Centre should mitigate fears of Andhras in T

KCR wants them to remigrate

If sources close to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar were to be believed, he wants people from Seemandhra to ‘remigrate’.

He proved political observers and media wrong when they wrote that this was a political drama and he would mellow down once a separate Telangana was achieved and he be crowned the chief minister.

People felt that post elections, having become the CM, he would mellow down and extend an olive branch to Andhraites. But it does not seem to be the case. Though Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu has offered a friendly handshake, KCR seems adamant that people from Andhra must remigrate.

He called Chandrababu Naidu an Andhrawala who had no business to live in Telangana.

There is an old saying that people should show grace after victory. It’s touted to be the gentlemanly thing to do. TRS chief KCR, though, clearly doesn’t believe in giving his ‘enemy’ an iota of space. His latest rhetoric regarding not allowing Seemandhra citizens to work in Telangana is certainly an indication of that.

“We will not allow Seemandhra employees to step into the T Secretariat even if they are allocated to the T-State,” Rao said, adding that the present division work was not in accordance with the reorganisation norms.

“They have no other option. If Andhras have to start working, all Andhra employees will have to go back. We are not saying ‘bhago, bhago’, we are only saying that those who have cornered our jobs illegally and wrongly should go back,” KCR said.

Ever since the Telangana agitation started, people from Seemandhra had feared they would be targets of hate and retribution as Telangana residents would — helped by their leaders — see them as depriving them of jobs and livelihood. KCR had earlier said he would “kick out” two top private educational institutions from Telangana. “They are from Andhra and have no reason to be here. The first thing I am going to do when we achieve Telangana is to kick them out,” he had said in his speech to party workers.

After the tussle over water, power and employees, battle lines are now drawn over sharing of revenue between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, ahead of budgets to be presented in the respective state Assemblies. Sources said the Centre's main concern is that the infighting between the two administrations should not spiral into street-fighting between the people of the two states as there have been instances of provocative statements being made by some political leaders against each other.

KCR’s logic is pretty simple. It is that Telangana citizens should work in Telangana, and those from Seemandhra have to work in their own state. But the problem lies in fine print. Hyderabad is supposed to act as capital of both the states for the next 10 years. If Hyderabad becomes an exclusive fiefdom of Telangana citizens, then how will the government of Seemandhra operate? There is a fear that pretty quickly this tirade against Seemandhra citizens can also spread to private sectors where companies may be coaxed to hire only locals. A lot of people of the so-called ‘Andhra domicile’ have spent their lives in Hyderabad with well entrenched family roots. Their lives shouldn’t be taken for granted to the whims and fancies of politicians.

The Centre should summon chief ministers of both the states and resolve this humanitarian problem before the issue flare up any further.