Federal Front: KCR assisting Modi

KCR's lonely proclamation in Hyderabad, a month ago, of forming 'Federal Front' equidistant from BJP and Congress reveals his secret agenda. While his opposing Congress and BJP in Telangana is understandable, there is no way a non-Congress front would be able to fight and unseat BJP (and Modi) at Centre. In fact a non-BJP & non-Congress front, as conceived by KCR, can neither win nor serve any meaningful purpose except clandestinely helping BJP in dividing anti incumbency votes in 2019 elections.

• A third front is a certainty prior to 2019 elections and Chandra Babu Naidu might get a very active role in the front mainly due to his taking head-on with Modi after 2018 budget denying any assistance to AP, as per AP Reorganisation Act 2014 due to his previous experience in 1990's and his vast contacts and KCR doesn't like to play junior role to him, despite being so in life & politics.
• Except Deve Gowda, whose JD(S) has nothing against the BJP, none of the leaders — Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, Hemanth Soren and MK Stalin — were enthusiastic about the objective of KCR’s proposed front.
• Mamata is ready for a front against the BJP, but she is opposed to exclude the Congress. Hemanth Soren has entered into an electoral understanding with the Congress even while KCR has been in touch with him. The DMK, too, was non-committal about KCR’s proposal.
• After meeting Mamata Banerjee at Kolkata, while KCR was addressing, Ms Banerjee replied to a scribe’s question saying, “it is not like whatever Mr Rao has said, I completely agree with that”. 
• CM Naveen Patnaik has made it amply clear that it would be a “courtesy call” as KCR happens to be in the state next week. “Rao is visiting Puri temple. On his return journey, he wanted to meet me. I agreed. The meeting has nothing to do with politics,” Patnaik told the media a day after KCR’s office announced the upcoming meeting.
• Both Rao and Akhilesh Yadav did not comment on whether this new coalition of regional powers, if it comes together, will be open to working with the Congress. “Our goal is not to make someone prime minister, but to take India forward. Nobody is an untouchable here and can work with us. The driving force of our alliance will be our agenda" KCR said adding that it could take about two months to arrive at a consensus and finalise an agenda.
• TDP views KCR's front is intended to help the Prime Minister Modi. It is an open secret that KCR and Modi have a pact. Otherwise, why did the Telangana finance minister skip the southern states finance ministers’ conference, when KCR is questioning the Centre’s dictatorship and demanding more powers for the states?
• The outcome of his highly publicised meetings doesn't commensurate with the brouhaha KCR generated among the TRS cadres with his announcement that he wants to change the destiny of the nation on the lines of Telangana. 
• KCR's announcement that he himself would lead the non-BJP, non-Congress front has sent across the message that he might also be in the prime ministerial race. It triggered neither any interest nor any support from any corner. 
• The poor response for his meetings elicited seems to have forced KCR to change his language vis-à-vis the Congress. 
• KCR's political detractors in TS says that the whole episode is a political propaganda ahead of the election year. Many see the federal front as an attempt to divert people’s attention from the failures of the KCR government and his “collusion” with Andhra contractors, while others see it as a “drama” to facilitate smooth transfer of power to his son KT Rama Rao. 

Whether KCR is hoping to team up with BJP or Congress, one thing is clear. Federal Front does not have any ideological lines of political base. KCR says that BJP and Congress have failed to address the people’s problems in the last 70 years and the front is different and it will be according to people’s needs. Slogans pitching him as the PM are expected to create a second wave of pro-Telangana sentiment and help the TRS win 2019 elections in the face of growing unity among opposition parties in the state.

Modi becoming weaker month after month since May 2017, regional party leaders with 15-40 seats started day dreaming to become PM of India in 2019, even though majority in LS is 272 mark. Ridiculous. Whether any one likes or not, Congress is certain to get near about 150 LS seats while BJP will get confined to less than 100 in 2019 elections. Regional parties have no option except to join alliance with Congress and share ministerial positions at centre with a common minimum program. And Rahul Gandhi will become PM not withstanding his immaturity & visionlessness. In any case, he will do better than Modi who only destroyed economy with his senseless adventures and 2014-19 years will remain forgotten years. India should aim to become a happy nation rather than racing to become super power. And KCR's secret agenda, of helping BJP and Modi, will only boomerang on his face. BJP & Modi will have to blame themselves for squandering away great opportunity to rule India with absolute majority with their arrogance, audacity and atrocious behavior. Time and again non-congress parties have proved themselves fit for sitting in opposition benches not in treasury benches.

