INDIRA GANDHI ON UNITED ANDHRA PRADESH
40 years earlier INDIRA GANDHI SPOKE ON UNITED ANDHRA PRADESH. She questioned in Lok Sabha "Merely because an area is comparatively backward is not reason enough for taking drastic or irreversible decisions. Where will this process end?"
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Even after 40 years, the demand for separate Telangana still persists. Nobody seems to be interested in sitting down and think how really bifurcation of state alone can solve the problems. The demand for separation has reached its peak now and bifurcation of state seems imminent. Smt. Indira Gandhi sensed this 40 years ago and warned about the perils of state bifurcation. She expressed her anguish and apprehensions in a speech made on 21st December 1972 in Lok Sabha. Excerpts of the speech are re-produced here for initiating a discussion.
POINTS IN THE SPEECH MADE ON 21STDECEMBER 1972 IN LOK SABHA BY INDIRA GANDHI ON
UNITED ANDHRA PRADESH
The Prime Minister, Minister Of Atomic Energy, Minister Of Electronics, Minister Of Home Affairs, Minister Of Information And Broadcasting And Minister Of Space (Shrimati Indira Gandhi): Mr. SPEAKER, SIR, there is really not much need for me to speak as my colleague, Shri Chavan, has brought a cooler and calmer atmosphere to prevail in the House and has dealt with really important points. But some Hon. Members even of the opposition had earlier expressed the opinion that it might be misunderstood if I did not clearly state our views on some points which have been mentioned here before. They are not new, nevertheless, they thought I should do so and that is why I have got up.
Charged up emotions can never be the solutions -
Parliament discusses many important issues which are highly emotional, and the Mulki rules have become one such issue. Matters which involve regional feelings quite often do arouse the emotions of the people in this country as in many other countries, and we certainly cannot ignore the emotions of the people. But I should like to stress what Chavanji has said, that no solution can be found while the atmosphere remains charged with emotions. Any solutions, any answer, has to be found in a very cool, calm and rational manner.
Therefore, although I was also, as were many other Hon. Members, touched by the emotions expressed by Hon. Members, by the difficulties of our friends from Telengana and friends from other parts of Andhra Pradesh, we were certainly touched by the difficulties and emotions – I should very respectfully say to them that all these matters have to be thought of not in terms of emotion but in terms of calm and collective thought. And not in terms of today or tomorrow or the day after but of what it will mean to them and the country ten years hence, 20 years hence, a hundred years hence.
Naturally, if you put to the people that a particular development has affected their employment, it has affected their rights they will become emotional. Anybody will become emotional. “I do not know how many people have gone to the public at large and said, “let us sit down and think about it, what difference will it make in terms of employment in terms of the other opportunities for the people in the Telengana region, for the people in the other districts of Andhra Pradesh”? So, I do not think that the issue has been fully and squarely put before all the people there. Therefore, the reaction today has to be also viewed in that light”.
Talking of separation not the end, but beginning of problems -
“The state of Hyderabad was the largest of the old princely states. One Hon. Member has said and rightly that in this state there were individuals, there were families of very high culture. But for the vast majority of the people there was poverty, they had not had opportunities of education or social welfare or of public health or any kind of amelioration of their living conditions. When the composite Andhra state came into being all sections of the people recognised that for greater cohesions certain special measures of a transitory nature were necessary. The leaders of the people unanimously arrived at a Gentlemen’s Agreement which we all accepted. So, there was this agreement. Now, regardless of any agreement we all know that even within a family there are differences and disputes. There is no state in India which does not have backward areas."
Relatively backward and advanced areas exist not only in all states but in different regions of the same state. In the Andhra region many members have drawn attention to areas such as Rayalseema and Srikakulam. The Telengana region may be a backward region but it does have better-off areas”.
“Merely because an area is comparatively backward is not reason enough for taking drastic or irreversible decisions. Where will this process end? I am not at all afraid of this being catching; that is not the point. But where does any one draw the line? Will each district want to be separate? Some people have advised the division of U.P. where to divide into two, three, four, into how many areas do you divide it? Do you go back to the old, very small states, princely states; do you go back to that? Somewhere a line has to be drawn. You cannot just say that because of backwardness there should be division. As Chavanji has rightly pointed out, economic backwardness can go only through hard work and the effort of the entire nation.
