Is Andhra Burning?

"Is Paris burning?" was a question Hitler had put to his chief of staff Alfred Jodl. He wanted Paris to be destroyed before it fell into the hands of the Allied Forces. Today the title of the post can be a question put to each other by anxious Telugus all over the world.

I am an Andhraite and I am fiercely proud of it. One very if not the most irritating questions that can be put to me is whether or not I am a Tamilian when I say I am a south Indian. And when I say Andhra I do not mean the coastal part that is referred to by that name by some people of Telangana and Rayalaseema. Instead I refer to a united Andhra Pradesh. I am from the city of Visakhapatnam. But I have also stayed in Hyderabad and to me, the city and region of Telangana is as much a part of the state of Andhra Pradesh as any other part of it.

Potti Sriramulu was a freedom fighter and Gandhian who gave up his life so that Andhra Pradesh could be formed. He went on a fast for the formation of a state for the Telugus, separate from the Madras Presidency that was in existence at the time of independence.

Nehru felt that the consolidation of an independent India was more important and he refused to accept the initial requests for the formation of a separate state. Even as Sriramulu's health was deteriorating he steadfastly refused to accept the demand for a new state. Finally after a long fast Sriramulu passed away and then all hell broke loose. A lot of public property was destroyed and quite a few people were killed in police firing. This was the background against which the state of Andhra was formed in 1953 much like India which had its independence marred by communal bloodshed. Later on Hyderabad was liberated from the Nizam's rule and thus in 1956 the present day Andhra Pradesh was formed.

Andhra Pradesh is divided into three broad regions - Telangana (north), Rayalaseema(south) and Kosta (coastal part). There has been some anger in the Telangana region that the region has been unfairly exploited and that people from otside the region have been coming in and taking away the jobs of the locals.

Now we come to the person at the centre of the whole issue, K Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR. He was part of the Telugu Desam Party or TDP, which was founded by N T Rama Rao. NTR is credited with giving the Andhraites a separate identity away from the Madrasi tag that is attached to all south Indians. KCR was part of the first government set up by Chandrababu Naidu. He was not given a ministerial berth in the second government, which was formed in 1999, but was made the Deputy Speaker. In 2001 he quit the party and set up the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). So I now ask the question, where was Telangana when KCR was part of
the government?

There seemed to have been a broad consensus during the recent Andhra assembly and parliamentary elections about the formation of Telangana. The TRS performed quite badly and the Congress won pretty impressively. The late Chief Minister YSR was against the formation of a separate state. He in fact made a statement that was widely condemned saying that if the TDP-TRS combine came to power people from one part of the state would need a visa to visit another. Yet he was a person that was against the bifurcation of the state for whatever reasons he had. Today had he been present the situation might have been different.

So in my personal opinion the real reason behind the demand for a separate state is suspect. I have heard that if Telangana is formed it will not be KCR but his nephew or someone who will stand for the Chief Minister's post. But then, have we not heard about the concept of the power behind the throne? Also, how many times have puppet CMs not been put in place? The argument is that the region cannot develop as long as it is 'under' Andhra Pradesh and that it is being exploited. I am surprised by the student agitation to be honest. But is bifurcation the answer to all ills? Are there no other means to develop the region? Politicians generally go for solutions that pay immediate political dividends and may genuine interests be damned. Stoking student passions and demanding a separate state is an easy answer. Today there have been protests in Maharashtra about 'outsiders' encroaching on the jobs of the 'locals'. In AP these so-called outsiders are not even from outside the state. If the Maharashtra argument is stupid, the AP argument is beyond stupidity.

The Congress does not want to be seen as a party opposed to the formation of Telangana. In addition to this, fearing a law and order situtation the government has given in to KCR's demand, at least to an extent. If I remember right the Supreme Court had commented on a particular state government's inability to maintain law and order, saying that it was its responsibility and if it could not do so, it could very well resign. But the fact of the matter, do we have leaders who have such spunk in them today?

