Bengalis, Malayalees and many more. These people took no time in realizing that Hyderabad is their home.

The difference between those who came from across the globe and those who came from the British Indian Empire is quite simple. The former moved to an alien land and took time to naturalize, whereas the later have just moved across to a neighboring state and were more acquainted with Hyderabad. However, both of them not just made Hyderabad their home, they felt it.

So, why do we have to learn about these people and what’s their relevance in the present Telangana movement.

To understand that we’ll have to discuss about another set of people – the Seemandhraites.

The Seemandhra people had their history tied up to the Madras Presidency, where they had a strong political leadership. However, the Tamilians started taking political charge into their hands. It is then the Seemandhraites realized a need to sustain their identity and fought for a seperate state and the Andhra state was thus formed.

After their botched attempt to claim Madras city from Tamilians, they realized that not a single town in their state had the infrastructure to become a capital. The instant formula was to merge with Hyderabad state under the disguise of Telugu jaathi. They were awestruck at the world class infrastructure Hyderabad city had at that time.

Instead of following the footsteps of earlier migrants who made Hyderabad their home, the Seemandhraites treated it more like a colony and an investment haven.

The 1956 states reorganization split Hyderabad state into three parts on a linguistic basis. The Kannada districts were merged with Karnataka and Maratha districts were merged with Bombay Presidency. Both of them had their own reservations and apprehensions about the demerger and subsequent mergers, but none had any issues with Hyderabad. Neither the Kannadigas nor the Marathas laid claim to Hyderabad.

Why? Didn’t they develop the city? Didn’t they contribute to Hyderabad’s identity? Don’t they have any historical connection with the city right from the Golconda Nawabs realm to Asaf Jahi Era?

If the native Telugu speakers (post 1956) of Hyderabad have rights over the city, so do the Marathas and Kannadigas. They have been more of Hyderabadis than being mere non-Telugu speakers. They have been the pillars of Hyderabad’s identity. They formed the soul upon which the physical plane of city was built.

But why didn’t they claim a share in Hyderabad? Well, they believed in the Indian family system. They knew that when two brothers grow up and start living their own lives, they part ways amicably. They knew that destiny has made them a part of Hyderabad as a migrant, but finally gave them the identity of a naturalized citizen. So when they had to part from Hyderabad, they gave back what the city gave them for almost three and a half centuries. The city gave them identity; they gave back the same identity to city. They understood that Hyderabad is not a tangible asset that can divided or altered. They wanted it to be what it had been so far.

Quite contrary to the Kannada and Maratha brethen, the Seemandhraites, who have hardly been in the city for half a decade, have started claiming it as their own. Those who have never been a part of the city’s history, culture or identity have started demanding a share in the city. Their argument is that they’ve invested here for 50 years, which sounds more like a businessman demanding his part of the share.

The nature of Seemandhra leadership can be understood by their repeated demand to make Hyderabad a Union Territory. This is akin to saying “If I don’t get something, neither should you get it”

Whats surprising is that the Seemandhra leadership raised the same demand when their attempt to grab Madras from Tamilians failed – They demanded that Madras be declared a Union Territory!

And after 5 long decades, history is repeating itself all over again.

Seemandhra leaders don’t seem to understand that cities don’t belong to investors or tourists. They belong to the natives. Cities can’t be sliced or transferred between two parties. Cities belong to the geographic region from which they were born.

Seemandhra leaders should remember that they invested in an already developed city seeking good returns. The sweat and blood of the Kannada, Maratha, of every other tribe that came here for that matter, have been shed to build the city and those people never thought of reaping the benefits.

Seemandhra investors were welcomed with open arms to the city and given a chance to become a part of the identity here. But they chose to be mere migrant businessmen.

This was the same attitude that threw them out of Madras; however, they never learnt their lesson. People, who never had a capital of their own, don’t realize the importance of what a capital is made of. It’s not the mere money of Seemandhra investors brought in over last 50 years, but the love, the belongingness and the affection of every other tribe over the last 400 years that makes Hyderabad what it is.

Seemandhra leadership should realize that they can’t do a “Madras Manade” over Hyderabad.