SEPARATION POLITICS AND ROLE OF PEOPLE

SEPARATION POLITICS AND ROLE OF PEOPLE

India (Bharat), the land of unity in diversity has 5000 odd years old rich history. The impact of Bharath was felt world wide throughout the history. All people living in India are tightly binded by a single bond i.e. Bharat Matha in letter and spirit. We can find diversity in India on numerous reasons viz. religion, language, climate, geographical land, caste, race, region…but unity factor is only one from 5000 odd years i.e. Bharath Matha. All Indians accept only one mother for their land i.e. Bharath Matha.

Britishers created rift among Indians on the basis of religion to rule India firmly forever and exploit its resources for their development at the cost of development of India .Their “Divide and Rule” policy worked well and their rule extended in India, but when time came to give freedom to India the divide created by it was not in its hands, as the Muslims who advocated separatism did not accept Indian motherhood leading to creation of Pakistan. This clearly shows that once division is created then it will not be in the hands to control, so divisions should not be created for self interests of any one who is living in India for formation of new states or sovereignty, because forming new state means nurturing an ideology which may or may not be in compatible with national interest.

India was having 562 princely states apart from major states at the time of independence. If demands for new states arise on different reasons-region, immediate history…then political map of India will be as it is in 1947. people has to think up to 5000 odd year old history to know facts and get unity feeling, they should not look only a part which suits to the interest of any person. People should know history, know good/bad from it, eliminate mistakes and move forward according to present and future interests with national interest at top.

Indian states are being formed right from the formation of Andhra state in 1953 for better administration, development on the noble cause of “all telugu speaking people must be united” and movement in this regard. Telangana, Jai Andhra movements … rose up after formation of telugu people’s state-Andhra Pradesh through movement, but not before it, now the same state is witnessing number of movements including Samaikyandra which was the basis for creation of separate single state for telugu speaking people. Now country is witnessing numerous demands, movements for separate states posing serious questions on state formation criteria. Many people are showing various causes to form states in India right from independence, but more or less language worked well so far to keep people united,administer, develop, and reduce disputes between states. Irrespective of whether language is right basis for formation of state, one has to think if language is not then what will be the best criteria to form states and keep people united, minimize disputes, develop fast, share and develop resources available in the country optimally, quickly and peacefully up to its best…if we look in this angle language seems to be best, and states formed on this basis are neither big states nor small states except in north India where Hindi is unifying language. In south India language formula is working well to keep people united, develop and utilize resources optimally, peacefully and quickly,(this does not mean there are no disputes-Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri river water disputes are running from independence between these states) and provide better administration. But in Hindi belt government has to find suitable criteria.

Formation of states was always in question due to existing numerous diversities in India, we can show numerous reasons for forming a separate state, but all of them are not acceptable to form separate states keeping in mind the best interests of the country. Forming a new a state is simple, as it needs only simple majority in parliament irrespective of people’s wish as the state assembly’s view is not binding on centre in creation of separate state. But consequences are far reaching when a state is formed by separation or merger, because of this reason in practice centre never uses its power against “people will” in forming a new state, if it misuses its power then it will face consequences arising out of it viz. people’s mandate in elections, internal security of the country, financial burden on centre…at the same time centre will not entertain all demands for creation of new state. It will form new state when there is genuine need for it.

There are numerous demands in almost all parts of the country to form new states irrespective of whether they are small, big or medium in size. These demands are making people scapegoats. People want sound administration from government and providing employment opportunities, development of state, welfare schemes…they don’t want chaos, political un stability, frequent elections, single party rule forever, non utilization or under utilization or wastage of resources, corruption, denial of people’s rights, fear of security to their peaceful life due to anti social/national elements…

India is a fast developing country, India has both federal and unitary system of government i.e. Indian government will be federal in normal time, but will be unitary in emergency time viz. war, external aggression…in the federal system central government should be strong to take decisions quickly, rightly and implement them accurately and initiate and implement needed, new development programmes. Central government will be strong in the following conditions.1.Assured tenure of central government i.e. party running central government must posses needed majority in lok sabha on its own or having minimum number of coalation partners. 2. Less burden on central government in administration.3. Adequate financial resources to spend on development, defence…

More states in country leads to more expenditure on administration set up, process of administration. Today computers, information technology revolution made no need of new administration set up as administration process has become easy over world wide, every citizen is having accessibility to all administration matters, fast information flow, e-governance etc…what needed is government, people should use them. It is surprising that these people are united when there was manual, paper work in administration, but now when computers, IT replaced paper work they are asking for separate states on the basis of big state. Every one knows that in IT era information flows world wide in seconds, then how a state in India can be said as big state form administration point of view when there is sufficient employees to handle administration process.

