Both Telugu states hit by Budget blues

The Centre has thrown a douche of cold water at Telangana too while making allocations for the youngest State in the Union Budget. It not as though the sob story is AP's alone.

If Andhra is yelling blue murder over meagre allocations and silence on the promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, Telangana too is feeling the pinch though it is, for the time being, biting the bullet.

This is because Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao does not appear to have firmed up his line of action against the Centre whereas Naidu is already out, hitting the streets with lamentations at the ‘betrayal’ of the State from the pulpits of mitra-dharma.

KCR, who camped in Delhi for nearly a week, met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and sought his intervention for fulfillment of all the promises made for Telangana in the AP State Reorganisation Act. He recalled the delay in locating a AIIMS, release of Rs 450 crore for nine backward districts in the state, among others.

KCR had a number of other issues too, but he could not get around to discuss them with the ministers concerned in Delhi. Of them, the one very close to his heart is enhancement of reservations for Muslims. He had sent the reservations bill to the Centre after passing it in the Assembly for inclusion in Schedule IX of the Constitution and thereby keep it out of review by the Supreme Court.

The bill favoured enhancement of reservation from the existing four to 12 percent for Muslims and from the present six percent to 12 for STs. It is now stuck with the Centre amidst none-too-encouraging reports that the Centre is averse to allowing reservations go beyond 50 percent in any State as ordered by the apex court.

If the reservations for Muslims and STs are raised to 12 per cent, the total percentage of reservation in the State will shoot to a staggering 62 percent. Though the Telangana government sent the bill for inclusion in Schedule IX, someone influential in the Centre should follow it up. But there seems to be no one there.

KCR after returning to Hyderabad, is understood to have expressed his displeasure with Governor ESL Narasimhan over the unhelpful attitude of the Centre towards the State though it was doing well on all economic parameters. He is reported to have commented that the Centre should understand that if Telangana is on a growth trajectory, it is the nation that is going to benefit.

Before the budget was presented in Parliament, State Finance Minister Etela Rajender handed over Telangana’s wish list to Jaitley in which he sought liberal funding for TRS government’s flagship project of Kaleshwaram by declaring it as a project of national importance, then go to the aid of the State in commissioning Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya.

Though the Telangana government is also feeling the pain of little or no help from the Centre, it is not making a show of it but Andhra government is raising Cain on the grave injustice done to the state.

Chief Minister Naidu had no other choice but play victim since he is at a disadvantage of the people expecting him to perform a miracle when it comes to Polavaram, Amaravati and several other infrastructure projects.

Like the captain of a cricket team who has to gamble on whether to bat or field first on winning the toss, Naidu, after taking over as chief minister also had to take a call. He finally decided that conciliation with the Centre was the best course in getting funds for the mammoth projects that lay ahead. He wanted to be in the good books of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and get what the State wanted.

As if Naidu’s cup of woes is not full, the DOPT, one of the departments to which the bill the Andhra Assembly had passed providing five percent reservations to kapus, has been sent, raised an objection that the total reservation in the State would go up to 55 percent, therefore it cannot clear the bill in its present form. The bill was sent to the Centre for inclusion in the IX Schedule.

At a time when tempers are running high in AP over TDP’s perception that a raw deal has been meted out to AP, the DOPT’s objection to kapu reservation bill raises the question if the officials on their own took the decision or were they acting on instructions from their political bosses. It would be too naive to think that officials had acted on their own, given the sensitive nature of the issue.

KCR does not seem to be in a hurry to script his next political move in dealing with the Centre. The TRS has no truck with the BJP and the saffron party has said it was charting its own political course in the State independent of all parties.

For KCR, there is no need for adopting any cloak and dagger approach if he decides to take the BJP by its horns unlike in AP where TDP is still an ally of BJP, regardless of how ramshackle the alliance had become lately. As things stand now, for Naidu, the fight with BJP is behind closed doors while for KCR, it would be out in the open.

By R Prithvi Raj