While there will always be sympathy and understanding for the special hardship of the backwardness of any special group or any special area. I do not think that anyone should be allowed to develop a vested interest in backwardness”.
“I should like to re-assure him that this is not at all the case I do not want to go into the details of this”. But I think his fears are unfounded. We had also to counter the past assurances given to the people of Telengana area with regard to public employment and also their present needs. We have not at all gone back on any assurance given and I should like to re-assure the Hon. Members that we are deeply concerned with their problems. But we feel that this is not the way of solving them. “In fact, as I said on an earlier occasion, merely talking of separation is not an end of the problem. It is the beginning of another very big problem, not for other states but also for that area; that state itself”. The decisions which we announced on the 27th November, 1972 were in the response to the request by the leaders of the state; they themselves have said that we should do something.
Hyderabad belongs to both regions -
“I stand very family for an integrated state, but I should like to say that so far as this matter is concerned, even had there been two states, it would have made no difference to this bill because it deals mainly with the problem of the twin cities and also the rest of Telengana. That problem would remain no matter what other things you do because a large number of non-mulk is there. Unfortunately, even in the speeches have some little bitterness crept in. It does not matter how many states we have, you still will be neighbours and you still will have to deal with one another in a hundred and one things. Thinking that just because you are separated, you can get rid of these people or we have got rid this problem is a very facile way of thinking. Our experience has not shown that this comes true”.
“Recognizing the fact that the capital belongs to both regions, the central government has decided to repeal the Mulki rules in the twin cities three years earlier than in the remaining Telengana region. Even during the intervening period, employment opportunities in the capital are being extended and educational facilities expanded for the citizens of the other regions of Andhra Pradesh also”.
“A third point was that Telengana is not the only backward area in the state”.
“Sir, Parliament represents the will of the whole nation. Its duty is not merely to go into the rights and wrongs of a situation but also to view problems from the national point of view; Shri Chavan has stressed this point. But I would like to repeat it. While all of us here are elected from particular constituencies, once we are here in this hall. I think we should consider ourselves not as merely the representatives of one little area but as the representatives of the whole country and the entire people of India. And each problem has to be viewed from that angle”.
We must look at this matter in larger perspective -
The very first article of our constitution declares that India is a union of states. Each state has had a long cultural and historical tradition and each state has become a political entity in its own special way. Andhra Pradesh has been a distinctive cultural unit for thousands of years. The name has been found in the earliest Buddhist writings. All the parts which now constitute Andhra Pradesh have been under one umbrella for long periods of history. Let us not look at just the immediate period of history.
Perhaps, it was this long history which inspired the Telugu speaking people when they yearned and struggled for several decades to form a unified Andhra Pradesh. May I cite a little bit of my personal experience? I happened to be touring parts of the south just before the report of the states reorganization commission was made public and my ears are still reverberating with the full-throated cries of Vishal Andhra… (interruptions). It was really the will of the Telugu-speaking people which prevailed over the proposal of some people to retain the old Hyderabad state”.
“There are some things which are part of our national life. It is true that the question of linguistic states was very much a part of the national movement. There was no getting away from it. The units of every party which was in existence at a time, were formed on the basis of language in spite of the British provinces having different areas. There is an overall rationality in the formation of our various states and we should be very careful not to break this foundation of rationality in momentary passions. As I said at the beginning we should consider the feelings of people but it would be very wrong for the government to be swept away by feelings. We must see what is in the larger interest of the people themselves. We are not saying that the interest of the people of Telengana should be sacrificed for our interest or for the interest of other parts of India. But the government must think in a very calm manner about the interest of the people of that very region and see what will serve their interest best”.
“I am sure that no telugu-speaking person whether he lives in the coastal region or in Rayalseema or in Telengana will ever do anything even in anger or in desperation which is not in the larger interest of their entire state and also in the interest of the country as a whole. I can understand the emotions of our friends here. This has been a period of great agony for us all to watch the developments in Andhra Pradesh and the tragedies that are taking place. I also should like to express my deep sympathy with the parents and families of those who have lost their lives. But we must look at this matter in the larger perspective”.
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