Tale of 'Two States'

'Two States' has been in public terminology recently on two separate issues. One, regarding the division of Andhra Pradesh, which has been made into a 'hate affair' between two regions of people(speaking the same language), and on the other hand, a movie on Chetan Bhagat's book '2 states', an inter-state 'love affair,' which has got movie viewers' attention. I am not going into the latter one, except that it has all makings of an entertainer, nonetheless.

It's not the first time in India, a reorganization of states taking place. But, this part of the country has been struggling with the geographical borders, with one or the other region of people, always demanding some kind of reorganization, time and again. Even though, they speak same language, it is not going to address their political, economical and educational problems which are contrasting, go way back into the history, and were left unanswered mostly by leaders for far too long.

Recent History:

The Andhra and Rayalaseema regions collectively called as Seemandhra, were part of Madras Presidency and under the British rule for 200 years and continued to be so for few years after independence too till 1953, when it was divided from 'Madras State' to form a separate 'Andhra State'. All this time(Till 1948 to be exact), the Telangana region(as Hyderabad State) was under the rule of Nizam, during which it hadn't seen much development on both economical and educational fronts, of the general public, that is. But, on the contrary, The Seemandhra region, even under the british rule, got benefited from their pro-reforms policy(for their own benefits of trade, of course) that made the people there both economically and educationally better equipped for employment and industry, compared to those in Telangana region, by the time the 'two states' were combined to form 'Andhra Pradesh State' in 1956, on linguistic basis as recommended by the first State Reorganization Committee(SRC).

Is Bifurcation, the real Remedy?

As so many intellectuals and other apolitical leaders in both regions had already opined, a state division itself can never be an ultimate solution, a Zinda Tilismath, a remedy for all problems. But, it can pave ways towards a situation, where the backward regions(again in both states), which were badly ignored for years now, may get some kind of focus of the state and also public, in general. But again, that needs a political will, whose absence was the reason for the present situation, in first place.

What the 'Two States' are in for:

The two states are going into all kind of elections(Local bodies, Assembly and Lok Sabha) right away, and they are going into them unitedly, which is again a political mind game of the highest order. And as soon as the results of General Elections, 2014 gets declared on May 16, with in 15 days, on June 2, both states get separate assemblies on the basis of elections held in a combined state.

There is no doubt that the local body elections may have some affect on the comparably bigger elections of Assembly and LS. At the same time, the effects of sentiments and anti-sentiments over division, also may effect local body elections. But, the parties like Congress and TDP, who have been maintaining organized cadre deep into the roots, are expected to gain somewhat from the local body elections, and thus increasing their prospects in Assembly and LS elections, but mostly limiting to one region(former in Telangana region & latter in Seemandhra region).

Catching up:

But, in both regions, the popular vote is going to YSRC(in Seem-andhra) and TRS(in Telangana) parties respectively, as per current equations, for voicing their regions' concerns supposedly. Also, a recent Opinion Poll by CSDS(which wasn't degraded by the recent sting on opinion polls) for CNN-IBN, clearly shows that both TDP and Congress are catching up YSRC and TRS, in Seemandhra and Telangana regions, respectively (assuming Congress and TRS don't ally with each other). But, there is still lots of time left, two months almost, which is enough to win or loose an election. 

And it still gets more interesting with the popular Super star of Tollywood, especially in the recent times, Mr.Pawan Kalyan(younger brother of Mr.Chiranjeevi, Union Minister) and the ex and last CM of the united Andhra Pradesh, Kiran Kumar Reddy, launching their own parties to come into the fray of the General Elections, 2014.

Unfortunately, even after all this drama over bifurcation, which could have been clearly handled better, most of the leaders and parties that are going to take the reigns of the new states are going to be the same persons, that were largely responsible for all the misgovernance, that had happened over the years, but in new avatars of changed colors, flags, symbols, etc.