COMMENTARY

Telangana Movement
Democratisation or Authoritarianism?
G Vijay

In spite of widespread support in Andhra Pradesh for the Telangana cause, there seems to be an impasse over statehood for the region. This can be traced to the nexus between the state and the maa-backed Seemandhra oligarchy, which has increasingly been calling the shots in recent years. The Telangana movement offers the only credible hope of changing the iniquitous structures of power and control in the state and its failure could see the forces of lawlessness acquiring new strength, with disastrous consequences for the common people.

G Vijay (gudavarthyvijay@rediffmail.com) is at the department of economics, University of Hyderabad.

here seems to be an indecisiveness in declaring statehood for the Telangana region. The procrastination continues in spite of student agitations, hunger strikes, suicides, resignations by legislators, a sakala jenula samme (general strike) in which employees and workers participated and, more recently, election results. The strike almost paralysed governance in Andhra Pradesh in late 2011 and the election results of 2012 seem to have caused panic defections from the Congress Party. The indecisiveness is one of the manifestations of the weakening of both democratic institutions and the state vis--vis the oligarchy of economic power,1 predominantly from Seemandhra (the Rayalaseema and Andhra regions of the state). While the oligarchy was earlier essentially an economic power with certain maa traits, over the years, a certain maa has become a signicant force with deep economic interests within this oligarchy. The rise of the oligarchy and the maa class has changed the relationship between political representatives and the corporate economy. While political representatives earlier depended on the corporate economy to meet current needs, the rise of these classes has merged the interests of the political classes with these classes. Political representatives no longer look for donations from the corporate economy, rather they are on the lookout for avenues that generate yields. This shift in the nature of the oligarchy is likely to be of great signicance for the future of politics in Andhra Pradesh.2 These classes, after having captured the reins of power and authority in the state in the course of pursuing a new model of development, have grown so powerful as to threaten to destabilise the central government when it does not concede their demands. To interpret the rise of these new centres of power as decentralisation of authority, a strengthening of
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federal structures represented by regional parties, or a democratisation of the erstwhile hierarchical ow of power and authority from the central high command of a national party would be erroneous. First, what have emerged as decentralised power structures are composed of classes that are not engaged in production but in making surpluses through ctitious capital and the blatant misuse of authority. Second, these classes have no respect for constitutional values or legal procedures. They have built pockets of local tyrannies, operating through commercial cartels and the maa. They draw impunity from their nexus with state power, which provides them access to new wealth in the form of development contracts, underlying which are networks of beneciaries built on caste and regional identities cutting across party lines and ideologies. These classes initially ploughed their surpluses from commercial agriculture into the manufacturing3 and entertainment sectors. Their nature soon changed and they multiplied their wealth by investing in real estate, construction and, more recently, mining. These classes have also diversied their investments into the education and health sectors. The devolution of power from the centre is a result of the rise of classes engaged in anarchic and lawless accumulation rather than a legitimate political diffusion of authority. While this process of accumulation has helped provide high technology and high-skilled commercial services in the private sector, it has also resulted in a lack of legal protection for civilians in several forms and hindered access to services linked to quality of life to large sections of the middle and lowermiddle classes. This mode of development has caused difculties in access to housing for poor people, especially in urban areas, and led to a collapse of public institutions, in particular the education and health systems, excluding large sections of the poor. The oligarchy did not merely muster power from its commercial activities or nexus with the state in general and the bureaucracy in particular. The source of its power includes organised maa groups drawn from the traditional loyalties that exist in factional politics and the commercialisation of crime in the
