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Final decision on Telangana soon, uncertainty over Hyderabad’s status
Tribune News Service

The Centre is expected to announce its final decision on the Telangana issue before January 28, a development that is bound to have a profound impact on the state’s political scene.

Bone of contention Hyderabad, a cosmopolitan city and IT hub with a population of over 70 lakh, is part of the Telangana region It has over decades acquired the sobriquet ‘Mini India’, attracting people from all over India besides becoming a home for migrants from the other two regions of the state, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra The capital city has become a major bone of contention between Telangana protagonists and those who are opposed to the division While pro-Telangana parties have made it clear that nothing short of a separate state with Hyderabad as the capital would satisfy them, the integrationists argue that the people of the other two regions have equal stake to the growing city

What makes the debate more contentious is the status of Hyderabad, a cosmopolitan city of over 70 lakh population, in the wake of the division of the state. Though Hyderabad is part of the Telangana region, it has, over decades, acquired the sobriquet ‘Mini India’, attracting people from all over India besides becoming a home for migrants from the other two regions of the state, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra.

Not surprisingly, the capital city has become a major bone of contention between Telangana protagonists and those who are opposed to the division. While pro-Telangana parties have made it clear that nothing short of a separate state with Hyderabad as the capital would satisfy them, the integrationists argue that the people of the other two regions, referred in the media as ‘Seemandhra’, have equal stakes in the growing city.

There are fears in some quarters that the city has already lost much of its sheen because of the political uncertainty and frequent disruptions due to the Telangana agitation.

“Hyderabad is the heart of Telangana. How can we even dream of parting with it?” Congress MP from Karimnagar in the Telangana region P Prabhakar said. It is said that the UPA leadership is actively considering a proposal to make Hyderabad the joint capital post-bifurcation for a specific period of five or ten years.

While hardcore Telangana supporters scoffed at the idea, the ruling Congress leaders from the region are not averse to such an arrangement as a temporary measure before a new capital city could be developed in the Seemandhra region. “We are agreeable to making Hyderabad as a joint capital for a specific period,” said B Saraiah, a senior minister from the region.

However, the city legislators, cutting across the party lines, are in favour of retaining the special identity of the city with some even rooting for a separate state for Hyderabad metropolitan area.

“We want Greater Hyderabad to be made a separate state. If the Centre takes any decision on Telangana and Hyderabad, it should take our views into consideration,” said D Nagender, a minister and also the president of the Congress party's Greater Hyderabad unit.

The five-member Justice BN Srikrishna Commission, appointed by the Centre to go into the Telangana issue, had recommended maintaining united Andhra Pradesh along with creation of a statutory Telangana Regional Council to address the core socio-economic concerns of the backward region. This, the commission said, was the ‘best and workable’ among the set of six options it gave.

Among the other options were the bifurcation of the state with Hyderabad as Union Territory and the two states developing their own capitals in due course and division of the state into Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged Hyderabad Metropolis covering neighbouring districts of Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda as a separate UT.