Telangana bungles budget & accounts 2016-17

The CAG has been very critical of the TS government's financial management and financial indiscipline. Against the TS government’s claim of surplus budget in the financial year 2016-17, the CAG report commented that the revenue surplus was overstated by Rs 6,778 crore on account of irregular accounting. Thus the state had a revenue deficit of Rs 5,392 crore in 2016-17. 

  

  

• The fiscal deficit of Rs 35,281 crore stood at 5.46% of GSDP was understated by Rs 2,500 crore due to crediting of borrowed funds as revenue receipts.
• The ratio of fiscal deficit to GSDP, excluding the amount transferred under UDAY scheme (Rs 7,500 crore), was 4.3% exceeding the ceiling of 3.5% stipulated for 2016-17 by the 14th FC  under FRBM legislation. 
• Under UDAY scheme, against Rs 8,931.51 crore borrowed through UDAY bonds during the year, the state government released Rs 7,500 crore only to Discoms at the end of the yearand has been booked under capital expenditure as equity. 
• The government utilised 34.74% of borrowed funds in 2016-17 for repaying its existing debt which increased by 18%. The CAG warned the state government that it will have to borrow further to repay its loans. 
• CAG said that the interest payments was 10.4% of revenue receipts against the normative rate of 8.22% prescribed by the 14th FC.
• The total debt in 2016-17 was Rs 1.21 lakh crore, which is 31% more than Rs 91,985 crore in the previous year. The state used 7.12% of its tax revenue to repay the debt in 2015-16, it had to allocate 32.16% of tax revenue for the same during 2016-17.
• The aim of Mission Kakatiya is to restore all 46,531 tanks in the state in five years. The restoration of 21,670 tanks by August 2017 was proposed; however, only 28% of them, 7901 tanks, were restored. The removal of silt is an important component of the restoration works. The state government said that farmers were not interested in taking the silt because it was not useful for agriculture. The CAG said that this was not acceptable as guidelines prescribed priority to be given to tanks where farmers agreed to transport silt. The restoration works are supposed to irrigate 10 lakh acres of gap ayacut. The CAG observed that there was no mention of the gap ayacut in the estimates for the individual works.

KCR of TRS has successfully converted Telangana, a revenue surplus state in 2014 (Rich state) into a revenue deficit state (Poor state) with his mindless borrowing and senseless spending and bring the state to the brink of debt trap (borrowing to pay old debts). In the process KCR and TS had violated all accounting norms, bypassed rules, bungled the books, FC rules ignored, FRBM limits violated. In these matters, KCR is neither the first nor the last. Most states and Centre violates norms and rules, at will, and doesn't really care for CAG reports. Corruption is the key element.

With most of its spending on non revenue generating projects, Telangana will sink into deep debt trap very soon. With most of its revenues going for debt servicing - education, health care and welfare will take severe hit. The debt will be shifted for as long as possible… but eventually, someone will have to come to terms with it. The black hole totals up to huge sums of money; no one can pay; and the system gets bankrupted, or services rendered become inadequate and farcical. The future is austere if this equation isn’t balanced out.

Notwithstanding tall development and financial management claims of the Gujarat state, the CAG's five audit reports on the last leg of Narendra Modi's rule as the Gujarat Chief Minister after a 12-year stint has fished out in all disputed transactions worth Rs 25,000 crore that points to fiscal profligacy and rising debt burden.

Read the CAG report dated July 2014

Telangana: TDP - Kingmaker 2019

• TDP vote bank still remains at 7% in Telangana, as assessed by TRS and Congress but it could be much more at 10-12%. In Hyderabad city it could be as much as 20%. 
• If TDP fights elections alone, its gains will be far less in multi cornered contests.
• 2019 General elections will be bitterly fought between TRS and Congress. While BJP will be happy to align with TRS. That leaves TDP option-less to support 35 year rival Congress.
• TRS gestures towards TDP are always hot and cold. It is never trustworthy for anyone.

For 2019 elections TDP might have to get aligned with TRS or Congress only for the purpose of seat sharing to gain maximum seats. For that, it must focus on party organisational structure and rejuvenate it, right now. AP's diaspora in Telangana is very large at 20% of population and their well being is always be a concern of TDP.