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liquor, nance and real estate sectors. The maa, as recent election results have suggested, has been promoted to an independent political class by global as well as local corporate interests. The withdrawal of the state and lawless accumulation, however, had already become a hindrance to legitimate interests some years ago.4 This was the ideal condition for the development of a market for protection, as Gambetta5 (1996) describes it. Men of Honour Given Y S Rajasekhara Reddys background in factional politics, he had all the requirements to full the role of a man of honour, effectively enforcing contracts and securing the interests of the oligarchy, with credible violence backing him. This role promised to take care of the risk of high transaction costs in a market that operated under conditions of lack of trust and regulatory failure. It also cleared legal hurdles, promising immunity from the state to complement the lawless accumulators and effectively suppressed democratic struggles that hampered the aspiration to accumulate. Rajasekhara Reddy came to power when there was antipathy towards a neo-liberal policy regime and he introduced certain welfare policies that effectively became personalised patronage systems. An example of this could be seen in the feedback reports of the Arogyasri health insurance programme.6 What they promoted was his image or, as Gambetta puts it, they subserved the advertisement function. Such benevolence promoted a normative image, which is a prerequisite for performing parastatal regulatory roles at several levels. These processes made the maa, which was but one element of the oligarchy, aspire for the control of governance with the promise of becoming an effective substitute for direct state coercion in promoting primitive accumulation.7 More so, it enjoyed legitimacy by having engaged in welfare and patronage activities. Jagan Mohan Reddy is the new man of honour, albeit a bit controversial from the point of view of those classes engaged in lawless accumulation. The inuence of these classes is enhanced by the fact that they hold investments in the media both print and electronic.
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The Telangana movement, despite its limitations, has to be credited for taking on such powerful classes. The defeat of the YSR Congress Party in the Parakala constituency in Warangal district, although by a slender margin, is a signicant milestone. The consequences of this victory go much beyond electoral politics and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). It marks an assertion by civil society and the recovery of democratic space through a political struggle against the maa class and its claim to be the new social manager in its role as a leader of the oligarchy. The credit for this ought to go to the Telangana struggle as a political movement. The Telangana political elite have been engaged in electoral politics for long, moulded by the wealth of the oligarchy that has no local roots in Telangana. The injustice in water distribution and the outing of rules and norms in land acquisition and employment are evidence of the asymmetry of power and the structure of control that exists among the regional political elites. In the course of building these structures, the Seemandhra oligarchy seems to have put up barriers to entry that have affected certain sections of Telangana rent-seekers and entrepreneurs, consisting of private investors, bureaucrats, government employees and non-resident Indians (NRIs). Seen from this viewpoint, the Telangana movement evinces little hope of ushering in an alternative developmental and political process. But the relevance of the Telangana movement is that it is a step forward, however small, in a long-drawn process of democratisation of power and production. The success of the movement may not in itself alter structures, but it could usher in a context that opens up new possibilities, which cannot happen under the current structures of power and control. The dilution, if not dissolution, of the structures of power and control among the regional political elites is important. This change is a necessary precondition for democratising the structures of power and control between the people and their political representatives. Such an interlinked change will open up spaces for the emergence of new political elites, which includes new sections of the backward classes, dalits, tribals and minorities. This
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is not possible under the existing conditions of monopolisation, institutional capture, asymmetry and coercion. The Telangana movement must be credited for bringing the concerns of the agrarian and rural classes, which were engulfed in a crisis, suicides and starvation deaths, back to the top of the political agenda of the region. The critical minimum resources and freedoms necessary for the rise of new social elites are not easy to build without altering the existing structures of power and control. Maoist Movement The existence of the aspiration for change without the systemic resources for such a process partly explains the existence of the Maoist movement. The classes in the oligarchy, which lack the critical minimum resources to matter politically, stand apart from the social classes that form the major social base of the Maoist movement. But this base of the Maoist movement simply does not stand any chance of being part of the system, perhaps even in a separate state of Telangana. This distance from the system probably explains how in a setting of irresponsiveness and injustice, violence becomes a rational choice of the excluded people who do not have any other resource to bargain with. One has to understand the peculiar social condition of a bargain where economic transactions are mediated by fear at one end and impunity on the other, to be able to analyse the role of non-systemic entities. When one lacks resources to enter into transactions for win-win outcomes, ones capacity to inict injury may provide a seat at the bargaining table. If the maa class were to succeed in capturing authority in the state, society may be compelled to look towards forces like the Maoist movement in urban locales as well. The Telangana political elites have both contributed to the growth of the economic oligarchy and the maa and beneted from it. This process spanned the nine years of Telugu Desam rule under Chandrababu Naidu.8 The oligarchy and the maa then consolidated themselves under Rajasekhara Reddy. It was then that the Telangana political elites suddenly realised that while the oligarchy was growing, the marginalised and the
