To
His Excellency
The President of India
Respected Rashtrapati ji,
We are writing to you with a lot of
hope that you will restrain the Government of India from its cynical
effort to divide our state.
Long Struggle for Unity
Andhra Pradesh came into existence in
1956 as a result of decades of arduous struggle and intense aspiration
of Telugu people to reunite into a single political and administrative
entity. We have had a long history of over 2,500 years of living
together until the 1800s when we came under different – the British and
The Nizam – political dispensations for a brief period of about 150
years.
Unity Prevailed over Divisive Tendencies
Since 1956, we the Telugu people have
made steady and impressive progress in every field. We had weathered
two agitations in 1969 and 1972 for division of the state mainly because
of the vision of the then national leadership. Smt. Indira Gandhi had
categorically stated in Parliament that we should not lose sight of the
larger issues of unity and integrity and desist from getting carried
away by temporary emotions.
Unsupported Argument for Division
The agitation for dividing the state and creating a separate Telangana state lacks sound argument and popular support.
The advocates of separate Telangana
state had based their agitation on four sets of arguments: Economic,
Political, Historical, and Language/Culture. Justice Srikrishna
Committee and a number of other studies have conclusively proved that
these arguments are false and are unsupported by economic data,
political developments, and historical evidence.
No Electoral Support for Division
The political platform for dividing
Andhra Pradesh and creating a separate Telangana state has never secured
a convincing peoples’ mandate. In 2009 general elections, the party
which spearheaded the agitation won only 10 Assembly seats out of 119 in
the Telangana region and out of a total of 294 seats in the entire
state. The platform’s record in 2004 general elections and in 2008
by-elections is equally unconvincing. It is only in a few by-elections
that were held in a highly surcharged atmosphere that it secured some
convincing wins. The latest Panchayat polls also showed that the
separate Telangana demand is more of a shrill noise made by some vested
interests and their political cohorts. Their noise is disproportionate
to the support they command at the grass roots level. The Party that is
spearheading the agitation has not been able to secure first place in
any of the ten districts of the region they claim to represent.
No Reason for Undoing the Unity of Telugu People
When the agitation for a separate
Telangana state has lost its steam and was almost folding up, the ruling
coalition under the leadership of the Congress Party has decided to
divide the state. It went back on its earlier decision of 2001 to
constitute a second States’ Reorganization Commission to examine the
demand for Telangana and other similar demands across the country. We do
not know what prompted the ruling coalition to decide to undo the unity
of Telugu people which was achieved after a long struggle. The Party
and subsequently the Union Cabinet that approved the ‘note’ to divide
the state have not offered any rationale to the nation for their
intention.
Why Depart from Linguistic State?
The essential principle of the
architecture of Indian Republic is linguistic state. From Bengal in the
east along the coast of Bay of Bengal and then along the coast of the
Arabian Sea in the west up to Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh in
the North, our states are organized along linguistic lines. Departing
from this defining feature of India’s political organization is uncalled
for. Especially without putting in place an alternative and well
thought-out principle of organization.
Such thoughtless and cynical
departures from time tested principles of political organization of
states might spell danger to the unity and integrity of our nation.
Creation of new states shall be done on the basis of well laid out
principles and norms. Great minds of the country should apply themselves
to lay down such norms. Instead, if states are divided and boundaries
are altered just because there is an agitation here and a fast unto
death there, our polity will be exposed to serious threats both from
within and without.
Our Appeal
We submit to you that there is no sound argument or reason for dividing the state of Andhra Pradesh.
The political elements that demand
the creation of Telangana have no popular support as clearly evidenced
by the series of electoral outcomes since 2004.
The ruling coalition and the Cabinet
that approved the demand for division of Andhra Pradesh have not been
able to offer a rationale for their intention. We think they have none
to offer.
We request you to apply your mind to
the imminent danger to our polity if we start succumbing to groups that
are capable of violent agitations and concede to their demands to divide
states.
We request you to contemplate if it is wise to depart from the linguistic principle of organizing the non-Hindi speaking states.
Our fervent appeal to you is to
immediately restrain the Government of India from dividing Andhra
Pradesh, the state of the Telugu people.
