Telangana 54: By Elections

Telangana Movement became a mainstream agitation in December 2009 when KCR undertook a fast for the cause of Telangana.  The silent movement of nearly thirty years took an upswing and became an active and vocal one all of a sudden with the events of December 2009.  The popular sentiment that has been lurking in the minds of the people of this region took on the national stage affecting the politics of the state and the country. 

Since December 2009, there have been repeated resignations by MLAs of the state in both Telangana and Seemandhra regions of the united state of Andhra Pradesh.  When the MLAs of Seemandhra resigned en masse after P Chidamabaram’s 9 Dec 2009 declaration for a separate Telangana, the speaker of the State Assembly belonging to the ruling Congress Party did not accept any of them citing a petty technical error in resignation letter format.  However, when Telangana MLAs of non-Congress parties resigned, the speaker immediately accepted them.  This was done with a motive of winning at least some of the seats vacated by Telangana proponents highlighting one of the farces of Indian democracy.

Indian democracy does not deal with referendums and therefore elections are forced onto the people again and again as happened in Telangana.  No matter how people of Telangana vote, the elections are interpreted differently by different factions.  When people find themselves unable to express through polls, they take to streets and resort to suicides, while MLAs tend to resign again and again unnecessarily forcing elections onto the people.  Looks like Indian democracy has no means of addressing genuine aspirations of its people.

Let’s ask the basic question: Why should the resigning MLAs stand for reelection?

An MLA would have resigned for a certain reason.  And why should he stand for reelection if that reason is still not satisfied?  These by-elections came about because some Telangana MLAs resigned when New Delhi has not taken concrete steps towards creation of Telangana state.   So far New Delhi has not changed its stance towards Telangana.  Therefore, it does not make sense that these resigning MLA should stand for reelection when nothing has changed in the positive direction for Telangana.

And yet, today, Telangana celebrates the victory of these resigning MLAs citing it as a vindication of the popular Telangana Movement.

So let’s understand these by-elections and its results in the context of Telangana and the flawed Indian democracy.

Why did these Telangana MLAs resign in the first place?  They did so to uphold a promise made by ALL Telangana leaders of ALL parties where they took a vow that they would resign en masse unless New Delhi announces creation of new state of Telangana.  When the deadline passed without any positive outcome, some of the MLAs belonging to TRS and one from BJP resigned, but other leaders of Telangana backtracked from their promise of resignation displaying their greed for power rather than obeying the popular sentiment of the region. 

This time however the Speaker of the State Assembly immediately accepted these resignations in a display of political machinations coming out of the avarice of other political parties keen on winning at least some of the seats vacated by 'sentimental and foolish' leaders of Telangana. 

These other political parties were not sure if their MLAs should resign at this point of time.  They were not sure how popular the Telangana sentiment was.  ‘Is the sentiment so high that it would affect the electoral results? Why take chances by resigning?  Let’s stick to our seats of power and wait till 2014 general elections’ – that’s what these non-resigning MLAs thought.

Now, it became a contest for measuring the sentiment of Telangana.  Is the sentiment really high as some politicians have claimed or is it an artificial creation?

There were many doubters from Seemandhra and New Delhi who dismissed Telangana Movement on many counts.  One Seemandhra politician claimed that more than 80% people in Telangana did not want a new state and that only a small section actually sought Telangana.  There is no way to verify this in Indian democracy.  When people came out in lakhs onto streets in protest, Seemandhra leaders said that these people were given money and incentives by vested interests. 

Therefore it became necessary for people of Telangana to tell the world that the sentiment was indeed running high.  In absence of an official referendum these by-polls substituted for it in Indian democracy.   These polls were not for development, not for jobs, not for caste or religion, not for better health or for electricity.  These polls were only for one motive – that of creation of Telangana.

The world wanted to see the sign – is the movement really popular? Do the majority support it? 

And the people of Telangana delivered on it.  Results are clear and emphatic.

It was a landslide, unambiguous and unequivocal victory for TRS and its partners winning all the vacated seats including grabbing one from switching TDP candidate.   These victors of Telangana set new records in Andhra Pradesh’s electoral history.  

