Origins of Telangana Agitation

<<–2/”>a href=”https://exam.pscnotes.com/5653-2/”>p>1969 Telangana Agitation

Non-implementation of Gentlemens Agreement and continued discrimination to Telangana region in government jobs, Education and public spending resulted in the 1969 statehood agitation. In January 1969, students intensified the protests for a separate state. On 19 January, all party accord was reached to ensure the proper implementation of Telangana safeguards. Accord's main points were

All non-Telangana employees holding posts reserved for Telangana locals will be transferred immediately.

Telangana surpluses will be used for Telangana development.

Appeal to Telangana students to call off agitation.

But the protests further intensified, as more and more students and employees joined the statehood movement. Police firing on protesters led to the death of about 369 youngsters during this phase of the agitation. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called for a high-level meeting to discuss the statehood issue. After several days of talks with leaders of both regions, on 12 April 1969, the Prime Minister developed an Eight Point Plan. Sri M. Chenna Reddy, founded the Telangana Praja Samithi (TPS) political party in 1969 to spearhead the statehood movement.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi had called snap parliamentary Elections in March 1971. In these parliamentary elections, Telangana Praja Samithi won 10 out the 14 Parliament seats in Telangana. However, Indira Gandhis Congress (R) Party scored a landslide victory on a platform of progressive policies such as poverty elimination (Garibi Hatao). She was reluctant to accept the Telangana statehood demand at that juncture. Sri M Chenna Reddy then merged TPS in Congress (R) party, after formulating a Six-Point Formula to safeguard Telanganas interests. The statehood movement continued until 1973, but subsided later.

Second phase Telangana Movement

Since mid 1990s, the people of Telangana started organizing themselves under various organizations with a demand for separate state of Telangana. In 1997, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed a resolution seeking a separate Telangana. Though the party created the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand in 2000, it did not create a separate Telangana state citing resistance of its coalition partner, Telugu Desam Party.

Sri Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), who was then the Deputy Speaker of AP State assembly, had started background work on Telangana issue in early 2000. And after detailed discussions and deliberations with a plethora of Telangana intellectuals, KCR announced the launch of Telangana Rashtra Samithi on May 17th 2001. KCR had resigned to the post of Deputy Speaker and MLA before launching the Telangana Rashtra Samithi party. Prof Jayashankar, the ideologue of statehood movement extended his support to KCR.

In 2004, TRS entered into a poll alliance with Congress party. The party won 26 MLAs and 5 MPs and entered into both the AP state and Indian government. Telangana issue found a place in UPA-1 Common Minimum Program. Statehood issue was also mentioned by President Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in their speeches. TRS president KCR, was initially allotted the Shipping portfolio. But another UPA ally DMK demanded Shipping portfolio and threatened to walk out of the coalition, if its demand was not met, KCR voluntarily relinquished the Shipping portfolio to save the fledgling UPA-1 government. KCR remained as a Union Minister without portfolio, before being given the Labour

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As the UPA government continued to dilly-dally on the decades old demand for Telangana state, KCR resigned to his ministry in 2006. When a Congress leader made a belittling statement on the statehood movement in September 2006, KCR resigned to the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat and won it with a thumping majority. The massive majority achieved by KCR in that election proved the strong statehood aspirations in the region. In April 2008, TRS party MLAs resigned also walked out of the State Government in protest against the delay in Telangana formation. But, TRS could retain only 7 MLA and 2 Lok Sabha seats in this by-election. In 2009 elections, TRS allied with TDP, CPI and CPM parties. The grand alliance did not yield the desired result, as the Pro-Telangana vote got split between TRS, Congress, PRP and BJP. In the end, TRS could win only 10 MLA seats and 2 MP seats.

On February 3, 2010, a panel headed by Justice (Retd.) B.N. Srikrishna was formed to "bring about a permanent solution to the statehood demand. The panel met 30 times, visited 23 districts and 35 villages and held interactions with about 100 organisations. The report of the Committe for Consultation on the Situation in Andhra Pradesh was released by the then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, to representatives of Political Parties from the State on January 6, 2010. I

t said, "The united Andhra option is being suggested for continuing the development momentum of the three regions and keeping in mind the national perspective. With firm political and administrative management it should be possible to convey conviction to the people that this option would be in the best interest of all and would provide satisfaction to the maximum number of people in the state."

In December 2013, the Union Cabinet approved a Bill for the creation of Telangana State with 10 districts, paving the way for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The Cabinet had broadly approved most of the recommendations made by the Group of Ministers constituted to consider the contentious issues. The Cabinets approval came after the Congress Core Group decided to adhere to the Congress Working Committees decision on a Telangana with 10 districts. Meanwhile, Osmania University in Hyderabad was slowly becoming the nerve-centre of the Telangana agitation. Student activists continued their agitation along with political leaders in the struggle.