CPI(M) Submits Note On Telangana Issue

A delegation of CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh state committee met V K Fuggal, member secretary of Sri Krishna committee on April 13. The committee was formed by home ministry for consultations with regard to the present situation in Andhra Pradesh, in the back ground of separate Telangana movement. The CPI(M) delegation comprising V Srinivasa Rao, central secretariat member, Penumalli Madhu (MP), Central Committee member, S Veeraiah, state secretariat member submitted a note to the committee. The following is the full text of the note submitted by the delegation.

1. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Andhra Pradesh committee opposes the division of Andhra Pradesh in any manner.

2. The formation of Andhra Pradesh was the result of a sustained movement for the creation of a unified linguistic state for all the Telugu-speaking people. The Vishalandhra movement was actually demanding the fulfillment of a promise made during the freedom struggle that the provinces of India would be reorganised on a linguistic basis. The Indian National Congress first accorded recognition to this principle by reorganising the Pradesh provincial committees of the Congress party on a linguistic basis as early as 1921 at the Nagpur session.

3. The creation of linguistic states undid the legacy of colonial rule which set up multi-lingual provinces purely for the administrative purposes of the British rulers. The States Re-organisation Committee explicitly recognised the linguistic principle for the formation of states. The formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956 was followed by the setting up of states like Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and so forth. Thus, one of the major steps for democratising the Indian State system was undertaken. Restructuring the states on linguistic lines was an essential step for expanding democracy since it enabled people to have an administration and educational set-up in their own language. Within such a state adequate safeguards for linguistic minorities was to be provided.

4. The formation of linguistic states provided the bedrock for the federal system in our country. The states thus formed have developed and contributed to the federal polity and the democratic political system. Dividing these states into smaller states will weaken the federal principle. Small states emerging out of the division of the linguistically homogenous states will be more dependent on the centre and this will militate against the federal principle. The CPI (M) has always held that we need both a strong centre and strong states to strengthen national unity.

5. Secularism is the foundation on which national integration and unity depends. Division of existing linguistic states and fragmentation of existing states into large number of smaller states will weaken the ability of the states to curb and control the disruptive forces of various hues including forces of communalism. Our country is a country of unity in diversity. Those who want to impose on India a religious identity would utilise weaker and smaller states to weaken communal harmony, thus endangering national integration.

6. Uneven development and regional backwardness within states have grown since independence. The nature of capitalist development is such where capital and resources flow into areas where infrastructure exists. This aggravates the problem of regional disparities. Such problems exist irrespective of the size of the states.

With the introduction of liberalisation policies in 1991, the situation further deteriorated. Disparities between states, between the regions and within the states further widened. Even within the same region, imbalances have grown between the districts and within the districts too. With regard to the development of the state, various studies carried out by experts at different periods have proved this. (Development of Andhra Pradesh 1956 – 2001, A study of Regional Disparities, edited by Y V Krishna Rao and S Subramanyam and two more studies on the regional and district level development and on development of various social and economic classes in Andhra Pradesh by ‘Sodhana’, Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram, Hyderabad.)

Withdrawal of the state from developmental activity, leaving the field to market forces as a part of the new economic policies is the primary reason for this state of affairs. Without addressing this fundamental policy problem, formation of a new state is not going to solve the problem of regional imbalances.

7. Telangana is a region which has been historically underdeveloped and backward since the days of the Nizam. Although the oppressive, regressive feudal régime of Nizam was over thrown in 1950s and Telangana became a part of united state, the feudal vestiges were not thoroughly destroyed to pave the way for modern democratic development at the grass root level. Out of 54 years of existence of Andhra Pradesh, Congress ruled the state for 40 years, Telugu Desam ruled for 14 years. Both these parties failed to implement the agreements and promises made by them to overcome the backwardness of the Telangana region. During the last five decades, lot of changes took place in the development of the state. The nature, extent and location of under development also changed. Inspite of many changes, the development of the Telangana region has lagged behind and the scope for employment opportunities have not been commensurate to the needs. The proportion of irrigated area to total sown area is less in Telangana and the Rayalaseema areas. Most of the educationally backward mandals are situated in Telangana and North Andhra. A large section of those who suffer due to the underdevelopment of the Telangana region are the tribals, dalits, artisan communities and minorities.

8. The division of the state of Andhra Pradesh is however, not the solution for the problems of backwardness. The arguments put forward by various proponents of division of the state are not based on scientific rational basis. It will be misleading to conclude that a separate state per se will ensure development. The problems of underdevelopment and socio-economic backwardness have to be tackled through specific measures.

i) Priority should be given to those irrigation projects which cater to the needs of Telangana and other backward areas of Andhra Pradesh.

ii) A comprehensive land distribution programme should be undertaken in the state with special focus on Telangana to break the grip of feudal forces.

iii) A crash programme has to be adopted to improve educational facilities in the identified backward mandals throughout the state.

iv) Special attention should be paid to the areas where health indicators are poor when compared to the state average.

v) Special measures must be adopted to improve the economic and social position of the dalits, girijans (tribal people) minorities and artisan communities. Many of the development indicators are poor in those mandals where the proportion of the dalit, tribal and minority population is large. This is true especially with relation to Telangana region. Development of these vulnerable sections is necessary to bridge the developmental gap between regions and sub regions.

vi) A comprehensive study of the imbalanced development among different regions, sub regions, districts and mandals is needed. A development index for each mandal should be developed. On this basis, comprehensive plans have to be prepared.

vii) There should be strict implementation of GO No 610 and rectification of past distortions. A constitutional amendment should be made to remove the exemption given to police department pertaining to Hyderabad in the presidential orders.

viii) Special funds have to be earmarked for the development of backward mandals in every budget and a separate mechanism to be created to oversee the implementation of the special plans for the backward areas.

ix) Special incentives should be given by the government to attract investments to the backward areas.