As I write this, 136 MLAs have resigned from the state legislature and protests have been going on in Rayalaseema and Kosta against the division of the state. The city of Hyderabad is another bone of contention. The argument to make it a UT or a joint capital does not exactly make sense as it is not practical to govern a state from a capital that is quite a distance from the state's border (which is what will happen if AP is bifurcated). The pro-Telangana camp is adamant that Hyderabad has to be part of Telangana. The brand equity of Hyderabad as a safe investment destination might actually come under a cloud now.Now the Congress is caught on two fronts. It cannot reject the demand outright. On the other hand its own MLAs are resigning in protest of the decision.

I personally do not want the division of a state that was meant to provide a separate identity for the Telugus for purely political reasons. The government can declare a special package for the region if it is indeed true that the region has been neglected. What is needed right now is effective leadership and a genuine concern to address the issues facing the region if not the state.
There was an article I once read which mentioned how the Andhraites were experts at dividing themselves into groups. In the US there two separate Telugu associations were formed - Telugu Association of North America (TANA) and American Telugu Association (ATA). The Telugus went all that distance away from their homeland and still found ways to divide themselves. I can but pray the state stays united peacefully and that better sense prevails among all sections of the society.

Death Knell to Mobile Banking?

The Finance Ministry has shelved plans to introduce greater mobile banking facilities in the country. The Reserve Bank was opposed to greater freedom as it felt that funds flow would be outside the banking system where it cannot be monitored. The Home Ministry is against the measure due to security fears.

A lot of people cannot access banking facilities as they are simply not available. Mobile banking can actually improve things in this direction. Instead of a general ban on the practice, it would be much better if strict regulations and controls are put in place (and implemented). For how long can we postpone implementing forward-looking practices fearing for our security. I also wonder what impact this decision will have on Nokia and its plans to roll out its Money service in India.

Also, the telecom sector is seeing a price war right now. Mobile payments and similar value-added services can act as differentiating factors in such a scenario. What will happen to these?

Proliferation and China

It has now emerged that the disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan wrote in some notes that Pakistan was helped by China in its nuclear program. He has written that China had actually supplied that Uranium required. If that is not admission of China's help in nuclear proliferation, what is?

But now will the US do anything? At the most they might issue a statement saying that this is being investigated or they might condemn this. Beyond this they cannot do anything. China is too important for American survival today for them to even contemplate taking any action against it. President Obama seems to have cancelled his meeting with the Dalai Lama (George Bush, the earlier President had met him I believe) in order to avoid angering the Chinese.

Are we seeing the emergence of a new global superpower? Shall we have a new concentration of power in the near future? China has either already overtaken or will shortly overtake Japan to become the second largest economy in the world. China has been increasing its power through various means - diplomacy, economic means and military means also. A Chinese intellectual had recently written that India seems to have forgotten the "lessons of the 1962 war" when it allowed the Dalai lama to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. What should India do in such a scenario? What are the Indian leaders' reaction to this changing situation? One can only wonder.

Customer satisfaction in a networked world

A batchmate of mine saw a movie recently. I had come to know that she was going to watch the movie and so I asked her how the movie was after she came back. She said that it was boring, only the songs were worth watching, and these too could be downloaded from the Internet. Hence there was no point in wasting my money.

This got me thinking. Both of us were in our respective rooms. Our conversation was via Gtalk. If I decide to take her advice and download the songs I can do that via YouTube or some mp3 download sites. The rate at which word-of-mouth reviews can travel now (and the ease with which I can pirate the songs) seem to put some kind of pressure on companies (film producers and directors in this case) to make products of better quality. Now whether or not this will actually happen is a different matter altogether. There are websites like mouthshut.com where prospective buyers can get feedback about products they wish to buy.

Companies also are trying to tap the benefits of social networking. There was one article I read some time back where an example was mentioned. A technology company can put up a forum where its customers can interact with one another to solve their issues. This actually reduces the costs incurred by the company in maintaining a customer service department. This is a double-edged sword though. If there is some problem the negative reviews can also spread quite easily.

