Break the Spell : Keep the State United

Parakala.org : Most Telangana leaders, it is now clear, had realised that the arguments the Telangana ideologues had advanced in support of the demand for a separate Telangana State did not square with facts. But these leaders would find it difficult to retrace their stand. They would not like to be seen as the ones who had ‘let down’ the cause of Telangana.

There should be a cogently constructed postulate with the help of which they can slowly jettison their Separate Telangana demand honourably and without losing their political constituency. We know that for the last several months almost all the leaders from Telangana region, cutting across party lines, have jumped onto the separate T-state bandwagon to build their political constituency; or at any rate not to let their political constituency slip out of their hold.

What complicated the issue?

There is a strong sense of resentment among a section of the Telangana elites towards the Coastal and Rayalaseema elites. It is necessary to acknowledge that it is not confined to only the political class. It has seeped into the minds of some sections (not all, by any means) of government employees, school teachers, students, advocates, litterateurs, media persons, and even High Court judges. Bandwagon effect played a large part in the agitation gathering some strength.

That the resentment is not justified is a different matter. The fact is, it exists.

Telangana agitators have assiduously worked to redefine and reposition the region’s life style, culture and festivals, its distinct accent, diction and idiom, and even cuisine. Then they worked to bring about a close identification between the people and these cultural and linguistic symbols. They positioned them in contradistinction to what they mischievously categorized as the Andhra symbols in these spheres.

In this drive, the nuances across Telangana as well as the nuances across Coastal and Rayalaseema are deliberately papered over. Categorizations about both the regions were arbitrary. No heed was paid to the extant variety and differences within each area, district, and among different castes in all the regions of the state. A simplified Telangana versus ‘Seema-Andhra’ was set up and used as a tool for mass political mobilization.

To thrive, hate needs simplifications. Telangana agitators succeeded in simplifying enough to engender hate.
 

A perceived insult to a way of life and linguistic expression engenders ‘identity’ assertions as a reaction. This holds true in any part of the world. When a Scotsman feels that his way of speech is sneered at by puritans with ‘BBC-accent’ from the mainland England, he will try to speak with more and not less Scottish accent. So will an Irishman speak with more Irish accent and not less. That perceived slight would arrest the much needed homogenization and standardization of speech, culture and life style.

Using perceived slight to Telangana culture by the ‘Seema-Andhra’ elites, the various streams in the Telangana agitation have succeeded in engendering an aggressive assertion of Telangana identity. They have also encouraged aggressive expression of love for Telangana.

This is the Trick

And here comes the cleverest conceptual manoeuvre of the Agitators. The biggest Agit-prop Trick. The wiliest of the spins.

This gave the most crucial turn to the agitation.

Love for Telangana and Demand for Separate Telangana State are shown to be one and the same.

If you love Telangana that should necessarily and logically make you a votary of a Separate Telangana State.

And if you are a votary of a Separate Telangana State you are necessarily a well-wisher and lover of Telangana.

Pro-Telangana means favouring the creation of separate telangana state.

Anti-Telangana means opposing the creation of separate telangana state.

Telangana nu preminchadamante Pratyeka Telangana Rashtraanni Koradame;

Pratyeka Telangana Raashtraanni korevare Telangananu preminchevaaru.

Conceptually two different, causally unrelated, and independent things are shown to be one and implicitly as extensions of one another. They are made out to be two sides of the same coin. And as though, they cannot be different.

Love for Telangana means support to the Demand for a Separate Telangana State.

And demanding Separate Telangana State alone is a mark that one is a bona fide well-wisher of Telangana.

And logically, therefore, those who are not in favour of the demand for Separate Telangana State do not love Telangana.

They are not well wishers of Telangana.

They are anti-Telangana.

In fact, they are enemies of Telangana.

It is a clever attempt to appropriate the ‘well-wisher of Telangana’ space by the protagonists of Separate Telangana State.

It is like the age old and time tested propaganda technique:

Lifebuoy ekkada undo aarogyam akkada undi

Lifebuoy yellido allide aarogya

Lifebuoy jaha ho tandurushti waha ho.

The truth is Lifebuoy and Good Health are independent of each other.