More states mean more regional parties, leading to coalation government with number of partners exceeding beyond limit, unstable government at centre resulting in weak central government. Every coalation partner threatens central government, the central government will be busy in protecting itself from fumble and pacifying its coalation partners, these demands may be genuine or may not be genuine from people, nation point of view both in short and long term. Political stability in centre will be in serious question? And administration, decisions of centre will be not up to the level of its position. At the same time there are more scope for political un stability in small states due to more regional parties in small state, less number of legislators, vast scope for horse trading leading frequent un stability in political situation in state, frequent elections resulting in wastage of huge amount of money at the cost of development, welfare of people. Governments, political stability, and the pace of development in small states created on the basis of development only will strongly support this argument.

Adequate financial resources in centre’s hands result in fast development of country as spending on developmental, welfare programs will increase by setting aside defence budget, if financial resources are inadequate priority will be given to defence as its must, then only small amount will remain for development, welfare programs and this has to be shared among states leading to every state getting insufficient funds. Election process in a state costs huge amount, more states much amount is wasted, why this money can’t be used for development?

State should be in a position to raise funds on its own to meet its budget needs. State should not depend on centre to major extent for its administration, welfare schemes, development schemes and it can seek centre’s help for ultra major schemes or projects only. The people of state will develop according to their wish as state government will raise funds on its own from its own resources, from its own people and spend for its people’s development, welfare as per the need of their people without any out side support. i.e. state should be self sufficient in financial resources. When most of money is used for election, administration purposes then what about welfare, development of people?, solution is minimum amount has to be spend on administration and maximum amount has be spend on development, welfare of people.

State should be in a position to utilize its resources- natural, human for its development. State with adequate financial resources and administrative control over those resources only can develop; utilize natural resources for their development. More states having administrative control over same resource leads to disputes as interests of people differ leading to non or under utilization and long time delay in projects. Eg; river water resources, disputes are running from the time of independence but still no one knows when these disputes will end and projects will complete and people gets benefited from them.

State should be in a position to maintain law and order situation with in the state and aid central government in maintaining internal and external security of the country. Small states can not deal with security problems posed by Maoists, Terrorists, Insurgents…due to minimum financial resources they can not recruit, train and maintain sufficient, elite security personnel, and small states must depend on centre to maintain security, law and order in their states even though law and order is a state subject. Eg; north eastern states

State should be in a position to provide sound administration to its people, transparency in administration and minimizing corruption. Small state means chances for corruption will be high- less number of administrators, more easy to manipulate-, power in small states will always centered around a small group of people or even a single person as it is easy to manage peoples will when they are small in number. All this leads to increased corruption, scams, swindling of public money…as a result it will never develop. On the other hand state with considerable size like states in south India viz. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu will be having more checks and balances in administration. More people, more difficult to manage, manipulate them. Power will not be permanent, as people’s mandate will not be same due to large number. From development point of view any leader who wishes to develop their state in letter and spirit can do everything in states like Andhra Pradesh or Tamil nadu…which are neither big, nor small in geographical area, and has control over its resources and generate financial resources with in the state, adequate human resources of needed quality… In a small state even if its leader desires to develop it their hands will be tied up in reality as scope of development opportunities will be minimum and has to depend on one or two sectors only as per its resources (more geographical area means more variety of resources i.e. more development opportunities) central aid, human resources from outside of state…

The state must be in a position to influence centre politically to get financial resources,… for its needs, welfare schemes, developmental projects…that means either the party which rules in state should form government in centre or central government should depend exclusively on state party for its survival in central government. Small state means small party and winning seats to the parliament will be minimum and need for those members in coalation government may or may not be must ultimately resulting in low key role to the state party in central government, people will loss or must wait till their supporting government comes to power at centre, it may take decades.

