Topic of the week for discussion: 30th Jan. to 5th Feb.

2014 Topic: Union of Indias Division

No one knows who coined the word Seemandhra to indicate the nonTelangana regions of Andhra Pradesh. But, the leaders of those two regions certainly would not have anticipated that the Seemandhra spectre would loom so large. The peoples demand for a separate Telangana has been long and unceasing for the last 60 years which, after much ebbing and flowing, seems to have found its culmination in the 30 July announcement. The Congress party swung back and forth in the last three and a half years since it first announced the initiation of the process of state formation in December 2009, but finally fell to political expediency. The Andhra Pradesh assembly on Monday adjourned for the day without any debate on the Telangana bill as ministers from the region joined the protest asking the speaker to reject the notice given by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to reject the bill. In an unprecedented development, ministers from Telangana joined the legislators from the region in stalling the proceedings. Amid ruckus, Speaker Nadendla Manohar adjourned the house thrice, the third time for the day as the ministers surrounded the speaker's podium to press for their demand. They argued that the chief minister unilaterally submitted the notice without a discussion in the cabinet. Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and senior minister K. Jana Reddy, who hail from Telangana, lodged their protest by standing near their seats. The chief minister gave notice to the speaker seeking his permission to move a resolution to reject the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2013. Kiran Reddy, who is strongly opposing the state's bifurcation, wants the house to send back the bill to President Pranab Mukherjee with a request not to refer it to parliament. Parties from Telangana argue that the president has only sought opinion of the legislature and hence there was no need for voting. They also claim that the assembly has no power over a bill referred by the president. The president last month sent the bill to the legislature for its opinion under article 3 of the constitution. As soon as the assembly met Monday, the legislators from Telangana moved into the well of the house, demanding that the speaker reject the notice. Raising slogans of 'Jai Telangana', legislators alleged that the chief minister was trying to stall formation of Telangana. This was countered by legislators from Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra) with slogans of 'Jai Samaikyandhra' (united Andhra).

Topic Introduction

Why smaller states make more sense:

First, smaller states mean key decisions will be taken closer to the ground. Just as Delhi should not take decisions on food security for Chhattisgarh, Mumbai should not decide what is good even for Vidarbha, where farmer suicides have blotted the landscape endlessly. Solutions to Vidarbha lie closer in Nagpur. Second, administering large and diverse states is more complex and probably inefficient as well, though there can be economies of scale in some ways. Size cuts both ways. But it stands to reason that politics can be much more focused when the administrative area and population are of manageable proportions.

Even after the creation of Telangana as the 29th state, the average Indian state will have 42 million people though actual sizes vary widely from the 200-and-odd million of Uttar Pradesh to states such as Arunachal, with just a few thousand people scattered all over. The European Union, with as many states as India currently (28), has an average per-country population of 18 million. The 50-state USA has an average state population of just 6.25 million. While we need not compare apples and oranges, the short point is that smaller states bring the rulers and the ruled closer to one another physically and emotionally and in a democracy that is a very good thing. Third, a key reason why smaller states are better is that smaller states reduce diversity. And that too is a good thing. High diversity makes for complex political and administrative calculations. The whole point of creating linguistic states in the 1950s was that they would improve administrative efficiency. Consider how difficult it would have been to administer the Bombay Presidency with at least two major languages (Marathi and Gujarati), or the Madras presidency (with four major linguistic groups to manage Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam). Unlike Vidarbha or North Bengal or Jharkhand (which was carved out of Bihar), Telanganas problem is not distance from the power centre (Hyderabad is bang in the middle of Telangana); it is a complete disconnect with the power structure that paid obeisance to politicians from the richer coastal districts of Andhra. The logic of smaller states also needs to be extended to the idea of empowered city-states. The reason: cities are now giant administrative centres with their own requirements. The Mumbai metropolitan region, for example, has a population of 18 million equal to the average European Union country.In India, UP is fit for splitting into four states (Mayawati even passed a resolution to this effect, but once again, that turned out to be an election gimmick), Andhra, Maharashtra and Karnataka into three, Gujarat into two (with Saurashtra and Kutch being sliced off), Tamil Nadu and Kerala into two each, and Kashmir into three (Valley, Jammu and Ladakh). Plus there is a case to create charter cities starting probably with Mumbai. The remaining metros can follow once the Mumbai experiment works. New city-states can also be created from scratch, and the new Andhra capital, wherever it is, provides a great opportunity for experimenting with new city governance structures. The logic of Telangana necessarily leads to more smaller states, but will it lead to more empowered city-states?

Read further: http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/1868764/column-andhra-telangana-an-intellectual-challenge http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Telangana http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/telangana-andhra-assembly-paralysed-ministers-joinprotest/1/340105.html