A joint capital for Telangana and Andhra? Maybe not

Either parties not open to sharing Hyderabad as their 'state' capital

 

Will Hyderabad become a Union Territory, to be shared by Telangana and Andhra as a joint capital in perpetuity like Chandigarh, not just 10 years as envisaged currently?

The general impression across a spectrum of political opinion is that this is not practical.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said Chandigarh lay on the borders of both, Punjab and Haryana, while in case of Hyderabad, there was no contiguity, so it was not a practical idea.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidu said the Centre must develop a capital city on a par with Hyderabad as the capital of the rump Andhra Pradesh. In other words, no shared capital. Naidu said the Centre should allocate  Rs two to four lakh crore to develop a new city. He demanded the government earmark the funds in the bill it planned to table in Parliament for formation of Telangana state.

It was Naidu who during his tenure (1995-2004) developed Hyderabad rapidly. He pointed out that the city has educational institutions, an international airport, convention centres, information technology companies, research organisations and central public sector undertakings.

However, it is the activists of the Telangana Rajya Samiti who will simply not countenance a joint capital along the lines of Chandigarh, given that it will be both, less costly and convenient as both the states speak the same language: Telugu.

As a union cabinet minister explained, the raison d’etre of the movement for a separate state of Telangana was the real estate in Hyderabad. “If you make Hyderabad the joint capital, how will the leaders of the separate Telangana movement recoup their investments” he asked in lighter vein. “The separate-ness lies in holding on to Hyderabad and adding more districts to it, not ceding control of it to the Andhra state – in which case people will begin to ask why it was separated in the first place”. This is the reason he dismissed suggestions that Hyderabad might become a union territory, administered directly from Delhi.Statistically, Telangana is the largest of the three regions that comprise Andhra Pradesh and it contributes to more than 60 per cent to the state’s revenue and is home to 40 per cent of its population.

In Telangana, it is Hyderabad which contributes to the lion’s share. Of the other regions, Coastal Andhra accounts for 14 per cent of the state’s earnings. Rayalaseema brings in just four per cent. Keeping in mind, the backward nature of Andhra Pradesh, the Congress Working Committee in its resolution, recommended providing adequate funds for the development of these areas.

The only other shared capital, India’s first planned city, Chandigarh was born amid none of the brouhaha surrounding the division of Andhra Pradesh as we know it today and has functioned successfully since 1966 as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana after the division of Punjab in 1966.

Chandigarh was the dream city envisioned by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister after the Partition of East and West Punjab (which went to Pakistan). Later, when East Punjab was divided into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh became the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.

It was given the status of a union territory, directly administered from Delhi.

If Hyderabad is given the status of a union territory, this will entail a constitutional amendment.

However, Law Minister Kapil Sibal said the matter would need time to reach clarity. He said that while the division of Andhra Pradesh could be done through a resolution in Parliament via a simple majority, granting the status of union territory to Hyderabad would take a much more complicated process.