We urge the committee to consider all these aspects carefully. It should also keep in mind that the division of Andhra Pradesh which was the first major state to be formed on the linguistic basis will open up a plethora of demands for new states to be carved out from the existing linguistic states. Instead of tackling the root cause of regional imbalance, backwardness and underdevelopment, the demand for setting up of new states will be a diversion and open up a host of intra-state problems which can heighten differences and weaken the unity of the people of the country.

Forward to April 27 Nationwide Hartal

THE call for a nationwide hartal on April 27 given by four Left parties and nine other non-Congress secular opposition parties is gaining momentum with regional parties in various states coming forward to join this countrywide protest against the relentless rise in the prices of all essential commodities.

Simultaneously, it is very likely that on that very same day, April 27, a cut motion will be moved in the Lok Sabha on the budgetary demands for grants seeking the rollback in the hike in the prices of petrol, diesel and fertilisers. The anxiety in the ruling coalition is growing because if such a cut motion is adopted by the Lok Sabha, then the government has to go, according to our constitution. This has become a possibility because some parties that extended outside support to this UPA-2 coalition like the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (Secular) have joined this protest action and are party to the joint hartal call.

Such an anxiety amongst the ruling coalition in its very first year in government is, indeed, unprecedented. In the last two decades of coalition governments at the centre, the party leading the coalition never had more than 200 seats in the Lok Sabha. This time around, the Congress party leading the present UPA coalition government has more than 200 seats. Yet, it is counting its numbers in the Lok Sabha today! It has nobody else to blame except itself. The audacious manner in which it has imposed extra economic burdens on the people and the continued shameless justification of it has led many a supporting party to join the ranks of the Left opposition.

The objective of this nationwide hartal is not the destabilisation of the central government. Its objective is very simple: force the government through public pressure mounted both outside and inside parliament to rollback the backbreaking hikes in the prices of petrol, diesel and fertilisers. If the UPA-2 government accedes to this very justifiable demand, then, of course, the question of its instability will never arise. However, if it chooses to do otherwise, then it alone shall have to bear the responsibility for any consequences.

People’s mounting anger at the economic hardships being imposed on them can be understood by the fact that the overall inflation rate based on the wholesale price index (WPI) was 9.89 per cent as of April 3, 2010. This is way ahead of the RBI’s revised target of 8.5 per cent. Worse is the fact that food inflation stood at 17.22 per cent implying that for months on end, the vast majority of the Indian people are seeing the continuous decline in their livelihood standards.

There is a new found euphoria regarding the so-called recovery of the Indian economy overcoming global recession. This is based on the fact that the index of industrial production (IIP) grew at 17.6 per cent in December 2009, 16.7 per cent in January 2010 and 15.1 per cent in February. Notwithstanding the low base of last year due to global recession, these may appear to be healthy rates of growth. There is, however, a very important fact hidden behind these aggregate figures. Within this high IIP growth rate is the fact that consumer durables (automobiles, fridges, TVs etc) grew by 29.9 per cent while consumer non-durables (mainly food and other articles of daily consumption) grew by a mere 2.3 per cent. This is for the month of February 2010. For the year 2009-10, the average growth of consumer non-durables was just 1.6 per cent compared to 25.75 per cent for consumer durables.

It is universally accepted that the consumption of non-durable items is driven by low and middle income consumers who spend a bulk of their money on food and not so much on consumer durables. There is a near unanimous view amongst all economists and experts that “inflation has affected the purchasing power of the lower income group especially food inflation and that is reflecting in the deceleration of growth in the consumer non-durables sector”. This clearly shows that the vast majority of Indian people continue to groan under mounting economic miseries due to this relentless rise in the prices of essential commodities.

Clearly, as argued in these columns in the past, the class nature of the stimulus packages and the tax concessions to the rich ostensibly to combat global recession have only made the rich richer and the poor poorer. The hiatus between the `shining’ and `suffering’ India continues to widen.

The Left parties had demanded, apart from the rollback of the price hikes announced in the budget, a complete ban on all forward/futures trading in all essential commodities and the release of surplus foodgrains held in central godowns through a universal public distribution system to control this relentless price rise. These have so far fallen on deaf ears.

The April 27 nationwide hartal and the moving of cut motions in the parliament are aimed at making this UPA-2 government hear the agonies of the people and rollback the budgetary hikes in the prices of petrol, diesel and fertilisers. It is only the strength of a powerful people’s mobilisation that will force this government to act in the interests of the people as against its current pre-occupation with bolstering super profits for the rich.
(Peoples Democracy)

On Phone Tapping

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

On Phone Tapping

The report published in the Outlook magazine about the interception of phone calls of four political leaders, including the General Secretary of the CPI(M), is a serious matter. The report shows that the government is using the intelligence and security agencies to serve its political purpose to spy upon opposition leaders and to keep track of even its own allies and party leaders.

Such acts subvert the democratic system and breeds an atmosphere of illegality in the higher echelons of the government. They cannot be tolerated.

The government must own up responsibility in the matter and take action against those who ordered the surveillance. Protecting the covert activities of the intelligence and security agencies cannot be made the pretext for a cover-up.

To ensure that such illegal acts do not recur, the government should place in Parliament a clear set of guidelines prohibiting the use of the intelligence and security agencies for any form of surveillance of political leaders and their activities. Instructions on tapping of phones and surveillance on grounds of national security or investigation of criminal activity must be codified. The intelligence and security agencies must be subject to parliamentary oversight.