[lg policy] No longer a linguistic issue: India Faces Backlash Over a New State carved out of its first linguistic state

[Harold Schiffman]

India Faces Backlash Over a New State

Published: December 11, 2009

NEW DELHI — India’s governing Congress Party on Friday faced an angry
backlash against the possibility of dividing one of the country’s
largest states, Andhra Pradesh, with opponents staging protests in
southern India even as advocates for creating other new states began
agitating elsewhere in the country. A Politician Goes Hungry to Redraw
India’s Map (December 11, 2009) The political crisis has dominated the
news in India this week, as Congress party leaders in New Delhi agreed
late Wednesday night to start the “process” of creating a new state
out of the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. National leaders made
the decision in response to a 10-day “fast unto death” by an advocate
for Telangana statehood that had evolved into a national melodrama.

But even as Telangana supporters were rejoicing, the crisis quickly
shifted in the opposite direction, as opponents of the proposed
partition staged protests in other regions of Andhra Pradesh. At the
same time, 130 members of the 294-member State Assembly had tendered
their resignations. In much of the southern and coastal regions of the
state, daily life came to a standstill on Friday as general strikes
were called to protest dividing the state. “All the leaders and others
are sitting in the town’s main square to oppose the division of the
state,” said a journalist in the Ananthpur district of the southern
part of the state.

The situation presented the Congress Party with a dilemma of its own
making. The party’s high command in New Delhi had agreed to start the
“process” for creating the new state as a concession to end the hunger
strike by K. Chandrasekhar Rao, a regional political figure. Mr. Rao’s
fast had led to student demonstrations in the capital city of
Hyderabad and also a two-day general strike that left the city almost
completely shut down. But the late-night concession by leaders in New
Delhi apparently caught Congress lawmakers in Andhra Pradesh unaware.
The state is divided into three distinct regions, and many lawmakers
from the two regions outside Telangana found themselves pinned between
a decision made in New Delhi and angry constituents at home.

“I am sandwiched between my supporters and my high command,” said J.
C. Diwakar Reddy, a six-term Congress assemblyman from the Ananthpur
district. “In that situation, I just submitted my resignation. My main
grievance is that we were not consulted before they made this
decision.” Nalari Kiran Kumar Reddy, speaker of the State Assembly,
confirmed that 130 members had resigned, including 76 from the
Congress Party, though none of the resignations had yet been accepted.
“I am consulting constitutional experts on the issue,” the speaker
said. “I will also call them one by one. There is no time limit for me
to accept these resignations.”

In New Delhi, Congress leaders seemed to backpedal slightly as the
Indian news outlets quoted unnamed officials saying that a “broad
consensus” would be necessary for the statehood movement to proceed.
In Andhra Pradesh, Konijeti Rosiaih, the state’s chief minister and a
member of the Congress Party, tried to play down the statehood
announcement by telling local journalists that no oral or written
commitment had yet been made. He also beseeched all political parties
to demand that their supporters abjure from any violence on the
streets.

“We have to be peaceful,” Mr. Rosiaih said during an appearance before
the State Assembly. “Political parties should take responsibility that
protests are peaceful.”
The architecture of India’s political system has been evolving since
the country became independent in 1947. Initially, leaders used
linguistic divisions to carve out large states, but as the country has
continued to grow, new states have been gradually added in response to
different claims. Three new states were added in 2000, bringing the
total to 28 states and seven territories controlled by the national
government. Even now, some Indian states — notably Uttar Pradesh, with
more than 160 million people — are larger than most countries.

Andhra Pradesh itself has more than 77 million people and stretches
over a huge swath of land along the country’s southeastern coast. It
was born from a political shotgun marriage in 1956, as leaders in New
Delhi merged the coastal regions with the interior region of
Telangana, which also included the city of Hyderabad. The arrangement
was conditional to ease the fears of discrimination or exploitation by
people from the Telangana region, who were outnumbered in the new
state. But in the decades that followed, Telangana advocates say the
promises of equitable treatment were never fulfilled. Riots broke out
over the issue in 1969, and a statehood movement simmered for decades
until it finally exploded this week during Mr. Rao’s hunger strike.

Now, Indian news outlets reported that advocates for statehood in
other regions also had commenced agitating, including accounts of some
people undertaking new hunger strikes. Creating a state can be a very
lengthy undertaking here. In Andhra Pradesh, the state assembly had
been expected to begin the process by voting on a resolution calling
for the separate Telangana state. However, the central government can
also introduce a bill in the national Parliament. It would require
passage by both houses with a two-thirds majority. India’s president
can solicit opinion on the bill from the affected state. But,
ultimately, the president must sign the bill, which is then
incorporated into the national constitution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/world/asia/12india.html?ref=world

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.
(H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list