Why is Andhra Angry?

[Raaz@NBK]

Why is Andhra Angry?

 

Andhra suffered economically due to an unstable political environment for about one and half decades, during strikes & protests for the Telangana movement. In 2014, Andhra Pradesh was divided into two states, Telangana & Andhra, both are Telugu speaking states. The 'Andra Pradesh Reorganisation Act-2014' which was passed by the Indian parliament, assured 19 institutions and projects along with a special status to Andhra. However, the progress on projects is slow. The central government is now saying that the recommendations of the 'Fourteenth Finance Commission' cease the special category status of Andhra. It is not getting adequate & prompt funding from the center for constructing the capital city, Amravati, a five billion dollar project.The Government of India is also not releasing the required funds for Polavaram project of joining rivers. It is critical for the irrigation of Andhra agriculture in which 60% of the state population is working. The state is the victim of the politics. The political opponents of the state ruling party, Telugu Desam, are suffocating the state's progress for funds. People are surprised because the Chief Minister Chandrababu is an old friend of BJP. He played a key role in earlier BJP government by Atalji. BJP in Andhra is too weak to take on TDP. Mr. Naidu will play a critical role in pre-election alliances and also in post-2019 elections to match the numbers. BJP can't afford to antagonize him or the people of Andhra.

If the central government refuses lawful rights of the state then what are the options left with the state leadership? Andhra is angry, & threatened to bring 'no-confidence' motion against the union government. The Chief Minister of the state already started talking to like-minded political parties for the same. The president of the ruling party, BJP, requested him to come to the discussion table.

Andhra Pradesh is the 8th largest state in India with 13 districts. (pre-division Andhra was 5th largest state & had 23 districts). Andhra Pradesh is one of the fastest progressing states. Thanks to the hardworking Telugu people, Andhra has been growing faster than Indian economy. The GDP of Andhra grew up by 11.61% in 2015-16, the per capita income went up by 13.14%.

Andhra is susceptible to cyclones, storms, floods, droughts. and to an earthquake. In the last 4 decades, it was hit 60 times by storms, thrice by major floods. About 50% of the state is prone to storms. Andhraites deserve a pat on the back for their courage and ability to prosper even against the wrath of nature. Gender equality is in their DNA. Andhra also balances the growth of agriculture, aquaculture, industry & services sectors of the economy. Andhra leads amongst all Indian states in the ratio of working women.

Andhra Pradesh, an important state in South-East India, It has the longest coastline on the East coast of India. Andhra Pradesh has been maintaining a balance between agriculture (30%), industry (24%) and service sector (46%). They have been maintaining GDP growth rate well above 10% for over 17 consecutive years. Almost 70% of the districts have coastal area. Four important rivers of India flow through Andhra Pradesh. The state employs 60% manpower in agriculture and also leads in aquaculture (Shrimp & fish production). Telugu is the language of Andhra Pradesh. The state is a home to Lord Tirupati, Balaji also called Venkateshwara. The state made most out of this blessing of Lord Tirupati Balaji.

Lord Tirupati blesses Telugu people with wealth while making them work hard.

About 40 million devotees visit Tirupati Balaji temple every year, more than the double of the crowd at any holy place in the world. I am not providing the statistics because it might hurt religious sentiments.Disneyland gets 20 million customers every year. Only Las Vegas, with 40 million people visiting every year, matches the crowd at Tirupati. The government of Andhra is thinking of coming out with the legislation to allow only one visit for every devotee, every year. This will ease out the crowd at the temple. Some devotees visit the temple twice or thrice a month, putting pressure on the temple management to manage the huge crowd of devotees.

Telugu people draw strength from Lord Balaji, He is 'avatar' (reincarnation) of the Hindu God Vishnu, considered as a protector of the world. He destroys sins against his people. There is a belief of the followers of Lord Balaji that he took a loan from 'Kubera', the treasurer of Gods, for a wedding with the Goddess Padmavati. It was a huge loan taken by the God to pay money demanded by Padmavati's father as a condition for the wedding. Balaji promised not to return to heaven unless he pays off the debt to Kubera & stayed on Tirumala hills (Tirupati). Devotees try to help Balaji by donating money & gold. Tirupati Balaji temple receives around 22.5 million Indian rupees ($ 400 million a year). On an average 3000 kg of gold is also donated every month. This makes Lord Balaji the second richest God in the world. Devotees also donate their hair by shaving their head at the temple. The story of Andhra Pradesh can't be completed without the story of Lord Venkateshwara.