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excluded had been victims and that with its consolidation, they themselves would be no exception. The political marginalisation of the Telangana political elites is now a fact and felt by everyone from the top brass of the bureaucracy to the migrant cotton farmer. And all along, power and control have been exercised through asymmetries in wealth, caste and regional networks of patronage, corruption and the manipulation of regulatory institutions. Added to this, different forms of violence and coercion have made powerlessness, indignity, fear and insecurity generated by the oligarchy almost the generic experience of the people of an entire region. Unity in Adversity Following Rajasekhara Reddys death and the antagonism that developed between Jagan Reddy and the central government, the leadership of the Congress Party has recognised the danger of the autonomous rise of local oligarchies that do not respect autonomy or tolerate sharing of power. This has caused a cleavage in the oligarchy and given scope for a highly heterogeneous spectrum of social and economic classes and political ideologies to come together in the Telangana movement. It has apparently transformed local rent-seekers into revolutionaries, and it seems as if they are all converging on a common objective, a process often presented as beads on a single string. The geographical Telangana, the democratic Telangana and the social Telangana, however, remain in intense debate within. This debate has been asymmetric and hierarchical in nature, with the democratic Telangana enjoying much less space than the social Telangana, which in turn enjoys much less space than the politics of the geographical Telangana. In itself, this string is incoherent, symbolic and unsustainable, but pitted against the oligarchy, it holds together, signifying a hope of greater political space for everyone, in different senses. The economic oligarchy of Seemandhra, however, has no loyalties to its own region. The pathetic situation of the people in Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Anantapur and Cuddapah districts on any indicator of human development testies to these
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classes being self-centric, minus any regional empathies.9 Ironically, the fact that these districts suffer tremendous neglect is cited as evidence of the lack of any regional bias in development. That these classes happen to have a regional identity is a historical coincidence related to a mix of factors, including the nature of governance in the past, colonial rule, English education and the early rise of political elites, rather than a consciously planned social collaboration based on regional interests. The regional identity of the economic oligarchy helps bind the actors within it together but does not bind the oligarchy to its own region of origin. So the region to which these classes belong suffer utter neglect, while sectors of the economy or the social classes that contribute to strengthening the oligarchy thrive. While questions are being raised about the revival of the erstwhile feudal classes under the Nizam and caste domination in the name of Telangana, democratisation of caste relations is not guaranteed in todays united Andhra Pradesh either. The rigidity of the caste factor is apparent in the most ghastly forms of caste violence that have been perpetrated by the oligarchy on the oppressed castes of its own region.10 It is because of this that several sections of dalits and other classes from Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra have come out openly in support of the Telangana cause. Hyderabad Matters The deep-seated interest of the oligarchy and the maa in a united Andhra Pradesh does not come from historical, social or cultural solidarity, but from fear of losing control over the golden goose, the pocket of wealth that is the capital city of Hyderabad. The development process of urbanisation in capitalism offers what are called agglomeration economies, derived from the common use of high xed-cost infrastructure, an assured supply of skilled labour, and so on. These economies, however, are not inexhaustible. Like the usual logic of scale, the curve has an inverted U-shape. There is bound to be an optimal size, beyond which problems of overcrowding and inefciency in administration will outweigh benets. If the economic activity of the holding classes in the capital were