Every one should know that geographically India is more diversified, it is called sub continent from geographical point of view. India has lofty mountains, vast plateaus, vast plains, desert, perennial rivers, seasonal rivers…and also has draught regions, flooding regions, semi arid regions…India was under colonial rule for 200 years, Britishers exploited Indian resources and made it poor and also created political problems while leaving the country resulting in partition leading to loss of fertile plain lands and resources…India fought wars with Pakistan twice, once with china and always conscious of its security( internal, external threats) leading to more expenditure on defence.

At the time of independence, India is not a rich country, but its population was expanded and expanding at a fast pace. India has adopted planned development policy with five year plans guiding its development. It had pooled its resources to meet basic demands in the country. Green revolution was happened in those areas which are favourable for it with less expenditure when it was initiated in 1966, these areas got this natural advantage in development and went a step ahead in development compared to other parts- plains, lands under projects…now these areas are facing problems due excess utilization of resources. The planning commission is there for planned development of the country and also for balanced development of all regions in the country. From development point of view historical causes has major role along with geographical factors. Historically many regions and areas with in the regions are backward or not in a position to catch up with other regions, as till independence India was under British, French, Dutch and princely states rule. All of these places are not equal from development point of view when India got independence or they are merged in to India. But once India was formed with all of these places and states were created for development of all regions some regions moved fast in development due to natural advantages-plains, existing water resources, suitable geographical conditions for utilization of water or other resources with less/minimum expenditure…as I said earlier it’s the available money with the government, the then existing technology influenced decisions of policymakers. Governments-both central and state-did their best to ensure balanced development of all regions but development of country itself was slow.Till 1990’s ,India was developing at slow pace with a growth rate of 3-4% on an average, from 1992 the situation changed due to Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation resulting in rapid development of country with growth rate touching 10% also now, at the same time regional disparities also became visible as some regions are able to catch up with these new changes , some regions did not catch as per expectations due to inherent draw backs.

It is not that all regions which are called as developed regions are completely developed regions. There are many backward areas with in a developed region and these backward areas are more backward than other backward regions in reality. At the same all backward regions are not completely backward, some parts of them are more advanced than developed regions and acting as growth poles in development. Regional disparities will disappear only through planned development and association of backward region with a region which is forward in development. If we divide developed region and make it a separate state we are doing injustice to other developing, underdeveloped regions as development of a region should help development of other regions by acting as “Growth Poles” at the same time every one has to know that development of a region is not completely its own, all regions contributed to its development by supplementing it. If we separate under developed region and make it a separate state means we are permanently making that region/state to remain under developed forever or develop very very slowly. All small states will not develop, only those which are having resources like tourism..will develop, small states with meager or no resources or resources with no accessibility will not develop and remain under developed forever thus lag behind in development. eg. if you want to make a poor knowledge student a clever student then what you do? We will put poor student from LKG itself in association with a clever student so that sharing of knowledge (resources), mutual cooperation occurs, poor student will get inspiration from clever student on other hand clever student will feel clever and do his/her best to remain clever and also help poor student to catch him/her, so the association of poor, clever student is beneficial to both and ensures success of both. you can observe its result in poor student at different levels but result can be seen in quantified form only in SSC, as it’s a bench mark in studies . i.e. you have to wait 12 years to see quantified results of poor student’s association with clever student. In a child case itself it takes 12 years then in a nation’s case how much time it needs? Answer yourself, you can know that 62 years after independence is a negligible time in a nation’s path and development from a country like India point of view. Apply the same case to the country by keeping in mind its resources, and its situation and your situation at the time of independence and your situation now according to the resources of your region/area, socio economic conditions obstructing development etc.by this you will be able to come to a conclusion on development in your region that took place and expected development. If existing development is very little than the expected development then think about specific reasons of your region that are responsible for your backwardness and efforts of governments to remove obstacles to development and development activities that are initiated recently or in planning stage.

