On Monday, as Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao was sworn in as the first chief minister of Telangana, India’s 29th state, along with his son KT Rama Rao, nephew Harish Rao and nine others members of his Cabinet, one question played on everyone’s minds: where was N Chandrababu Naidu?
Naidu will take over as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, the state from which Telangana has been carved out, in the second week of June. Yet he did not attend the ceremony, telling reporters, “There was no personal invitation extended by KCR and so I did not attend. However, I have called and congratulated him and extended an invitation to my swearing-in on June 8.”
The desire for a smooth transition to statehood for Telangana is paramount in the region, and observers hoped that Naidu’s presence at the momentous swearing-in ceremony would be a signal that both of the principal parties were committed to putting their differences behind them.
Rao and Naidu have a history of animosity. KCR, as he is known, resigned from Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party in 2001 because of a series of disagreements. He formed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti soon after, and the party has been at the forefront of the movement for the new state since.
“These personal differences will only make it more difficult to finalise important details, like sharing of resources between the two states,” said Jayaprakash Narayan, president of Lok Satta party and a former government official, in a conversation with Scroll.in. He added, “The only way to sort out the massive issues facing the two states is through friendly dialogue and an overriding principal of give and take.”
The recently-dissolved UPA central government hurried through the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, hoping this would improve their Lok Sabha performance in the region. That did not happen, and they have also left a number of the most urgent problems unresolved. Chief among them are the distribution of government employees between the two states, the sharing of river waters, government assets and other resources that belonged to united Andhra Pradesh. There is also serious concern that people from Andhra Pradesh will not feel secure in Hyderabad, which will be the joint capital of both states for the next decade before becoming part of Telangana.
This last concern was not helped by Telangana Cabinet Minister Harish Rao, who declared recently, “We will not let a single government employee from the Seemandhra region work for the Telangana government.”
“It is impossible to rebuild Hyderabad with this attitude,” Dinesh Akula, a journalist with TV9, told Scroll.in. “There are lakhs from Seemandhra who live and work here, without their efforts the economy would collapse and investors would be wary.” Who would get Hyderabad was a huge bone of contention between the Seemandhra and Telangana factions. Since the 1990s, the city has been the principal centre of economic growth, contributing roughly 8% of united Andhra Pradesh’s GDP, with a per capita income almost double the state average.
The principal argument put forth in favor of division was that the region suffered from administrative neglect. But to remedy this, the TRS and KCR will have to give up the divisive and provocative statements that have served them well in the past and instead focus on governance issues. The nature of their administration will certainly determine whether the new state of Telangana will be the success its citizens crave.
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Naidu will take over as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, the state from which Telangana has been carved out, in the second week of June. Yet he did not attend the ceremony, telling reporters, “There was no personal invitation extended by KCR and so I did not attend. However, I have called and congratulated him and extended an invitation to my swearing-in on June 8.”
The desire for a smooth transition to statehood for Telangana is paramount in the region, and observers hoped that Naidu’s presence at the momentous swearing-in ceremony would be a signal that both of the principal parties were committed to putting their differences behind them.
Rao and Naidu have a history of animosity. KCR, as he is known, resigned from Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party in 2001 because of a series of disagreements. He formed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti soon after, and the party has been at the forefront of the movement for the new state since.
“These personal differences will only make it more difficult to finalise important details, like sharing of resources between the two states,” said Jayaprakash Narayan, president of Lok Satta party and a former government official, in a conversation with Scroll.in. He added, “The only way to sort out the massive issues facing the two states is through friendly dialogue and an overriding principal of give and take.”
The recently-dissolved UPA central government hurried through the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, hoping this would improve their Lok Sabha performance in the region. That did not happen, and they have also left a number of the most urgent problems unresolved. Chief among them are the distribution of government employees between the two states, the sharing of river waters, government assets and other resources that belonged to united Andhra Pradesh. There is also serious concern that people from Andhra Pradesh will not feel secure in Hyderabad, which will be the joint capital of both states for the next decade before becoming part of Telangana.
This last concern was not helped by Telangana Cabinet Minister Harish Rao, who declared recently, “We will not let a single government employee from the Seemandhra region work for the Telangana government.”
“It is impossible to rebuild Hyderabad with this attitude,” Dinesh Akula, a journalist with TV9, told Scroll.in. “There are lakhs from Seemandhra who live and work here, without their efforts the economy would collapse and investors would be wary.” Who would get Hyderabad was a huge bone of contention between the Seemandhra and Telangana factions. Since the 1990s, the city has been the principal centre of economic growth, contributing roughly 8% of united Andhra Pradesh’s GDP, with a per capita income almost double the state average.
The principal argument put forth in favor of division was that the region suffered from administrative neglect. But to remedy this, the TRS and KCR will have to give up the divisive and provocative statements that have served them well in the past and instead focus on governance issues. The nature of their administration will certainly determine whether the new state of Telangana will be the success its citizens crave.