Telangana New Secretariat & CM's Residence - Matter of shame

• Earlier KCR constructed his official home 40,000 Sft, Camp office 40,000 sft and Meeting Hall 15,000 sft, with 200 car parking in a 9 Acre plot in Begumpet, Hyderabad at a cost of over Rs.100 crores and all inclusive cost would be over Rs.1,000 crores. What he will do in 40,000 sft home, is difficult to guess.
• Now he is venturing to construct a new secretariat with 6,00,000 Sft at Bison Grounds, Secunderabad at an all inclusive cost of over Rs. 5,000 crores.
• What extra work he will do in this palatial complexes whose maintenance will be borne by Telangana tax payers is nothing much significant. He could have done same work in the existing secretariat and existing CM residence complexes.
• It is a great shame on the part of KCR for squandering public money for private comfort and personal pride. Worse than erstwhile Nizams.

When Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966, she continued to stay in in the house occupied by her as I&B Minister and took only adjacent building which was for her camp office with a pathway inside. She discarded all imported cars and insisted that all minster including herself use only Ambassador cars and she did so throughout her tenure till death in 1984. She used to say that 'Thrift is my guiding principle'. 

Another living example is Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. He moved into Naveen Niwas that his father built near the Odisha airport occupying the servant quarters instead of the main building which he converted into his residential office. He is a bachelor. He lives life of austerity wearing only simple white kurta-pyjamas.

GST and KCR's outbursts

• In November 2016, KCR was the first non-BJP/NDA chief minister to support Modi's demonetization move. Telangana was the first state to pass the GST legislation on Apr 16, 2017. TRS extended unconditional support to BJP's  Ramnath Kovind as NDA's Presidential nominee and Vice President candidate.
• The dalliance between the ruling TRS and the BJP has practically ended with the completion of elections of the President and the vice-president. While the change in tone of KCR may appear at the outset to fight the GST, the battle between the Modi and TRS governments is about much more than what meets the eye. 
• GST Council has already lowered GST rates on  public utility and infrastructure projects from 18% to 12% as requested by several states in its first meeting. The Telangana state government has been asking the Centre not to levy 12% GST on the public utility and infrastructure projects. Telangana wants these projects to be taxed at 5%. 
• Under GST, the tax rate on cement, steel, and concrete — all key ingredients for the projects — has been reduced. This benefit will be pocketed by EPC contractors.
• Due to GST @12% in place of VAT @5%, Telangana government will have to bear the additional burden of Rs.19,500 on all ongoing public utility and infrastructure projects which are worth Rs.2.30 lakh crores.
• Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao declared Goods & Services Tax (GST) is a failure in several Nations. He made it clear success of GST in India depends on how well Centre handles the concerns.
• Now the CM KCR decided to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce 12% GST on the ongoing projects. Rao held that since the project estimates have been prepared keeping in view 5%  VAT, it is not possible to change them. He had "threatened" that the state government would engage in a "legal battle" in Supreme Court against the union government over the issue.

KCR walking extra miles to please Modi, devoid of merit and for unknown reasons, in matters of demonetization, GST, President & Vice President elections and expecting all he wants from Modi is not only naive but also stupidity. Modi is only a taker but never a giver. Ask Naveen Patnaik how much he got extra for Odisha from Modi, during past 3 years. Literally zero. The impacts of GST and its rates were well known in advance. Going forward states will become like municipalities of centre with very less freedom to mobilize funds. Centre will become extremely powerful with no direct responsibility of people welfare where as states will become extremely powerless and saddled with total responsibility of people's welfare. This is in contradiction of federal polity of our constitution. Ambedkar's fears of abuse of constitution without amending it are coming true in Modi's India.

