Dr Sarangapani Bommaraju
The UPA Government bifurcated the united Andhra Pradesh in 2014 before going for hustings in an unscientific and undemocratic way. No lasting solution was found for the distribution of river waters and division of assets and liabilities between Andhra and Telangana. The then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh gave an assurance in the Rajya Sabha that the special category status will be considered and conferred on the state of Andhra Pradesh. The present Prime Minister while campaigning along with Chandrababu Naidu reassured the people of Andhra that special status would be given to the state for a period of ten years. After coming to power, the NDA Government changed its stand and announced a special package for the state instead of special status. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister agreed to the ‘package’ and has been on record stating that package is better than ‘special category status’ during the last four years. With a surprising ‘U’ turn, the Andhra CM reversed his stand and is now making a forceful demand for ‘status’ ostensibly due to the pressure brought in by politics of YSRCP, the main opposition party in the state. It needs to be understood that for better political space and to win over the electorate of AP, YSRCP has been demanding conferment of special category status to AP for a long time and it caught the attention of the people.
Improper Priorities
Politics of development in Andhra in particular and India in general revolves around the benefits that are sought from the all powerful Centres! Reasons are not difficult to deduce. With a revenue deficit staring and the number of other demands pending, the Chandrababu Naidu government is reeling under raising expectations and improper priorities that began with a massive project of constructing Amaravati. Whether a new state carved out from its wealthy other half ever would be able to mobilise required funds for an impressive and massive world class capital is a question that calls for deeper analysis.
The declaration of ‘Polavaram’ as a national project is in the interest of the State. Funding by the Centre also brings with it additional responsibilities of scrutiny. Frequent debates about the need for more funds without caring to submit details of expenditure incurred, is an attempt to block CAG from carrying its main function of scrutinising the work processes and spending patterns. It is public money that is involved and spending agencies are accountable to the Parliament. Asking for utilisation certificates should not be seen as cornering the State government. Setting up a railway zone at Vishakhapatnam is a long pending demand of people, particularly of north coastal Andhra. The problems involved in carving out a new railway zone are not insurmountable if there is a political will. Inordinate delay is leading to frequent criticism of the Centre, serving the purpose of whipping up regional feelings and anti-BJP propaganda.
A number of states are in the special category—Assam, Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal, etc. Each case, we must remember is considered as unique—one has unstable revenues, some are border states, two are hill states and the other one is a Vanvasi state. Andhra certainly does not qualify for the special status on the basis of laid-down criteria such as difficult terrain, low population, strategic location, economic backwardness and non-viable finances. But because of arbitrary bifurcation, it lost a major share of its revenues due to foregoing the flourishing capital city of Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh needs to be compensated sufficiently for the loss of revenue and for the need to construct a new capital.
People are the real losers
In the last phase of the UPA rule, the Congress felt that a promise about status perhaps was best in those challenging times. Every political party seized the opportunity and educated people about the benefits of special status. When people began to accept the realities and reconciled with the special package, YSRCP raised the issue time and again. As the TDP government is felt cornered and in order to preempt the YSRCP of its main agenda for 2019 elections, the TDP overnight has become the champion of the cause of special status and since then has beencornering the Modi government. The 2019 elections in the state are going to be fought on this plank and in this game of political opumanship, people are the real losers. Telangana Chief Minister’s oblique reference to the Prime Minister’s statement about special status is very political and aimed at extending olive branch to the TDP in his dream project of Third Front in 2019 elections.
The special status enables a state to have tax breaks for ten years and central funding up to 90 per cent in the case of centrally sponsored schemes. The Central government has accepted the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission to eliminate all categorisations of states as they have outlived their utility. In the light of this, further categorisation may not be appropriate and needs of the states may have to be met with other forms of assistance. Chandrababu Naidu knows this pretty well more than any other politician. However, he seeks to ward off anti-incumbency by creating an emotive pitch for self and TDP on the issue of special category status.
(The writer is a retired Professor of Economics in The Hindu College, Machilipatnam)