One may use Lifebuoy and still be unhealthy. And one may not use Lifebuoy but still be healthy.

But the propagandist wants the public to believe that Lifebuoy and good health are inextricably linked. Good health comes only from Lifebuoy and only Lifebuoy can give you good health. Without Lifebuoy there cannot be good health.

This link, however, is false. It is a trick. It is a spell.

This is the kind of spell that is cast on the Telangana public mind. At present it is swaying the public mind. That is why, although the protagonists are not in a majority, their impact in the public domain seems very large. Actually, it is quite disproportionate to their numbers.

However, in spite of this gigantic propaganda effort by the separatists, large numbers of people – indeed, lakhs and lakhs of them – are in favour of a united state. They do not endorse the separatist agenda.

What should be done?

The task is to rescue the discourse on Telangana agitation from this Spell. We need to expose this trick. We need to reclaim ‘well-wisher of Telangana’ space for votaries of United Andhra Pradesh from the Telangana region as well as from the Coastal and Rayalaseema regions. The voices of votaries of unity in the Nizam region need to be specially strengthened.

It is not easy. But it is possible. And it has to be done.

The task is to delink Love for Telangana from the Demand for Separate Telangana State. It is to show that they are not one and the same.

That they are not only different from each other, but in reality, they are independent of each other.  To show that one need not be the logical outcome of the other, nor does one entail the other.

One can love Telangana, be an uncompromising champion of Telangana but still be not in favour of a division of Andhra Pradesh, or a separate Telangana State. We need to show that there is no contradiction between being a champion of Telangana interests and at the same time be a staunch supporter of a United Andhra Pradesh.

If not immediately, surely sooner than later and an appropriate stage this logic needs to be extended to assert that in fact love for Telangana and demand for Separate Telangana State are contradictory.

We need to show that staunch champions of Telangana interests have also been staunch integrationists. In fact, they are staunch integrationists only because they are staunch champions of Telangana interests.

And more importantly, we need to show that all votaries of Separate Telangana State are not necessarily champions of Telangana interests or well-wishers of Telangana people.

I can give one compelling example from my personal observation. I have known Sri PV Narasimha Rao for many years since my childhood. I am yet to see a more ardent lover of Telangana than Sri Rao. Its culture, its folklore, its idiom, its cuisine, and its lifestyle were very dear to him. He championed its interests. He was uncompromising in his advocacy of Telangana Asmita. But at the same time he steadfastly stood for a United Andhra Pradesh during both the tumultuous agitations for separation of the State: the 1969 Telangana agitation and the 1972 Jai Andhra agitation.

Sri Ravi Narayana Redddy said: ‘Veera Telangana Naadi, Veru Telangana Kaadu’. Naranyana Reddy’s credentials as a champion of the cause of the common man of Telangana are unimpeachable. He was a staunch integrationist. In fact, he led the movement for unity of Telugu people and led the Andhra Mahasabha movement in the Nizam region. I am sure, one can give many more such examples.

I do not have to give examples for the other category. We can identify several leaders whose love for Telangana is dubious. And yet they are in the forefront of the present agitation for a Separate Telangana State. Many names will come to your mind without much effort, I am sure.

This shift in the discourse will give an honourable way to the leaders to retrace their steps and leave the separatist position they adopted in order to protect their political constituency.  They can come out of the clutches of the separatist ideologues.

Much more importantly, exposing the trick and the spell would help the common people to re-examine the agitation. A trick excites an onlooker only as long as he does not know how it is performed. During that period his logic is suspended. Excitement takes over. Emotion rules. But once it is known how the trick is performed, the excitement dies down. Logic rules.

A significantly large number of people of Telangana are hectored into believing that love for Telangana means demanding a separate state. With this clarity and delinking, they will question the premises of the agitation.

When an agitation’s premises are questioned, it is unnerved. An unnerved agitation is weakened.  And a weakened agitation is sure to die down.

A suppressed agitation may rear its head again in future.

But an agitation the postulates of which are questioned, exposed, and shown to be utterly false can never return.

This is a sure way to despatch Separate Telangana Agitation to the dustbin of history.