Farm loan waiver is a necessity

• About 50% of the population is engaged on agriculture directly, which makes farmers the most influential group of voters. Though not occupationally organised, their votes matter a lot and being perceived as pro-farmer has historically been the necessary requirement for being a popular political force in the country & states.
• In Feb 1990, Madhu Dandavate, V P Singh’s Finance Minister in  NF government, announced a debt relief scheme for farmers covering waiving overdues or outstandings of farmers and artisans up to Rs 10,000, and involved a fiscal cost of Rs.10,000 crore.
• Soon after the Modi government took over, bankers and RBI had warned the Finance Ministry of the dangers of such write offs. There was little support then from Delhi for the huge loan waivers announced by the newly formed states of AP and Telangana. As the Modi government worked on its first Budget, bankers, led by SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, got together to stymie the proposal — finally forcing the state governments to settle for a rescheduling of the loans.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the first pitch at a UP elections 2017 political rally where he said, “I will make sure that the first cabinet decision after forming the government in Lucknow is to waive farmers’ loans. That pronouncement cast the die for UP, a state already struggling under a huge debt burden, writing off farm loans aggregating Rs 36,359 crore,  up to Rs 1 lakh for about 21.5 million small and marginal farmers.
• Urjit Patel, RBI Governor, has voiced concern publicly over the latest loan waiver — saying it engendered a moral hazard and undermined the honest credit culture. As a matter of policy, nationalized banks do not write-off loans. The states will have to repay them on behalf of the farmer.
• There does exist a distinction between farmers owning five acres of land and farmers owning land more than five acres. Such a distinction is not per se discriminatory. No one has a right to get a waiver of the loan availed by him. 
• Hardly 30% of the farmers access institutional credit. A large section of those who access credit from banks are large farmers. Most small and marginal farmers took private loans as the process of obtaining institutional credit was cumbersome. 
• The UP Govt wants to finance this waiver by issuing state backed farmers relief bonds issued by a state organisation, which the govt repays at a later date. Such a large waiver scheme would negatively affect the state budget deficit levels, endangers its credibility and makes it tougher to obtain loans in the future. But Govt bonds are not debts in the state budget and do not affect the fiscal deficit significantly. At present, UP’s estimated fiscal deficit is Rs 41,400 crores.
• Development economists feel farm loan waivers are short-term measures, but are nevertheless necessary in times of severe drought or floods. However, they said that there was a deeper systemic problem that has pushed farmers strongly into the debt cycle.
• The price for farm produce has stagnated over the years. On the other hand, cost of agricultural inputs have soared. This has drastically pushed up the cost of production. For example, after decontrolling fertilizers in 2010, the cost of a few fertilizers have gone up over 1400%. Whereas the Minimum Support Price for paddy has gone up a mere Rs 470 or 68% in the same period. Unless the government reduces cost of production and increases agriculture profit, farmers will remain caught in the debt cycle and the cycle of farm loan waivers would be inevitable.
• The waiver of farm loans was not wrong in a situation where a debt-ridden farmer is debilitated by climatic conditions. The writing off farm loans adversely affecting the fiscal situation in states is small compared to subsidies doled out by govt for the corporate sector which is not seen as a burden.

What ever can go wrong, has gone wrong with rural India.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, 
it cannot save the few who are rich ... John F. Kennedy

Government's view of the economy in a few short phrases: 
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. 
And if it stops moving, subsidize it ... Ronald Reagan

My View:

Today in India farm holdings are largely fragmented with 90% farmers owning or cultivating less than 5 acres. The anti farmer government policies on fertilizers & support prices, bankers reluctance to lend aggressively to farmers, rampant adulteration of seeds & pesticides, labour issues arising out of MNREGS, erratic irrigation & agriculture power supply, climatic uncertainties and menace of middlemen in procurement of farm produce have resulted in once profitable agriculture activity into a non-remunerative activity. Improper storage facilities, badly implemented crop insurance schemes are bane to farmers. Lacking skills & capital, farmers are  trapped in agriculture permanently, irrespective of viability. Most government promises are just eyewash and at times of crisis farmers are silently left to their fate compelling suicides. In 1980's & 90's farmers availing crop loans were rare just below 10% and today they are over 90%. With reduced incomes and higher interest burden (70% credit is private credit at higher rates) farmers making both ends meet has become an impossibility. 

Farming is livelihood for vast majority of lower classes, less educated, less skilled people of India (who are hitherto not employable in formal sector) and present policies are farming destructive. For a populous country like India, self sufficiency in food grains is a must. India is just self sufficient in food grains only because 40% of its population who are poor are surviving on just one square meal a day. If all rural people drops their non remunerative avocation and migrates to urban areas in search of livelihood it will be catastrophic for nation to face acute food shortage and its weak urban infrastructure will simply breakdown.

In order to ensure decent livelihood for farmers and at the same time ensuring cheap and affordable food to all spectrum of poor people of country and in the absence of reliable inputs, crop insurance and marketing systems etc it is imperative to provide at least 60% of entire crop expenses as subsidy, 40% paid at the beginning of season and final 20% after verification of before harvesting as direct credit into their bank accounts. This subsidy can be rationalized as reliable systems develop and come into operation. This is not to save or enrich farmers but to stay put farmers in non remunerative agriculture and averting the nation from food crisis. 