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productive in nature, they would see sense in decentralisation and diversication of pockets of development. Innovative capital would search for new avenues for circulation and accumulation. However, in todays Andhra Pradesh, the capital has been expanded into a Greater Hyderabad, taking into itself rural areas in several surrounding districts. This inclusion has been without any urbanisation of these regions in terms of infrastructure or services, but it has expanded the geographical radius for speculation by the realty business. The classes that benet from rents generated by scarcity, rather than from expansion of productivity, have every reason to hold on to the current centre of economic activity. Speculation has been further driven by the recent global economic downturn because land is now valued as a relatively less risky repository of value than the stock market. The savings of NRIs, the rent-seeking classes and even the maa cartels pour into it. This in turn is likely to cause a mismatch between structures of subsistence (the cost of food, clothing, housing, health, education, transportation, etc, inated by capture of land, credit and other markets) and structures of productive economic activities (the increasing need of a non-innovative production enterprise to resort to cutting down on labour costs to cope with competition). Decentralisation of economic activity, on the other hand, would have to involve the development of infrastructure and human capital, necessitating an engagement with those contributing to the development of civil society. It would require economic agents to transform social relations, build institutions and enhance the productivity of existing resources. This process would involve positive social and economic externalities spanning generations, the benets of which might come only after a long period of gestation. The oligarchy is neither interested in such a social or political role nor has the patience to reap the benets of the productive contributions for the people of its own region. It looks for quick returns by circulating capital within the already clogged domains of activity. It is therefore interested in spreading insecurity among the settlers.
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The nature of the capital held by the Seemandhra oligarchy can also be inferred from the cultural experience of these regions. That there has been a gradual degeneration of the university system, which once enjoyed great repute, and that only a minuscule number of literary or intellectual stalwarts of the new generation stand by these classes suggest how the oligarchy is valued by its own society. A social and cultural depletion has been caused by the rent-seeking commercial activity of these classes, which has gradually become all pervasive, inuencing every walk of life. The oligarchy has taken away the moral resources and dreams of Seemandhra society and earned the ire of its own people. In this sense, the formation of a separate state is not only in the interest of the people of Telangana, but also the people of all regions in Andhra Pradesh. In the eyes of the dominant economic agents, the three regions of the state (Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema) and the subregions within them facilitate a smooth supply of raw materials and labour and enable the circulation of capital with quick returns. With the maa as the social manager at the helm, the oligarchy intends to hold on to the reins of power and control over this process. Finding New Ground The division of the state therefore tops the peoples agenda, cutting across regions. The paradox is that subregional movements seem parochial in form while having a substantive democratic content, whereas the slogan of a unied state is parochial in its content and only pretentiously enlightened in its articulation. The new space, the political and cultural forms of mobilisation, the spirit of a public cause, the collective struggles and the objective of ensuring the accountability of political agencies nurtured by the Telangana movement must nd the necessary structures independent of the old political elites. The new generation of students and the working class who have undone the inertia brought on by depoliticising development must nd the means to continue to change the nature of politics while resisting attempts to dilute it as it moves closer to power. It is sustaining and consolidating these
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unfolding spaces of hope that will determine the future of economic development and the nature of politics in what are today the regions of a unied state. The realisation of substantive changes for democratisation, such as land reforms, forest rights for tribals, social and gender justice, and broader control over resources and institutions through decentralisation of power and decisionmaking, will depend on the new political spaces and formations emerging from the altered structures. If the new spaces and mobilisations zzle out for some reason, and Andhra Pradesh remains as it is, the worst-case scenario will be a reorganisation of the oligarchy (including the old regional political elites of Telangana) under the leadership of the maa, which will harshly come down on the people and their aspirations in every region of the state. Andhra Pradesh as a unied state with a maaled oligarchy could witness a civil war among common people across regional, caste and communal lines,11 leading to the emergence of an authoritarian regime. On the other hand, the criminalised rent-seeking classes, the political elites and bureaucrats would use lawlessness to complement the oligarchy, engaging in heightened exploitation. And they would simultaneously repress democratic voices in the name of restoring law and order and democracy.
