Business interests, caste behind anti-Telangana protests (News Analysis)

Hyderabad, Dec 16 (Inditop.com) If Hyderabad had not been the bone of contention, perhaps Andhra Pradesh would not have seen the kind of protests it is now witnessing over the move to grant statehood to the backward Telangana region.

With huge business interests at stake in Hyderabad, geographically and historically a part of Telangana, politician-industrialists from the prosperous coastal Andhra are not ready to let go this technology and economic hub.

Unable to reconcile to the sudden decision of the central government, these politicians are being accused of fuelling the street protests by students and youths on the slogan of Samaikya Andhra or United Andhra.

It is no wonder that some of them are demanding union territory status to Hyderabad in the event of a Telangana state becomes inevitable.

However, leaders like Vijayawada MP L. Rajagopal, whose Lanco Group has huge investments in Hyderabad, claim that the protests are spontaneous and for aimed at keeping Telugus united and strong.

Many people were caught unaware by the announcement for the creation of a separate state. Investors from other regions would need four to five years to relocate from Hyderabad, said an Osmania University professor who did not want to be identified.

The investments by major business houses owned by Andhras are estimated at Rs.50,000 crore, the bulk of which was invested since the mid-1990s when Hyderabad emerged on the global IT map.

The unprecedented growth of real estate sector during the last one decade saw major businessmen from other regions acquiring huge chunks of land around the new international airport and along the upcoming world-class outer Ring Road in recent years.

The demand for Telangana state is not new but there were no protests in coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema when the Congress party joined hands with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the 2004 elections when the statehood issue was included in the common minimum programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government or when the UPA set up a committee to look into the demand, pointed out Rama Brahmam, professor of political science in Hyderabad University.

There were also no protests when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) backed the demand for alliance with TRS in the elections this year, Brahmam told Inditop.

Most people believe that Andhra businessmen, who own IT/ITES companies, infrastructure and real estate firms, hotels, corporate hospitals as well as film production houses, were not worried as Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu were strongly opposed to the break up of the state.

The politicians also tried to cash in on the fear factor. During campaigning for this year’s elections, YSR told the people of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema that if the TDP-TRS took power, they would not be able to do business and work in Hyderabad as they would be treated like foreigners.

There is also the caste angle to the Telangana issue. Upper caste Khammas and Reddys, who are politically and economically dominant in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, are against separate statehood to Telangana.

Telangana, which accounts for 40 percent of the state’s nearly 80 million population, has an overwhelming majority of weaker sections. The backward classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled tribes and minorities account for over 70 percent of the region’s population.

The upland Telangana is arid though two major rivers (Krishna and Godavari) flow through the region downstream to coastal Andhra, which is fertile and is known as the rice bowl of India.

Some people in coastal region also sense threat to their agricultural prosperity from the proposed Telangana state.