Telugu: One of the most spoken languages in world Telugu shares the third position with Marathi (Maharashtra state, population 110 million, official language) as the most spoken language in India after Hindi & Bengali. About 75 million people speak Telugu. It is also 15th most spoken language in the world, not far behind German & French. As per the survey by US Census Bureau data 3,65,566 people speak Telugu at home in the United States of America which is almost 10% of the Indian languages population in the US. Telugu is the 20th most spoken language in America.

Rich Heritage Andhra has very old & rich cultural heritage. Before Christ, it was a part of Mauryan empire. Thereafter, it was a part of Satavahana dynastic rule. Kakatiyas ruled Andhra for two centuries. They constructed many forts in Andhra. Reddy Dynasty had a rule in 12th & 13th century. Andra was always rich and was always ruled by Hindu or Budha dynasties. 90% of the Andhra's population is Hindu. Telugu kings also ruled Central & Eastern provinces of Shri Lanka.

The first migrants to African colonies of the British, were Telugu people

Sacrificing the capital city twice. Andhra Pradesh had sacrificed its claim over the capital city for the second time in 2014. Before independence of India from the British, the most of the Andhra Pradesh was under Madras Presidency. There was a separate Hyderabad state with Telugu, Kannada and Marathi speaking populations. In the year 1953 when Andhra Pradesh was formed, it had to give up its right on the capital city of Madras (called Chennai today). The Hyderabad state was also broken with the Kannada speaking part going to Karnataka and Marathi speaking part going to the state of Maharashtra. Rayalaseema, a part of Andhra was also away from Hyderabad rulers & it was under the British rule.

One in every four software professionals migrating to America from India is a Telugu

Telugu Software Professionals In the 1960s & 70s doctors, researchers, academicians migrated to the US. Modern day software careers in the software industry are dominated by Telugu professionals from Andhra & Telangana. H1B visas are 80,000 per year; from the year 2001 more than 50 per cent of visas have been granted for Telugu people. This takes the number to nearly one million if we include their families. The coastal Andhra has been a fertile land hence people in that area are rich. This area was part of Madras presidency hence the level of education, particularly for English & Maths was better. This background helped ambitious Telugu youngsters to explore career opportunities in the IT industry. Soon they created a dominant position in the IT sector. Support by the visionary leader like Chandrababu Naidu helped their cause. Hyderabad became an important IT hub in India next only to Bangalore along with other cities like Pune, Navi Mumbai, Gurgoan etc.

Andhra: Business & Public personalities Andhra people are enterprising. They had tie-ups with the Roman empire ever since Satavahana time. The ladies in Rome use to boast silk & cotton cloths imported from Andhra. In modern era the businessmen & CEOs of Microsoft, Reliance, GMR, GVK, Adobe, Reddy's Lab, Appolo hospital, Cisco etc are Telugu people. Till date 3 great Telugu people got Bharat Ratna award, Dada Saheb Phalke award in cinema was given to 5 Telugu personalities, 5 Telugu sports persons bagged prestigious Arjun award plus one Khel Ratan award. In literature Telugu writers & poets did well, there were 3 Janapith, 4 Sahitya Academy awards given to Telugu personalities.

Future of Andhra Pradesh The state was constructed & reconstructed by many dynasties in different centuries. In the 21st century, Telugu people are reconstructing their Andhra Pradesh with a new energy.

In Andhra 70% population stays in villages, unlike other prosperous states which had an issue of huge urbanization.

With the sex ratio of 996 females to 1000 males, Andhra is way ahead of the national average. According to Global Gender Gap Report, Among 145 nations which were studied, India stood 136th in the female labor force participation rate. Women’s workforce participation in India is the lowest among the BRICS nations. A range of countries, such as Bahrain, Malaysia and even Somalia (37%), do much better, While Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had some of the lowest female workforce participation rates-with 15.5% and 18.1% – states such as Rajasthan and Jharkhand did much better than the national average of 31.1%. All the southern states have scored better than the national average, with Andhra Pradesh being the highest (51.3%). (Source: NDTV report). Women's participation in the agricultural labor force (38.87 and 55.67%) in India and the State of Andhra Pradesh, India (Census of India, 2001) plays a distinctive role in earning a livelihood for the family. (Source: Researchgate.net).

