There was no colourful celebration for Formation Day in Andhra Pradesh, in stark contrast to Telangana’s big splash.
Instead of the pomp and ceremony that marked the second year of Telangana in Hyderabad, a solemn “Nava Nirmana Deeksha”, (event to mark rebuilding) was observed in Vijayawada with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu administering an oath to people to be prepared to work tirelessly to ‘rebuild the State of Andhra Pradesh’.
At 11 a.m., after a symbolic one kilometre walk, Mr. Naidu administered the oath which was telecast live to all district headquarters from Benz Circle junction in Vijayawada, the focal point of united Andhra Pradesh and the anti-bifurcation struggle two years ago. Apart from Ministers, MPs and MLAs, leaders of government employees were on the dais.
In a speech aimed at motivating all sections, Mr. Naidu recalled that the people of Andhra Pradesh had to make great sacrifices when they had to move out of erstwhile Madras after the formation of Andhra State. Now, from Hyderabad where they had stayed for 60 years and worked for its development, it was another move.
“We continue to face difficulties with unscientific bifurcation that left us with a huge revenue deficit and without a capital city. We need to take this as a challenge and work to rebuild the State from scratch. The Congress, which carried out the division unilaterally and unjustly, and others, should feel jealous of our achievement.”
“We need to start a new journey. Let’s take a cue from Japan, Singapore, Israel, and South Korea. Those countries rose from the ashes. We too can do it with hard work, dedication and determination,” he said. The bifurcation, which caused enormous difficulty, continued to agitate them even after two years, though many want to put it behind them.
“These two years have seen many ups and downs, but we see light at the end of the tunnel,” said S. Ramya, a CA student who attended the “deeksha” in Vijayawada.
Happy society
In his address, Mr. Naidu used the theme of injustice done to the State through bifurcation to inspire people to make sacrifices for a “Navya (new) Andhra Pradesh.”
“Our objective is to build a happy society. A.P. should be on top in the happiness index, not just in development,” the Chief Minister said.
There was a clear message in his speech to government employees, since a section of them are reluctant to shift from Hyderabad to Amaravati.
In a friendly gesture to Telangana, he said both Telugu-speaking States should sort out differences over river water sharing amicably and fight with upper riparian States jointly.