Until then periodic farm loan waiver schemes is a necessity and inescapable, no matter what our insensitive economic pundits from air-conditioned ivory towers say.

PV Sindhu - Olympic Silver Medalist - Felicitations and Controversies

The Olympic Silver Medal 2016 winner PV Sindhu is no doubt resident of Hyderabad all through. By birth & domicile she belongs to Hyderabad the capital of erstwhile AP and these days to Telangana. But her parents hail from a village in West Godavari dist and Vijayawada respectively. And nothing wrong for Andhraites felicitating this girl from Andhra as well.

Soon after Sindhu won the silver, Naidu quickly announced a Rs 3 crore cash reward for her along with a 1,000 square yard residential plot in AP's upcoming capital Amaravati. He also offered her Group I officer's post of special grade deputy collector in the AP government. On Tuesday an appointment order was kept ready for her, but Sindhu declined the offer. Telangana government biggies who had tweeted that a Rs 1 crore cash reward would be given to Sindhu upped the offer to Rs 5 crore soon after Naidu declared his intent to give Rs 3 crore.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Aug 22, 2016 presented a cheque of Rs. 5 Crore to Olympic Silver Medalist PV Sindhu. He also presented a cheque of Rs. 1 crore to her coach Pullella Gopichand. Speaking on the occasion, KCR said that the State Government would introduce a new Sports Policy to encourage young players like Sindhu.

A day after being felicitated by Telangana government, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu was accorded a rousing welcome by the Andhra Pradesh government for her stupendous performance at Olymics 2016 at Rio. A huge crowd lined up the streets of Vijayawada to greet Sindhu as she alongwith her coach Pullela Gopichand embarked on another open-top-motorcade from Gannavaram Airport to Indira Gandhi Stadium. Later, Sindhu and Gopichand was felicitated at the stadium by AP CM Chandrababu Naidu with a cheque for Rs. 3 crores, a 1000 sq yds plot at Amaravati etc.

Some controversies in social media are:

“Sindhu belongs to Telangana. Our name is world famous now because of her but Andhra Pradesh wants to steal her from us. Why are they interfering when we are honoring her? They must respect our statehood and back away from our state’s assets”, said a minister in Telangana government.

Meanwhile, P. Gopichand’s comment that Sindhu belongs to India has been dismissed by both state governments saying that nobody is Kabir Khan here and this is not a Bollywood film.

My View:
We are all Indians first and Indians last. It doesn't matter whether we belong to AP or TS or any other state. We are all national assets. I see KCR & Co spitting venom for AP's claim of Sindhu which in any way is inconsequential. His mouthpiece "Namaste Telangana" spreading false stories that Sindhu's father hails from Adilabad is despicable. This is nothing but poisoning the minds T people against Andhra people till the truth comes out little later.

I have no problem in KCR & Co claiming Sindhu as Telanganaite. But in the same way almost all Hyderabadis with AP origin should get their legitimate right as Telanganaite. In the recent past several people in TS Govt service with Andhra origin were identified and thrown out of their jobs of few decades and they were compelled to approach court for grievance redressal. This is contradictory.

EAMCET-2 papers leaks in Teangana

In Telangana State EAMCET-2 conducted on July 9, 2016 was canceled due to detection of question paper leakage by CID. Earlier EAMCET-1 conducted on May 15, 2015 was cancelled due to the controversy over National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).

As per MCI regulations, admissions to MBBS & BDS should be completed by Sept 30, 2016 otherwise MBBS & BDS students might end up losing an year unless Supreme Court gives then extraordinary permission.

It appears that inept handling by the Telangana Government & Officers concerned is the primary reason for this EAMCET-2 leakage fiasco, the underlying reason is that  printing work related to EAMCET-2 was handed over to company, Magnetic Infotech Pvt Ltd, on nomination basis, owned by his son KTR's friend is not ruled out. Lack of maturity on the part of Telangana ministers since beginning resulted in the hardship to over one lakh students. Telangana ministers & TRS men who have the habit of making high decibel noise on every small & petty issue have not uttered a single sentence so far. Curiously, none have resigned so far owning up moral responsibility, no one suspended for this fiasco. CID is likely to arrest some small fry's as usual.

Even TCS has submitted a written complaint to Telangana State Council for Higher Education chairman and Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari for handing over EAMCET 2 paper printing works on nomination basis for which no response received from any quarter so far. To what extent this company is responsible in this leakage fiasco, will never be known.

