“It’s a victory of the martyrs of the cause for the last six decades who made the supreme sacrifice for Telangana,”prominent statehood activist K Chandrashekhar Rao of TRS told this magazine.

Others predictably disagree as the movement for retaining a‘unified Andhra Pradesh’has become more explicit and at times violent.Curiously enough,the Congress party finds itself divided with ruling party MPs staging demonstrations in both the Houses of Parliament and the state chief minister Kiran Reddy himself leading a surcharged battle against the demerging of Andhra Pradesh.

There is a third section and importantly that means a lot for the country in terms of assessing the fallout of the announcement.Perhaps little did Congress leaders realize that the announcement has opened a Pandora’s box’and rekindled longstanding demands by at least half a dozen ethnic and community groups for greater autonomy in other states.

The sensitive eastern part of India,with borders almost on all sides,in the process tasted the maximum brunt.Minutes after the announcement,the Gorkha and the Bodo ethnic groups in West Bengal and Assam respectively launched stirs to intensify their demands for separate homelands for their ethnic groups.
 
Assam,where an ethnic battle cry can suddenly turn violent also saw the re-emergence of statehood demands from its Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills areas.

Pramod Boro,the leader of All Bodo Students Union,which has been spearheading the demand for a semi-independent Bodoland in Assam for the last 2 decades, said that the government“Will be responsible for any untoward incidents”if their demands are not met quickly.In Parliament,Bodo MPs staged noisy demonstrations in both the Houses.

The agitating Bodo members Biswajit Daimary(Bodoland People’s Front)in Rajya Sabha and his colleague in the lower House S K Bwiswmuthiary carried banners that read–'If Telangana, Why Not Bodoland?’

By the second week of August,2013,Bodos and Gorkhas planned to throw a deeper challenge to the UPA dispensation–reeling poorly under severe corruption charges,‘missing files’pertaining to the Coalgate scam and unprecedented economic meltdown.

The moderate Gorkhas and‘radical’Bodos decided to forge a synergy in their protests.Gorkha Janmukti Morcha(GJM)general secretary Roshan Giri and BPF

“New Delhi should display political will”

Roshan Giri-GJM General Secretary

EP:Ever since the Telangana announcement has been made,several statehood demands have come from across the country.What’s so special about your demand?

Roshan Giri:Ours has been a unique demand.The Indian Gorkhas have always been a victim of mistaken identity.Therefore,our Gorkhaland demand is not confined to the problem of development alone;it’s about an identity crisis.New Delhi must understand that the stop-gap arrangements by various governments have so far failed.

EP:This time,you all in the Gorkha leadership under GJM announced the stir only after the Telangana announcement was made.What about the timing?GTA was an agreed arrangement?

RG:I must tell you that though the historical background is not the sole criteria for the creation of a separate state,it is definitely an important factor. Darjeeling hills,Terai and the Dooars were never part of Bengal before the advent of British rule. Even the West Bengal government admitted in 1986 that historically the district of Darjeeling was part of Sikkim and Bhutan.Sometime,it was part of Bhagalpur in Bihar.So,our demand will actually settle all these disputes.

EP:There is almost no talk with the Mamata Banerjee government.So how do you plan to go about this?

RG:The Government of India has a role.Actually,it is also part of the tripartite agreement so it must come forward.The central government should display the sagacity and political will to carve out Gorkhaland.This will bring in lasting peace and development.

EP:You seem to have lost faith in the GTA.Why it is so?

RG:I must tell you,the Gorkhaland region never witnessed the kind of violence witnessed in northeastern states with similar demands.We are very patriotic and have a rich history of contribution to the national cause.Our Gorkha jawans still border the frontiers of India all over.We are proud of it.But,see,the agreement on Gorkhaland Territorial Agreement reached after 11 rounds of tripartite talks have also failed us.We accepted the GTA only as an interim arrangement and we were promised a lot of autonomy.But nothing came in.Actually,the state government of West Bengal drafted the GTA Act unilaterally. There have been unwarranted interferences from Kolkata.Therefore,our leader Bimal Gurung resigned as chief executive of the GTA.

Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary held a preliminary conclave in the national capital and indicated that there could be joint protest to mount pressure on the Centre.

The Home Ministry,responsible for internal security was alarmed by this and rightly so.“These renewed demands and joint strategies by Bodos and Gorkhas along the Darjeeling region simply spell more trouble.The Government of India will have to be really pro-active and innovative because the paralyzing factor of the Chicken Neck corridor in North East India will only add to the woes,”a senior security analyst in the ministry told Eastern Panorama.

Actually,the statehood demand dramas have just begun.There are already demands for creation of other new states like Saurashtra in Gujarat,Coorg in Karnataka,Koshalanchal in western Odisha,Vidharbha in Mahasrashtra,creation of three new states out of UP and Mithilanchal in North Bihar.

“Our demand for a Vidharbha state is older than Telangana,”said ruling Congress parliamentarian Vilas Muttemwar.