Polavaram Project In 2017 about 3000 tmc water was drained to the Bay of Bengal from the river Godavari. Polavaram is a project to connect Godavari river (which has surplus water) to Krishna river.(which has deficit water). This project is a part of India's ambitious project of connecting Himalayan rivers to other rivers in order to save water getting drained to the sea. Polavaram is probably the largest infrastructural project in the world. It will irrigate 23,20,000 hectares of land in the 6 districts of Andhra plus offers benefits to Odisha, Telangana, Karnataka & Maharashtra state. Odisha and Chhattisgarh have filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the project which has a probability of temporarily submerging large areas of its state and allege that union government is going ahead with the project without the necessary permissions from Environment Ministry. Under section 90 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, the union government has taken the responsibility of taking all clearances and approvals for the project execution and also declared the project as the national project.

Politics and Development The non-cooperation attitude of the Modi government is surprising. The Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu is a political ally of his party. In fact, Mr. Naidu was the convenor/leader of NDA during the earlier government of Atal Bihari Bajpeyi. He played a key role in the success of NDA People were looking at him as the future leader of India but he preferred to remain in the state politics.

Chandrababu is a performer. He has been considered as a pro-development politician who is techno-savvy and industry-friendly. Is BJP hitting at the political personalities who can pose threat in future? Andhra politics is dominated by regional parties. BJP just won four seats in the last assembly elections in Andhra and Congress won nil. Can the negative attitude of BJP government at the centre be linked to its effort to make in-roads into the Andhra politics? The next year will be the election year in Andhra. Chandrababu has been seen as the leader of the urban area. This image costed him the power & he lost to YSR Reddy of Congress during state elections post-NDA era. Unified Andhra had a strong urban base but today rural politics dominates the state. He has been making efforts to work for the rural Andhra. BJP wants to block his attempt to re-position himself as the leader of the rural area. They also want to undermine his effectiveness as a performer.

Alienating Chandrababu will only make him play a major role in the centre against BJP.

He is a seasoned politician with good connections with national leaders. BJP is also struggling to keep other friends like Shiv Sena in good humor, they can't afford another break-up. Chandrababu & Shiv Sena can't keep Modiji away from power during the next elections but they can create a major damage.

Any attempt to undermine Chandrababu will only force him to Retaliate. He & Shiv Sena can force BJP to form a coalition government during the second term.

Modi government's performance is acceptable but certainly not mesmerizing. It has its share of failures too. Every failure can't be blamed on the Congress. Modiji is pitching for the second term and his vote bank is in a mood to grant him the same. People of India have not seen any major changes in the Congress leadership, approach & attitude. They are also not learning from their failure. No other party has projected a leader who can challenge Modiji at the centre in 2019 elections.

Modiji rose to power by showing hope. He would retain it by the process of elimination.

In 2019 central elections people of India will elect Modiji but will ask him to work in a coalition govt. Donald Trump's election showed the power of electoral equations. Failure to understand mechanics and numerology of different electoral sectors can cost the crown despite having popular votes. Efforts to undermine ally will make the job of campaign managers difficult. Pre-electoral alliances will be critical in the 2019 elections. In my opinion:-

Modiji's political advisers are pushing him towards coalition govt. after 2019 elections.

An attempt to undermine the power of Chandrababu Naidu is the best example. Lord Balaji is watching from hills of Tirupati. He shall not tolerate injustice done to his beloved devotees from his home state... Andra Pradesh. It needs immediate attention. Andhra is angry.

About the Author: Prof Dr. Ajit Patilis a Professor of Marketing & Retailing. He has been awarded 'Top Voice on LinkedIn - 2017'. He teaches at ICFAI Business School, (IBS) Powai, Mumbai, India. He also pursues other careers as a Management Writer, Corporate Trainer, and Business Development Consultant.

[Vulavacharu]

 

[Dravidict]

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34 minutes ago, Dravidict said:

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