In KCR's Bangaru Telangana, Ministers and Officers are more interested in getting highly publicized exposure to CM doling out praises for perceived development and achievements rather than doing any good work for which lasting results will come slowly and steadily.

Latest reports reveal that (1) the scam could be larger than 150 students identified so far, (2) the culprits doesn't have any past criminal record making investigation progress at snail's pace and (3) has been going on since 6 years at least.

My View:
Ever since Telangana state was formed, following standard procedures, adherence to laws of the land, and transparency of decision making have been given a good bye and whimsical rule similar to that of Nizam rule have become order of the day. On every issue KCR has audacity to decide without seeking expert opinion or examining pros & cons with reference to historical data or facts.This has resulted in High Court & Supreme Court setting aside several decisions. Undaunted, audacious & shameless KCR & Co haven't learned any lesson and amended their styles. Instead they started campaigning that HC is full of Judges of Andhra origin and hence troubling them and encouraged high pitched campaign and struggle for HC bifurcation, which in its due course will take some more years.

People of this kind of negligent & autocratic attitude have now landed Telangana students into piquant situation where in students with good ranking in EAMCET-2 are not sure of getting similar rank in EAMCET-3 while others are not sure of what is in store for them. All students have expressed that they are tired of writing 5 or 6 exams so far and are in no mood to write one more. The demand of EAMCET-2 rank holders not to cancel EAMCET-2 but take action on students who got leakage benefits is understandable but legal guide lines doesn't permit doing so. The present government will definitely pay price for its misdeeds, lethargy and for making crazy decisions very soon but in the meantime people of Telangana state will pay the price for having elected irresponsible government.

The least should be done immediately is that - Higher Education Minister should resign on moral grounds and EAMCET Convener should be suspended to begin with and CID given free hand to book & arrest culprits however big they are - all of which unlikely.

In some form or other, EAMCET paper leakage benefiting some students and some corporate colleges has been around at least since more than 15 years and at least 100 MBBS seats were grabbed by them every year unlawfully and undeservingly.

Nehru's speech at Nizamabad after deciding formation of AP in 1956

Some excerpts of Nehru's speech in Nizamabad in March 5, 1956 

presided over by B.Rama Krishna Rao, CM of Hyderabad:

The new thinking favored larger states, rather than small ones so that the barriers are fewer and progress is faster. In these circumstances it seemed improper to have two separate states Andhra and Telangana. The new outlook pointed towards greater Andhra. The new proposal greater Andhra should be created with its two regions having their separate identity and say in their development.

The people of Andhra and Telangana have to lead their lives and progress as parts of larger entity, India. I want you should become part of greater Andhra and benefit by it. The narrow minded people, who can't grasp the idea of India fully and do not have the vision of thousands of years of India's history or the brilliant future that awaits us, have no place in India. They should go else where.

Greatness does not come out of pettiness or disunity. We have to abide by our noble ideals and follow the path of truth, hard work and unity.  

Read this full text of Nehru's speech to discover all the malicious campaign by Telangana protagonists, even though has a grain of truth, are largely false, motivated by jealosy and vicious with dangerous overtones.

My View:

During the course of Telangana agitation lots of vicious campaign was carried out in all corners regarding inequalities between Andhra and Telangana and grievances arising out of that. It is pertinent to say that no father can ensure his two children grow at same pace simultaneously. At no point of time the investments made in Hyderabad (quantified as Rs.6,00,000 crores by state & central governments, public sector, private sector and private individuals during the past 30 years) were never acknowledged. While Telangana received bulk of government investments during the past 15-20 years, Andhra & Rayalaseema received nothing. This was acknowledged in the Sri Krishna Committee report. Even KCR who was at the centre stage of politics and in seats of power since 1983, has done nothing to either his constituency or to Telangana region. 

A Telangana friend of mine has accused of an Andhra person buying agriculture lands near Siddipet for a paltry sum of Rs.2,000 per acres several years ago. Curiously I asked - had he not purchased that land what was its prevailing market price. He shyly said it was Rs. 1,000 per acre. Buying lands at above market rates is not looting. It is trading, which is every citizen's fundamental right, in this country.

Nevertheless, people from Andhra will continue to grow at much faster pace than people of Telangana for variety of reasons, even after bifurcation. Whom will they blame? One has to blame themselves for all the ills they are facing.