Last month when Mr Jai Ram Ramesh, MP, Rajya Sabha from Karnataka gave a book "Old History New Geography-Bifurcation Of Andhra Pradesh" to my brother Venu. And he in turn gave it to me.
In Feb,2014, Indian Parliament had divided Andhra Pradesh to create 29th state Telangana. The struggle for bifurcation, has been long pending, for over almost 58 years. In between for many reasons, the movement had ups and downs, during 1969 when Dr M Chenna Reddy, spearheaded , it was on high pitch, and hundreds of people lost their lives, during the struggl. But at a later date When KCR started it, it was all together a different story,and the fact of the matter is, it was totally a public movement, where all political parties, all unions, all associations unitedly supported, including Congress of Telangana area but ultimately KCR could manage it to be his show, which is different matter altogether, as the public perception matters ,
" The wheel had turned full circle in 58 years " says Mr Jairan in the opening Chapter of his book and tried to answer questions like why did it happen? How did it happen? and when it happened,what exactly happened. It provides valuable , historical, political context to the controversial, creation of Telangana state which fully came into existence on 2nd June 2014 .
As I could notice, it is a combination of official notes, records, combined with back room political discussions laced with lot of funny anecdotes. The book is of three parts, the historical context of AP, and TS, the drafting of the bill to create a new state, and passing of the Bill to become law.
JaiRam had the guts to highlight the sensational and controversial topics like " pepper spray incident, in Parliament by the then MP Vijayawada Rajagopal, and disruption of Parliament by Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema MPs, and CM of AP 's resignation episode in protest etc. The book is full of meticulous documentation of rich history. It presents an insider view of that entire drama. He goes on to provide, pains taking into account various consultations, held with stake holders, on issues that included the status of Hyderabad, the bone of contention, Internal security, Concerns from Maoists, Managing water Resources, including Economic and Financial matters. The sad part was, 16 MPs from AP and Rayalseema were suspended and the Bill was kept open till 18th Feb, which was fully passed in the Lok Sabha, 2 days later in Rajya Sabha, where on atleast 4 occasions, JaiRam had to run, across BJP benches to clarify the provisions of the Bill to its leaders Jaitley and Naidu.
I feel , this book is a narration of history, told first-hand by some one who has an in depth knowledge of it. It's a must- read not only for Academia but for general reader seeking understanding of contemporary India.
JaiRam writes in chapter, A Last Word, that he wrote account of the Bifurcation to clarify the " nuts and Bolts " of it, and it's process and to dispel public misconception, if any.
In Feb,2014, Indian Parliament had divided Andhra Pradesh to create 29th state Telangana. The struggle for bifurcation, has been long pending, for over almost 58 years. In between for many reasons, the movement had ups and downs, during 1969 when Dr M Chenna Reddy, spearheaded , it was on high pitch, and hundreds of people lost their lives, during the struggl. But at a later date When KCR started it, it was all together a different story,and the fact of the matter is, it was totally a public movement, where all political parties, all unions, all associations unitedly supported, including Congress of Telangana area but ultimately KCR could manage it to be his show, which is different matter altogether, as the public perception matters ,
" The wheel had turned full circle in 58 years " says Mr Jairan in the opening Chapter of his book and tried to answer questions like why did it happen? How did it happen? and when it happened,what exactly happened. It provides valuable , historical, political context to the controversial, creation of Telangana state which fully came into existence on 2nd June 2014 .
As I could notice, it is a combination of official notes, records, combined with back room political discussions laced with lot of funny anecdotes. The book is of three parts, the historical context of AP, and TS, the drafting of the bill to create a new state, and passing of the Bill to become law.
JaiRam had the guts to highlight the sensational and controversial topics like " pepper spray incident, in Parliament by the then MP Vijayawada Rajagopal, and disruption of Parliament by Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema MPs, and CM of AP 's resignation episode in protest etc. The book is full of meticulous documentation of rich history. It presents an insider view of that entire drama. He goes on to provide, pains taking into account various consultations, held with stake holders, on issues that included the status of Hyderabad, the bone of contention, Internal security, Concerns from Maoists, Managing water Resources, including Economic and Financial matters. The sad part was, 16 MPs from AP and Rayalseema were suspended and the Bill was kept open till 18th Feb, which was fully passed in the Lok Sabha, 2 days later in Rajya Sabha, where on atleast 4 occasions, JaiRam had to run, across BJP benches to clarify the provisions of the Bill to its leaders Jaitley and Naidu.
I feel , this book is a narration of history, told first-hand by some one who has an in depth knowledge of it. It's a must- read not only for Academia but for general reader seeking understanding of contemporary India.
JaiRam writes in chapter, A Last Word, that he wrote account of the Bifurcation to clarify the " nuts and Bolts " of it, and it's process and to dispel public misconception, if any.
