1. The biggest blunder committed by Nehru was the Linguistic Division of the
States under Sardar KM Panikkar's Commission, after the fasting to death of
Potti Sriramulu and Andhra separated from Madras State.
2. People started thinking as linguitic entities as Tamilians and Bengalis
rather than Indians and the fissiparious tendencies started.
3. The Politicians found a new way out to create more opportunities for them
by creating more States wChief Minister downwards and bureaucrats/ Governors
proliferating eating into the exchequer.
4. The demands for separation and division of States would be endless. This
started mainly after the division of Assam to smaller States and now many
others have started agitating.
5.This is a very unhealthy trend for the Country as a whole, though
Politicians encourage such a splitting creating more opportunities for them to
hold important postions CM downwards.
6. The Country would do well with the whole Country divided to five zones
with smaller States ruled by administrators. But who will bell the cat?
Jharkhand News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Jharkhand.News
Gorkhaland triggers fresh debate over smaller states
The resurgence of a movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland carved out of
West Bengal has revived the debate within political parties on smaller states.
In the absence of unanimity, each political party has worked out its own logic
for supporting or resisting demands for smaller or not-so-small states.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) favours splitting up states, barring a few,
for better governance while the Congress party prefers not to have a fixed
position on the issue.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is against smaller states per
se. The Communist Party of India (CPI), however, is all for them but not in
the case of every state.
At the end, for political parties, it is a matter of political expediency,
says political analyst G.V.L. Narasimha Rao.
The BJP actively campaigned for the new state of Jharkhand because it led to,
as was widely known, curbing the influence of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of
Lalu Prasad who held sway in Bihar.
"The BJP supported the Jharkhand movement to expand their political
influence. But the BJP would resist any move to split up Gujarat where it is so
powerful," Rao told IANS.
Senior Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily added: "There is no point recklessly
dividing states for political expediency. The Congress does not have an
ideological stand on the issue."
But for all practical purposes, the Congress is against the creation of any
more smaller states though many within its own ranks are supporting the
separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh state.
"Reckless division of states will have a cascading effect and states may
eventually end up being divided along caste lines," Moily warned.
The only ground for slicing up states, according to Moily, could be
administrative convenience. But there is no consensus on how big or small a
state should be for administrative convenience.
The CPI-M is fighting the Gorkhaland movement tooth and nail. Splitting West
Bengal would mean the party losing an area of its present influence and
administrative jurisdiction.
CPI-M leaders, however, couch their opposition to Gorkhaland in a different
language.
"Creating smaller states on the issue of development would mean undermining
linguistic considerations. Similarly, new states formed on the basis of ethnic
considerations would mean undermining the economic and administrative
viability," said CPI-M central committee member Nilotpal Basu.
Clearly, political India has no single mind on whether smaller states are
good for the country.
The Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s turned violent amid charges by the
Marxists that the Congress was secretly backing the Gorkhas so as to undermine
the CPI-M in West Bengal. Its advocates say they are not satisfied with the
limited autonomy granted to them.
A separate Gorkhaland would be made up mainly of the hilly parts of northern
West Bengal, close to Nepal. Its capital would be Darjeeling, a tourist
paradise.
The campaign for Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh had the strong backing of the
tribals, who felt they were not getting their due from the plainspeople.
Those clamouring for Uttarakhand also mainly a hilly region and home to
many tourist and Hindu pilgrimage centres wanted to get out of the clutches
of the mammoth Uttar Pradesh.
In 2000, all three states Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were
carved respectively out of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
That success only emboldened the feelings of those who say they too need
separate states.
Both the central and Maharashtra governments are contending with the demand
for a separate state of Vidarbha, constituting the eastern region of
Maharashtra with Nagpur as the capital. "The BJP supports Vidarbha because it
is strong in this part of Maharashtra," said analyst Rao.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati has indicated that Uttar Pradesh,
India's most populous state of which she is chief minister, could be broken
into three states Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh.
At one time, PMK chief S. Ramadoss had called for a separate state in
northern Tamil Nadu where his Vanniar community is numerically strong. The DMK
and the AIADMK do not want Tamil Nadu to be broken up.
Demands have also been made to separate the Jammu region from Jammu and
Kashmir and Coorg from Karnataka.
Between 1947 and 1950, the princely states that existed during the British
Raj were politically integrated into the Indian union. Most were merged with
existing provinces.
In 1956, the states reorganisation commission appointed by then prime
minister Jawaharlal Nehru reorganised the boundaries of Indian states along
linguistic lines following mass protests in many parts of India.
After toying with the idea of a second states reorganisation commission, the
ruling Congress has junked it. According to Moily, none of the partners of the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) are for it.
But that does not mean the demand for new states will go away. If Telangana
comes up, it would be made up of 10 Andhra Pradesh districts. It is a good case
in point.
Last month, the movement for a separate state of Telangana suffered a setback
when the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) lost out to the Congress and the Telugu
Desam Party (TDP), both of which are not for a break-up of Andhra Pradesh, in
by-elections to four Lok Sabha and 18 assembly seats.
The TRS MPs and MLAs had forced these elections after quitting their seats to
protest the Congress' dithering over a separate Telangana. But despite the
electoral drubbing, the TRS has vowed not to give up the demand. And many in
the Congress and the TDP agree with TRS.
thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/gorkhaland-triggers-fresh-debate-over-smaller-states_10061785.html
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