To quote Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, "Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws." (http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33023.html)

If I come back to a simple issue, will Bollywood (or the Hindi film industry if I don't want to anger the purists) ever produce a consistent series of 'good' flicks or is there too wide a range of audience's tastes for films to be of uniform quality?

Synergy between Wikipedia and Google?

I was sitting in class today when this thought suddenly occurred to me. Google is the phenomenon it is as it has been able to satisfy the need of people to search for information that they need. Probably very few people had anticipated the importance of search to the end users. Wikipedia allowed people to become part of the process. There are occasional goof-ups like this. But on the whole I can probably assert that Wikipedia has proved to be immensely popular.

Now I come to my actual point. Previously when I was required to do a project Google was probably invariably the first place I would go to. I still do that but now Wikipedia has reduced the amount of search required. Information from a number of sources (if occasionally the authenticity is suspect) is now present at a single location thus reducing the amount of work (sic) required. In a sense Wikipedia is complementing (even supplementing?) Google today. Now does Google look at Wikipedia as a threat? Wikipedia does not make the user pay anything. Take a look at the mission statements of Wikimedia Foundation (who runs Wikipedia) and Google.

WF - to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally

Google - to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful

Notice the similarity? If I can take some liberties in saying so, both primarily aim to make information that is useful to users available to them without charging them. Thus there seems to be a convergence of philosophies here. So is Google interested in Wikipedia? Are Larry and Sergey listening?

An Obsession with English?

Students in Andhra Pradesh were punished in a bizarre manner for speaking Telugu in class. Read this.

A large English-speaking workforce is said to be a big reason for India to be an excellent outsourcing destination. There is also what is called Indian English. But one has to wonder if we have taken our obsession with the language to weird heights.

I have to confess that a person who speaks English better makes a much better impression than a person who can't. I myself seem to be an example for India's English obsession. This is a country which has 22 official languages and thousands of dialects. It seems unjustified that one language and that too what is essentially a foreign one should be given so much importance.

There are people on the other extreme also. I think there was a plan in Tamil Nadu a little time back to stop teaching English in school or something on those lines. That is plain stupid. You can maintain your self respect and identity without resorting to such extreme measures. The solution as always lies in finding a middle path, one of moderation.

India funds the Taliban!

This really takes the cake. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has accused India of funding the Taliban. Read this.

These are the very people who have been helping the Taliban. I believe there was an Afghanistan minister who said that there was an ISI hand in the recent Indian embassy bombing there. Pakistan is a state where the intelligence agencies and armed forces which are supposed to function under the executive have been exerting undue influence historically. The situation now is no different. Our first PM died in office in his seventeenth year in office. The first Pakistani PM was removed in a military coup. These are the people who are accusing us of funding the Taliban.

Funding the Taliban to destabilize Pakistan is something that could actually be done. Of course the source of the funding would probably have to be disguised from the Taliban (note the italicization of probably, one has to wonder if trigger-happy bigots differentiate between sources). However we might be creating a situation like the US did. It is a strange twist of fate that the terrorists that US had to "fight" have actually been created by the US itself, directly or indirectly.

They had created and armed the Taliban to fight against the Soviets during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They were the people who created Osama bin Laden! The US supported Saddam Hussain against Iran before they decided he had to go in their quest against "weapons of mass destruction". The US is not exactly pro-Iran to put it mildly. The Islamic Revolution was directed against the Shah of Iran. He was put in place after a democratically elected Prime Minister was ousted with the help of the CIA. So one hopes that India will not repeat such mistakes. Some mistakes have habit of coming back to haunt you. In ancient India there is the tale of man feeding and taking care of a snake to only end up being bitten by it.

karpoora dhooli rachitaalavaalah kastoorikaapanka nimagnanaalah
gangaajalaih sikta samoola bhaalah sweeyam gunam munchati kim palanduh

Unless I am mistaken the meaning goes something like this - Even if it is coated with camphor, even if it is immersed in musk, even if it is washed with the waters of the Ganga will an onion give up its natural quality? I rest my case.