Telangana - Resolution in Parliament

Let us see the provisions of the constitution relating to formation of any new state etc. The relevant provisions are :

Article 3.

Parliament may by law—

(a) form a new State by separation of territory from any State or by uniting two or more States or

parts of States or by uniting any territory to a part of any State;

(b) increase the area of any State;

(c) diminish the area of any State;

(d) alter the boundaries of any State;

(e) alter the name of any State:

Provided that no Bill for the purpose shall be introduced in either House of Parliament except on the

recommendation of the President and unless, where the proposal contained in the Bill affects the area, boundaries or name of any of the States, the Bill has been referred by the President to the Legislature of that State for expressing its views thereon within such period as may be specified in the reference or within such further period as the President may allow and the period so specified or  allowed has expired.

Explanation I.—In this article, in clauses (a) to (e), "State'' includes a Union territory, but in the proviso,

"State'' does not include a Union territory.

Explanation II.—The power conferred on Parliament by clause (a) includes the power to form a new State or Union territory by uniting a part of any State or Union territory to any other State or Union territory.

I have gone through the law books available with me and as per the decisions of the Supreme Court this power of the Parliament is quite wide. But the process itself can not be by passed. So in the instant case, if the Central Government want to divide AP it has to prepare and approve a draft resolution in the cabinet and then send it through President of India to AP Assembly for its view. A reasonable time should be given to AP Assembly to provide its views. Thereafter the views of the resolution along with the views of the AP state Assembly shall be put before Parliament for its consideration. A Simple majority is sufficient for the passing of bill.

Historically when our republic formed there were huge number of princely states etc and entire set up was created by British for their imperial purpose. So a simple process and complete power was given to the Parliament for the reorganization of the state. Further at that time very few of the members of the constitutional assembly members can be termed as a true federal supporters. This is because of the historical background under which they lived wherein the predominant fear of uncertainty and fear of dismemberment of the republic itself. Such fears were invoked by the Delhi establishment whenever some strong regional political force is formed to oppose it.

There are broadly 3 or 4 waves of state reorganization in the history. They are: 

1. On the linguistic basis.
2. Division of Maharashtra and Punjab etc.
3. Various north eastern states
4. Recent division of the 3 states.

Though INC initially agree for the creation of the separate states in early 1900’s it basically went back and opposed the same. They even formed committees for that with Nehru and Patel etc and decided against it. But the desire for the Telugu people to have a state of their own was quite strong and Andhra Maha Sabha was formed in some wherein 1910 (1912?) Huge movement for a Telugu administrative unit was there even before Independence. Mind you this is not to have a nation but to have a state within any India nation. So this movement from the start is the desire of the Telugu people to retain their own unity which was lost when the Kakathiya Empire fell so long back. Though there was unity under Nizam, many may not know that under Nizam one can not speak with Telugu in any public meeting and no Telugu education was given.  So naturally the people wanted to have their own linguistic province.

Yet Nehru was against the Telugu people having a state on simple linguistic basis. When asked by some Press fellows ( Yes this evil was there then also) that when are we going to get a Andra State he famously said “ Is it in my Pocket” When there was no response from Delhi for the demand of a separate state for Telugu people living in Madras province, Sri Potti Sriramulu, a gandhian worker went into hunger strike  till death. Here we need to know something about him. He belong to Nellore and follower of Gandhi. He always used to wear card boards on his chest and back with slogans written against evil things like Untouchablity. Many times children used to through stones on him. Yet he never stopped this practice. He was not a big leader of Congress at that time and held no political positions. He never aspired for them. There was no response from Delhi for this hunger strike and he died after some 58 days. The death of this Gandhian resulted in serious disturbances in the Telugu areas and as a result Nehru had to bend and Andra Rastram was formed with Karnool as capital. Later, when the Fuzal Ali Committee had given its report AP state was formed during the reorganization of the states on linguistic basis.  

The Telangana areas in Hyderabad province were merged into AP and such action had overwhelming support of the then Assembly of Hyderabad province.    The so called gentle men agreement is an agreement between congress leaders of both the sides and no other political parties were involved. Out of the people who are party to them most of them later became CM’s of the AP and PV Narasimha Rao and Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy even became PM and President respectively.   

In this back ground, in case we want to have a separate Telangana state ,Union Government is required for follow up the process as above. Now as per the demands of the KCR and other politicos no resolution will be even moved in the state assembly. Such action will be in violation of the Article 3. If there is any resolution put in the Assembly it will be defeated. If the word is only about the opinion and no resolution even them the opinion will be negative. So basically the Parliament has to disregard the rejection of the AP State Assembly and pass a resolution dividing the state. Such division has no logical reason. With SKC not accepting the development reason, there is no development reason; there is no cultural and linguistic reason. So what will be the reason for the division of the state? I wonder if the division of the state can be made solely for political convenience of the present day political dispensation at Delhi with no regard to the views of the local people who are affected.

If such actions are agreeable then every new ruler with simple majority in Parliament would like to have new states as per their political or looting requirement and we will have new states created all the time either by dividing existing states and merging them into one other. So the entire structure of states will become adhoc and solely dependant on the whims and fancies of people like Rajamata. For example since only a simple majority is sufficient Rajamata to create entire set of states with the places wherein they will be in power. So divide states say like Gujarat where she and her cronies are finding it difficult to come to power and form new state with places which will vote for her gang.  Further whenever some set of politicos become unemployed like Ajit Singh, KCR, and others they take up demands for news states and raise emotions.

But in the case of AP, does Rajamatha has political will to proceed with the division of the state inspite of the opposition from the majority in the AP state?  I don’t think it is there. There is no great benefit to her family with the division and unless she sees something big to gain or she is totally mislead like when happened in December 2009 she will not do it. Remember if she agree to this there will be dozens of similar demands else where and what will happen to make rahul baba PM in 2014?

It is surprising that Telangana vadis are asking for the bill to be put in parliament in the coming Budget Session of the House. It can not be simply done like that. The process involved is already mentioned by me above.  Does there people do not know this? They know it very well and yet lying to people. Most unfortunate.