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Being a Hyderabadi in days like today has made a person pretty used to agitations that are of political nature. The intensity of the agitations has increased during the last 12 months. The demand for a separate state has reached the centre and has shaken it quite a bit. The govt.’s inability to solve this problem sees one of the most commercially developed cities in India losing its charm by the day.
I am apolitical by nature. I am so apolitical that I indulge in deliberate ignorance when matters of politics, govt., power, rules, leaders, party affiliations are discussed. For a grown man like me this might be considered to be a very short sighted approach but the reality is so far the lack of knowledge has not proved to be a slight bit of hindrance in what I wanted to do or achieve. In a large city such as Hyderabad I am not alone with these sorts of convictions. With the economy opening up and the city providing haven for quite a number of International companies the influx of population from various parts of India has been seen. This number adds to the apolitical union as most of them have little interest in the local politics considering that the city they currently live in is a city of bread and not really a city of their blood.
To catch our attention the so called agitations of the people who are displeased with the Govt.’s nonchalance and absolute inability to stand up and take a decision disrupt the normal lives of people. Schools and colleges are closed, roads are blocked by people staging dharna, petrol pumps and stores are closed, public transport is shut down and if there is a deviation to any of this the people who stage the agitation resort to violent means and destroy public and private property. The agitations have already devastated property to the tune of a few hundred crores over the last 12 months. The sad part is the situation remains as status quo. The Govt. sits mum, the activists are enraged and as is the case in any form of opposition the common man takes the biggest hit. School children might be happy that they get a couple of days off but a daily wage worker cannot feed his family for a day. Companies have increasingly become skeptical in viewing Hyderabad as a preferred destination to open offices. With so much unpredictability in the air it isn’t surprising.

What Andhra Pradesh lacks in times like this is a leader. There is no one who can take up the responsibility with enough belief that a solution can be brought to this ongoing agitation. The sad part is there is a lot of talk of the President’s rule being implemented in the state and even that is not fructifying. A President’s rule will mean that the whole system and the Govt. have failed in the current reign and will reflect pretty poorly on the state itself. But the current situation is nothing worse than poor.

Osmania University is one of the oldest universities in India. It spreads across as a campus with buildings and trees on either side of a road that stretches to about 2 kms or so. I remember it fondly because I grew up there. My house was very close the university and it had a couple of huge grounds where we played cricket all year long. Once we finished with cricket we would get to a chai bandi and laugh evenings away till it got really dark and we couldn’t really keep the mosquitoes away from attacking us. The university also provided as the place where a number of people came for morning walks and evening walks. People learned driving and riding motorcycles though it isn’t permitted in the University area. If not anything one could sit just anywhere in the University for shade from the hot afternoon sun because it had so many trees making the whole place picturesque.

Today it is a boiling pot. We regularly hear of agitations, people setting fire to themselves or some caricatures on the roads. There is a lot of tension and violence seems to be just around the corner. The University has a large number of courses in every stream of education with hostels sprinkled across the campus. The students’ life there is full of misery and strife. They wouldn’t even know what a safe time would be to come out of their hostels. It is a pity that a centre of education has turned out to be a centre of violence and strife.

I don’t know what we are going to achieve by splitting up the state. I don’t even know if that’s the right thing to do or not. But everyday has become more difficult to live in anticipating unrest. It is irony that the people who are in favor of leading the city have no problem destroying the property of the city that they want control of. I don’t know how practical it is to hope for an end to this but I sure hope it ends soon. After all this I shall remain an atheist to the Govt. as I always was.

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