Finally, K Chandrasekhar Rao has had his way. An hour back, the Union government decided to give in to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief’s fast unto death and set in motion the process that will lead to the formation of Telangana state.

No political party is opposing formation of Telangana! In fact, during elections, all parties had supported the Telanganga struggle.

Anyway, it’s ironic that a fast unto death resulted in formation of Andhra Pradesh & now another fast unto death has resulted in splitting of Andhra Pradesh. (The state of Andhra Pradesh was carved out of the erstwhile Madras Principality in 1953 following a fast-unto-death of Potti Sreeramulu in 1952.)

I really doubt if in today’s world, this is the right way to do things or get things done.

The controversy doesn’t seem to be over as yet. Since, there’s no word about the fate of Hyderabad, which falls in the Telangana region and should go to the new state. TRS says there can’t be Telangana without Hyderabad. There  was a proposal to make Hyderabad a union territory. No word on it yet.

There is a worry if this capitulation will lead to similar demands from other regions within different states. Similar thoughts were expressed when Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were created. There are a number of dormant struggles in many other parts of the country.

I have a feeling that this trend of carving out smaller states is going to continue. For one strong reason, that it’s an emotive political weapon for our politicians. Tomorrow, another politician, looking for some issue, will launch an agitation for his region to be declared as a state… Sad that development or some other such strong criterion wasn’t the reason behind Telangana formation.

The inevitable question that’s being asked: Who is going to fast next and for which region?