TELANGANA
Sometimes a very small and insignificant event can lead to a huge effect later on. It’s called Butterfly Effect. It can also lead to the creation of a new state, dismay / delight of few millions of people, set a precedent (bad is another matter) for passing bills in Lok Sabha, temporary if not permanent animosity among people who used to share their language and ancestry at one point of time.
If we study the emergence of the Telangana State, and the chief architect KCR, we will find three incidents which led to the butterfly effect, resulting in one of the most significant incident – formation of a new state Telangana, unlike the other three states formed earlier.
To unravel these three small events, we will have to start with the time of second innings of Chandrababu Naidu in 1999, who had given K Vijaya Rama Rao, a ministry instead of KCR being given a berth. He had to give only one berth considering the caste equations in the cabinet. This was the first butter fly effect. Having been denied a ministry, the ever shrewd and intelligent KCR had gauged the options he had and thrown himself into the dormant but emotional issue of a separate state of Telangana. With very little resources at his command, his first step was to bring in a political party with single point agenda of achieving Telangana state hood. He roped in all intellectuals especially Prof Jayashankar and floated Telangana Rastra Samithi on 27th Apr, 2001 and started the journey slowly but steadily.
This was not the first time there was a movement for the separate state of Telangana, there were at least two earlier movements. The last one culminated in bloodshed claiming 369 lives in 1969. The first and foremost chosen option of KCR was not to resort to violence but to propagate the need and the reasons for a separate statehood. He chose three main issues viz., the ideals of neellu (water), nidhulu (finances) and niyamakaalu (appointments). He roped in experienced engineers and intellectuals, gathered statistics and different employment organisations. He set out to disseminate his philosophy, reasons and arguments in every possible forum. He had sustained the political interest by resignations and by-elections as well as different rallies. All through this phase, he had an adversary called Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was the strongest local leader seen in a national party.
The second butterfly effect was the untimely death of Y S R in Sept 2009. At this point of time TRS was in disarray because of the guile and gumption of the YSR who had engineered defections, allurements and what not. Consumed with fierce ambition to attain the state, KCR took a daring and dangerous plunge and started ‘fast until death’ on 29th Nov 2009. Fearing wide spread violence and sensing the mood of the people, Mr P Chidambaram – Home minister of Congress which was in power at Centre declared their intention to form a separate state on 9th Dec, 2009. It was a different matter that they retracted it within two weeks.
Now it has become clear to KCR that he has drawn first blood and the victory lap will be his. Still there was a lingering doubt. It is the time for him to put all his wits to use and employ his tenacity to sustain the agitation. He did this with renewed vigor and aplomb. He had floated JACs (Joint Action Committee) in all possible cadres, professional bodies, employee unions. Masterstroke was to bring all of them under the umbrella of T-JAC (Telangana Joint Action Committee). To add an intellectual touch he brought in Prof. Kodandaram and made him chairman of T-JAC. At the same time he made sure that major political parties, in one way or another accept the inherent demand for separate state. A few entertained fancy thoughts of Rayala-Telangana also. The icing on the cake was forcing the hand of TDP to endorse the division of combined Andhra Pradesh unequivocally.
The grand old national party, Congress dilly dallied for almost four years and finally decided to grant the separate statehood at the fag-end of their term. On 7th of Feb, 2014, the union cabinet unilaterally decided to clear the bill for creation of separate state of Telangana. This was the third butterfly effect. The foremost reason was that, the Congress assumed that it will win hands down in Telangana in the coming general and state elections with or without TRS. This was a blunder for Congress and a bounty for TRS. KCR, was wise enough to fight on his own. He neither aligned nor merged with the behemoth called Congress. Otherwise, TRS should have been savoured and consumed by Congress and KCR would have remained one among the many CM aspirants. There were other significant by-products, the passing of the bill by shutting down the doors of Lok Sabha, Congress drawing blank in Andhra Pradesh, and of course the emergence of BJP with simple majority in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. All these can be butterfly moments for another story.
In Shakespeare’s “JULIUS CAESAR”, Act I, Cassius says to Brutus:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.”
That’s how KCR understood the faults of earlier movements, and utilized the tidings of time to steer his people to the shore of ‘Telangana’.
In a lighter vein, mother of all these butter fly effects probably was the day NTR got his daughter married to Chandrababu Naidu in 1981, which led to “Telangana” in 2014.