Politics in India had experienced changes from last one and half decade with coalation politics assuming importance. Many politicians are in race for power and doing their best to get employment in decision making. Creation of new states viz. chattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttaranchal- these are created exclusively on development base-had revived aspirations for new states in many politicians and a place for them in decision making. These persons are doing their best to create new states for their political survival, growth or finding place in power politics. Regional disparities have become a fertile ground for these selfish, power hungry politicians. If we start to divide country on sentiment, socio economic factors…then how many states we have to create? What will be the fate of India if these division reasons are accepted? And what about true development? And what about unity and integrity of the country?

Today India is having basket full new state demands in front of it from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari and from Saurashtra to Arunachal Pradesh. Already the state of Andhra Pradesh is in chaos due to separation issue. Iam sure people will get influenced by more new state demands in near future, as politicians expect if movement starts now at some time they will get new state as and when politics at centre will become favourable to them.

People are the decision makers in democracy. Who ever the politician may be must come and ask your mandate on their demand or wish for separate state. Citizen should be wise in giving his/her mandate. Think rationally, scientifically and give your mandate by keeping facts in mind and giving priority to national interest first, unity and integrity of people must be given priority as I have already said in this article once division is created no one can remove it under any circumstances and it will be out of hands in many cases, even if division is removed it will not match perfectly, and its marks remain intact forever and provide fertile ground to some one to create division at any time. Moreover its easy to create divisions in India on many lines viz. religion, caste, language, region, sub region, district…but uniting people is most difficult task. No one can unite people unless there is noble cause. A state created on uniting people on the basis of noble cause will remain integrated and move forward as “unity is strength, division is weakness”, at difficult times it is this noble cause that keeps united each other, on the other hand a state created on shallow cause or temporarily aroused emotions will be ready to further divisions and problems resulting in backward movement as the emotions or sentiments on which state has been formed are weak and die down with in a short span of time and will not be having people support for it at difficult times.

Citizen has to take his/her decision firmly to oppose separatists or to support separatists by setting aside personal favours, shallow sentiments, emotions and narrow minded reasons. This is possible only through scientific thinking and dareness to act wisely. Citizen has to give vent to his/her views in what ever the form available for expressing their decision. In democracy VOTE is the best way to express your decision. If the politician who is spearheading separation for his/her personal gains on shallow reasons/narrow minded reasons/emotions/artificially created divisions by distorting facts etc… then do not vote for him/her and party candidates of him/her in any election-local, assembly, parliament in any circumstances, and show that separatist do not enjoy people’s support. If any one of separatist gets support of peoples it will open doors for similar persons through out India with its multiple effects, so never support them. Citizen has to oppose decisions of leaders against the will of people, other wise these selfish politicians will divide people to the maximum possible extent, thus threatening peaceful coexistence of people, development, unity and integrity of people , India.

The government of India should chalk out a way to deal with these demands for new states and there is a necessity to put an end in reality to the formation of new states, it has to think about bringing constitutional amendments also in this regard by making the view of respective state assembly favouring formation of new state from its territory as mandatory and first step in new state formation at least in case specific with checks protecting centre’s exclusive right or centre has to make creation of new states as an unviable task in reality to prevent political demands. Formation of new state is nothing but altering the settled system of development, altering the way of life of state’s people almost on permanent basis. Frequent changes in state borders means there is no stable plat form for development, temporary platforms will not support development, and people will lose faith in government and they search for permanent locations where they can invest their money at the cost of their own state, depriving their own people from development. Already more states have been created from independence in a little span of time. It’s the central government that has to assure people, investors that state borders or capital will not change easily, this will ensure political stability in state, centre, peace in state, confidence in system to the common man, investors…as almost nil government jobs now only private sector is the option for youth, when state borders are changing repeatedly or agitations are going in a state threatening its peace, investing environment, then investors will not prefer that state having political problems.

Citizen wake up, take your decision on your own with valid reasons giving priority to national interest, unity and integrity of people of India, real development and future of you and your generations…and reject anti national un welcome trends in politics in the name of disparities and become an example or role model of true citizen of India. When every citizen thinks and acts in this way no selfish politician can survive in democracy as democracy it the best plat form to find solutions to any problem and up keeping, strengthening noble causes, national interest.