Withered Homework on Telangana:

The Congress leadership and the government hardly did any proper homework before making the announcement.The state of‘being caught unawares’has actually given BJP leaders like M Venkaiah Naidu the chance to exclaim that while the Atal Behari Vajpayee government successfully created three states–Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhatisgarh in 2000;the Congress party was unable to manage the creation of just one.

In fact,a letter was written among others by Andhra chief minister Kiran Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Botcha Satyanarayana in which the signatories in their impatient plea to Sonia Gandhi say that the state of Andhra should be kept‘united’.Therefore,not many were surprised when the Congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Reddy also threatened to quit.As many as 6 anti-Telangana MPs and central Ministers met the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and urged him to keep Andhra ‘united’.“We have cautioned that the bifurcation of Andhra will have an adverse impact not only in the state but also for the entire country,”said K S Rao a union minister who is opposing Telangana state.

The opposition BJP has, however,supported the creation of Telangana saying that smaller states with adequate autonomy help in better administration.BJP MP Chandan Mitra has,in fact,also suggested the constitution of a second State Re-organisation Commission o consider cases pertaining to such demands.But in the BJP camp too minor differences prevail.The lone Bengal MP from the saffron party,Jaswant Singh has been under tremendous pressure to pursue the cause of Gorkhaland.“BJP supports smaller states.I also hold the view that the Gorkhas have a genuine case.I say this in all humility even as my Bengal unit of BJP is opposed to Gorkhaland.In Bengal,the bifurcation of the state is a touchy issue mostly due to reasons of history.And I respect that view,”says Jaswant Singh.

Do Small states help?

Now,let’s take a fast track view at the story of Telanaga and the debate about smaller states.

The Telangana stir is about five-decades old and had gathered major momentum with an aggressive campaign by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi,headed by K Chandrasekhara Rao.In response,in December 2009 the central government made an announcement regarding’initiating’the process to carve out a separate Telangana.But within a fortnight the government had to backtrack as violent protests soon followed from the other two regions including in Bengal and also from anti-Telangana groups in Andhra Pradesh.

According to experts,for Telangana it was not economics alone that started or sustained this yearning for a divorce.“Though they spoke the same language- Telugu,they were markedly different at the same time.The intonation,Urdu peppering it liberally,the festivals,the customs … made them out to be immiscible,” says a senior commentator Mahesh Vijapurkar.Others also speak about a perceived blunder committed by  Jawaharlal Nehru.“Announcing the Union government’s decision to merge Telangana with Andhra without the consent of the former,Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru,during a visit to Nizamabad,said that if the experiment failed,the two states could separate like a young bride and groom seeking divorce if their marriage failed,”writes veteran journalist Sam Rajappa.

Thus,the debate will go on.But there is an accompanying brain storming session also on whether smaller states help the cause of the common people and inclusive development.The concept of smaller states, according to some observers has often failed to deliver in India as was the case in the eastern state of Jharkhand created in 2000.“In the last 12 years,Jharkhand as a small-state model has failed.It had 8 chief ministers with political instability and corruption running rampant even as the Naxal menace too has hit the predominantly tribal state,”laments New Delhi-based educationist Professor Shekhar Roy.

“Dialogue with Gorkhas should continue” Jaswant Singh-BJP MP from Darjeeling EP:How would you rate your performance as Darjeeling MP and raising the Gorkhaland issue in Parliament? Jaswant Singh:I have been sincere to my voters.I did raise the issue with the government at various fora.I might not have reported about these in the media. But that’s how I function.I am sorry to say at this age,I cannot be expected to change my style of functioning.The manner in which other MPs raise their issues in Parliament and come to the well of the House with banners,I cannot do that. EP:What is the BJP stand on the creation of Gorkhaland? JS:True,in principle,my party BJP favours smaller states.I do feel that the demand for Gorkhaland is the oldest,most valid and most important demand for a new state because Darjeeling is the only district in the country which shares four international borders.Today if there is any prospect to stop the Bangladeshi infiltration into India;it is the creation of Gorkhaland. EP:What is the West Bengal unit of BJP’s stand on this issue? JS:The Bengal unit of BJP is opposed to Gorkhaland.In Bengal,the bifurcation of the state is a touchy issue mostly due to historical reasons.Bengal has seen partition twice during the colonial period.And I respect that view. But historically Gorkhas and Darjeeling areas had a different story altogether.From 1905 to 1912,Darjeeling was part of Bhagalpur administration in Bihar.In 1912,it was again reverted back to Rajshahi division,now in Bangladesh.It was only later that Darjeeling was taken as part of West Bengal. EP:In your opinion,how can this problem be solved? JS:The Gorkha Territorial Administration(GTA)was set up as part of a tripartite agreement between the Gorkha leaders,the West Bengal Government and the Centre.So,I think the process of dialogue between the state of West Bengal and the Gorkha leaders should not stop. The collapse of‘dialogue and political discourse’ between the West Bengal Government and the local Gorkha leaders after the stir was renewed post the announcement of Telangana;is unfortunate. This absence of communication is the single greatest lapse today.Here the Central Government too has a role as it was also part of an agreement.

Swati Deb