Notes
1 Oligarchy refers to those classes that enjoy a socially-mediated (predominantly caste, regional and linguistic identities) nexus of nancial, industrial and agrarian capita, with the political and permanent executive, and engaging in capture of policymaking and regulatory institutions through a systematic use of organised middlemen and a maa. While monopolisation through social mediation remains the constant phenomena of the oligarchy, the social spaces (market, politics, bureaucracy, judiciary, middlemen and maa) and functions of specic actors are often interchangeable and overlapping. 2 This may well be the new model of localised authoritarian governance (an emerging mode of fascist governance backed by corporate interests) as an alternative to the failed saffron fascism. 3 The business organisations in the manufacturing sector are predominantly cost-cutting in nature. The industries in Telangana do not employ local people. They are structurally motivated to take advantage of rural distress and the circulation of labour rather than solve distress. They engage in practices involving evasion of taxes and violation of environmental norms and laws. 4 Way back in 2002, Telugu daily Eenadu, which otherwise supported Chandrababu Naidu,
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reported that in some instances public contracts that were given to some multinational companies through a bidding process were reawarded to companies oated by maa groups, which forcibly took over the contracts in certain places in Rayalaseema (Eenadu, 27 October 2002). Diego Gambetta (1996), The Sicilian Maa: The Business of Private Protection (Cambridge: Harvard University Press). The Arogyasri programme, although introduced as a part of the right to health of poor households, did not contribute to any thinking of a social contract or to raising a civilian consciousness on the right to health. The feedback reports are full of proclamations of personal indebtedness to Rajasekhara Reddy, who was seen as a saviour of lives in beneciary households that could not afford exorbitantly expensive medical intervention. The tragedy was that the access to medication was a contribution of the same oligarchy that further consolidated itself while providing the facility. This role ensures managing conict through socialised coercion, which, unlike repression by the state, can exist without signalling a conict or crisis. To give an illustration of this historical process, the deregulation under Chandrababu Naidus regime bordered on permitting illegality and openly outing laws for accumulation. As pointed out, The chief minister himself had made a statement which appeared in the press during the nal months of 1997 asking the PCB authorities to go slow (on polluting industries) as it would hamper industrial growth. He made a similar statement again in the assembly (G Vijay (2003): Other Side of New Industrialisation, Economic & Political Weekly, 38 (48), pp 5026-30). Recently, the managing directors of Hetero Drugs, Arabindo Pharma, Matrix and Ramky Pharma were arrested along with Jagan Reddy in a disproportionate assets case by the Central Bureau of Investigation. These industries have all been accused of violating environmental laws for two decades (WP 1056/90). They have been operating with impunity despite several Supreme Court judgments seeking their closure. The vulnerability of the industry has been used by the maa to raise the threshold of illegality, further extending into quid pro quo transactions. In a study done by the author for the CDS, ASSR and HIVOS on Arogyasri, it was found that the normalised gures for the beneciaries of the programme across districts showed that Ananthapur, Cuddapah, Srikakulam and several Telangana districts had least beneted in terms of both the number of patients treated and the amount of money claimed, while West Godavari, East Godavari and Guntur had beneted the most. Further, deaths of tribals in the Vishaka agency area due to malaria have been reported for the past two decades without much respite. G Vijay (2012), The Business of Health Care and the Challenges of Health Security: The Case of Arogyasri Health Insurance Programme in Andhra Pradesh in K P Kannan and Jan Breman, The Long Road to Social Security (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), (forthcoming). Note the massacres in Karamchedu of Prakasam district (22 July 1985; for details, see Balagopal (1985), The Karamchedu Killings: The Essence of the NTR Phenomenon, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 20, No 31), and Chunduru of Guntur district (6 August 1991; for details, see Balagopal (1991), Post Chundur and Other Chundurs, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 24, No 42). More recently, on 12 June 2012 four dalits were done to death and 25 injured in a land dispute in Laxmipeta of Srikakulam district. The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mahabubnagar has to be taken as representing a warning.

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