Correcting a Blunder

There is a lot of misinformation being spread around by people who have half knowledge about the Telangana issue. Let me correct that.

What is now called Telangana was then known as Hyderabad state and included Gulbarga, Bidar, Latur, Osmanabad, Aurangabad and the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Nehru played dirty politics and gave away Bidar and Gulbraga to karnataka. He then gave away Latur, Osamanabad, Nanded and Aurangabad to Maharashtra. What was left was the districts of Telangana including Hyderabad. These could not be merged with Andhra as the Fazal Ahmed commission, the first State Reorganization Commission (SRC) had recommended against such a merger.

Despite this, Nehru went on and did the merger. This was done on the basis of a written agreement between the then Chief Ministers of Hyderabad state and Andhra. The agreement specifically wanted the unique character of Hyderabad state to be maintained and people from Andhra would not impose their political and economic dominance on the districts from the state of Hyderabad. This agreement was violated in the first five years itself. Following this the Govt of India brought in a new law.

It was called the Gentleman's agreement and specifically prohibited people from Andhra from taking away jobs in the ex-Hyderabad state (read that as Telangana). The Andhra politicians made a mockery of this law too and people from Telangana saw their jobs being snatched away by non-locals.

So the vexed Central Govt asked the President of India to promulgate an order which is now called the Presidential Order 610. This law strictly prohibited any non-local from getting any employment in government jobs in Hyderabad. The congress politicians from Andhra again played a dirty game. They persuaded some illegally employees from Andhra who were working in the Hyderabad City Police to file a case asking for a stay on their transfers to Andhra from Hyderabad City.

The Supreme Court stayed the transfers and held that Hyderabad was a free zone. Strangely, the state advocate is said to have presented a weak case on Order 610. This was the last straw on the camel's back, and what led to the fast by KCR and the protests by students of OU. Now tell me, was this fast and protests not justified?

For 50 years, the politicians from Andhra want to dilute Hyderabad's special character and bring in their economic dominance. This was not acceptable to Telangana people and they decided it was high time to reverse the merger with Andhra, which was done illegally in 1956.