T Harish Rao of TRS won with the highest margin in AP Assembly elections with a margin of 95,858 votes beating YSR’s 2009 record of winning with a margin of 68,681 votes from Kadapa.  Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which was a dominant force in Telangana till advent of 2009-10 Telangana agitation, lost deposits in all 12 assembly constituencies. Congress lost deposits in 4 constituencies. 

Chandra Babu Naidu's (CBN) bluff is called.  This master politician created an artificial issue in Bhabli project to create a new enemy for Telangana people in the form of Maharashtra.  He tried to tell Telangana people that this project in Maharashtra will stop water to the regions of Telangana.  The same leader who was OK with this project when he was the CM has now changed his stance.  His crocodile tears did not sway Telangana people.  His charade was discarded.  In a clear message, the people of Telangana are not ready to trust Seemandhra politicians no matter what kind of dance they dance or sing any kind of tune.  The biggest reason why Telangana does not get water is because Andhras don’t give us water, not because Maharashtra robs us.  The biggest enemy is Andhra not Maharashtra.  Thankfully, Telangana people rejected CBN and his foolish pranks. With this TDP has is on verge of being eliminated from the region forever.

D Srinivas, the vocal Congress candidate in Nizamabad, lost out to BJP candidate only on Telangana sentiment.  D Srinivas stood on an ambiguous plank.  While he promised Telangana in speeches, it was clear that high command of Congress was not making any overtures for Telangana. 

Almost all the resigning candidates improved on their margins clearly vindicating the popular Telangana sentiment.

However the detractors are quick to point out that this is no true reflection of the entire region because other regions have not gone to polls.  They say: Telangana reelected the leaders who have resigned.  That’s no sign of movement in other regions of Telangana. 

There is no way of dealing with these doubts.  These doubts will remain forever.  No matter what the outcome, these detractors will remain unconvinced.  Isn’t it a ridiculous argument that entire population of Telangana should vote only one party to show the world they want Telangana especially when every other party also promises Telangana? 

It’s like saying, since the people have voted all parties that have promised water we will not give your water.  We will give water to your region ONLY when you vote only one particular vociferous party which demands water.  It is a stupid argument.
Today, entire Telangana demands Telangana, and yet our democracy has no way of translating that majority opinion into a firm verdict.  Every electoral result can be pooh-poohed with some kind of trickery and hoodwinking analysis, some sophistry and malicious argument.

Let’s call our democracy a sham and a farce that is not ready to deal with the popular sentiment of nearly 40 million people spanning 55 years.  I have an idea to ridicule this democracy.  The leaders who won the elections should resign once again and bring on new elections.  There should be elections in this region every six months till the next general elections of 2014.  Let’s make a fun of our democracy.  Let’s go to polls every six months.  We should go to polls till no candidate dares to contest elections and when every opponent loses his deposit.   Even then there is no way to convince the detractors.   Hopefully, other leaders of Telangana will realize that they don’t stand a chance in 2014 and start forcing their party bosses to take a relook at their position.

Congress at the center should not wait for the report from Sri Krishna Committee.  That wait is going to result in rout of Congress from Telangana region paving the way for BJP in this region.  It is not in the best interest of Telangana to have BJP winning in Telangana and yet that is what Congress is doing.

Leaders like Madhu Yakshi of Congress from Nizamabad have already admitted that they lost out because of Telangana sentiment.   He has been a strong proponent of Telangana but has been asked to kowtow to the diktat from New Delhi.  These leaders will now be forced to come out and put up a defiant position against their party bosses in support of the cause of Telangana. 

Hopefully, these elections will wake up the slumbering and traitorous politicians of Telangana.  They should now realize that sentiment is so strong that no amount of incentives will get them their votes.   Its time they realize that all of them have to stand united at least on one cause – that of Telangana; and only such a stance will deliver Telangana and their votes.  Let's hope that our flawed democracy works at least through some devious and slow methods and delivers on Telangana.