The recent announcement of the Home Minister expressing the consent of the Central Government to initiate a process to form a separate Telangana state throws up many facets of political decision making . Historically, the demand is more than 400 years old but the present demand is only about 40 years old. The main reason publicised by the agitators is lack of development in the area under the Andhra Pradesh governance . Many times in the recent past,the federal government[s] would have examined this demand and expressed many opinions like referring the case to a State Reorganisation Committee , referendum through polls , etc . However this is the first time that the Federal Government has categorically stated that the process will be initiated . The fasting Mr Chandrasekhara Rao [KCR] promptly called off his indefenite fast unto death . Soon,the chain reaction started all over expressing views and agitating against the government’s announcement- What really went wrong in the decision making process? What is the major purpose of this decision and its timing?
The decision making process for such issues goes through various stages – the initial awareness phase,the impact analysis both politically for the ruling party at the central and state level and economically for all stake holders, implementability of the decision, time frame desired by the decision makers and above all the core purpose in deciding for or against and the timing of its announcement to the public. Without going into the merits of the decision and its announcement shortly before midnight on 9th December , and merely analysing the backlash now happening in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh areas against this move , it is apparent either the federal government did not expect such a violent reaction from others or they expected it and wanted to assess this on the ground as a scenario planning exercise for the final decision and implementation of Telangana on the ground. This is possible as no time frame has been set to form this new state . Therefore , the issue is now more complicated than before.
There is nothing new to this process . We have examples from the time the SRC [State Re-organisation Committe] was formed in the fifties, the division of erstwhile Bombay State,Trifurcation of Punjab with common state capital, Break up of Uttar Pradesh,all of these followed the same pattern. What one ends up wondering is are thse decisions in the domain of the Public Good or are they in the realm of political brinkmanship?.Only time will tell us.