CCSAP Report - Ministry of Home Affairs

movements; one in 1969, popularly known as “Jai Telangana” and the other in
1972, popularly known as “Jai Andhra”. While the former was concentrated in
Telangana region and the latter in Andhra region, the impact of the two was felt
generally all over the state. A detailed account of these two agitations has been
given later in this paragraph. During this period, the effectiveness of the
implementation of the “Gentlemen‟s Agreement”, made at the time of the
formation of the state, was also put to a test. There was criticism that though the
implementation of the Agreement cast some shades of illumination, but at the
same time, had many patches of darkness. Of the fourteen points included in the
Agreement, there were mainly three items which, were considered to be of
immense political and socio-economic importance and generally the focus was on
these three areas only. These items were (i) the political issues relating to
representation of Telangana in the power sharing structure; (ii) the socio-
economic issues relating to the utilization of revenue surpluses/apportioning of
budget for the Telangana region and (iii) proper sharing of employment and
educational opportunities in the state. It may be worthwhile to mention here
that, the implementation of the Agreement itself started on a discordant note.
The political space in the institution of Deputy Chief Minister (or Chief Minister)
for the Telangana region was denied by the signatory to the Gentlemen‟s
Agreement and the Chief Minister from Andhra area, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
(who became the first Chief Minister of the united Andhra Pradesh) in the very
first Ministry in 1956 by reportedly calling it an ”unwanted sixth finger of the
hand”. 12 This issue was to become a major sore point for Telanganites for all
times to come. With the passage of time, in later years, other issues such as the
sharing of waters and irrigation resources, land management etc., also became
quite contentious. Forced by the events caused by the discord that had been
created, in the second ministry which was formed on January 11, 1960, with D.
Sanjeevaiah as Chief Minister, this imbalance was rectified and Shri K.V. Ranga
Reddy from Telangana was appointed as Deputy Chief Minister. This arrangement
continued only for two years, whereafter, when Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy came
back as Chief Minister, he again dispensed with the appointment of Deputy Chief
12 Rao, P.R., History and Culture of Andhra Pradesh: From the Earliest Times to 1991, p 324
19