Hyderabad: The return of communalism

Charminar turns 'hot'spot
By Rahul Devulapalli, TNN | Nov 12, 2012, 01.51 AM IST

HYDERABAD: The historic Charminar, which usually comes alive on Sundays with a large number of local and foreign tourists and hawkers thronging the place, resembled a war zone with policemen in riot gear standing guard outside barricades.

Caught completely unaware, the police sprung into action on Sunday morning when they saw a tarpaulin cover on the roof of Bhagyalakshmi temple at Charminar. Immediately, troops arrived in the area there and bundled out all hawkers, forced down shutters, blocked roads and picked up several people as part of preventive arrest.

Locals, who had planned a stroll on a lazy Sunday morning, were forced to stay indoors, while women and children peered through windows and looked down balconies.

As news spread, some people pelted stones at the police and shouted slogans.

Mohammed Ashraf, a local resident, who wanted to take his daughter to a hospital as she was unwell, ended up cursing authorities. "My child is very ill and I am trying to get her to a hospital. But all routes are either sealed or traffic is being diverted. The police are in no mood to listen to my pleas. Who will take responsibility if something happens to my daughter," Ashraf said.

As sporadic incidents of stone pelting continued more and more policemen arrived and residents anticipating big trouble locked doors and shut windows. Within minutes the entire areas witnessed near bandh like scene.

The business community were the worst affected as Sunday was Dhanteras, an auspicious day for shopping. Many lamented, saying they had big plans to buy some jewellery from local markets around the area.

The unexpected traffic restrictions imposed in major junctions caused a lot of inconvenience to the public and police who got into verbal duel. Angry residents even shouted slogans against the police. "Why is the police force there if they cannot identify and stop mischief mongers? Why should the general public suffer?," said an old man.

"I am trying to go towards the city and for the past half an hour but I am just doing around in circles within the same area," said a motorist.

The Bhagyalakshmi Temple, which is in the midst of the controversy, however kept receiving devotees unmindful of the situation outside. "On any day we receive a minimum of around 1000 devotees but today there were about 50 devotees due to the tension," said P Susheel, a temple committee member, standing guard outside the temple among hordes of policemen.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Charminar-turns-hotspot/articleshow/17186424.cms

HYDERABAD
Hyde And Seek
Dabbu-dabbu-dabbu. That’s Hyderabad talk for how the city’s become the scam capital.
MADHAVI TATA

“Aao biriyani khilatun” is typical Hyderabad police lingo used while rounding up petty criminals. It’s an invitation for an altogether unpleasant stay that clearly does not include a portion of the city’s celebrated biriyani. And, going by the number of VIPs currently lodged in Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad, the joke is the police will soon be placing orders for gilded plates of biriyani. There are at least 10 “special” prisoners, all accused in various scams—Jaganmohan Reddy, of course, remains the star visitor, followed closely by industrialists, bureaucrats, a former minister and now judges as well.

Hyderabad, a city known for its grace, culture, openness to change and love for education, technology and commerce, is now the “scam capital”. A city that embraced globalisation with unbridled enthusiasm under the tech-savvy, laptop-flaunting Clinton-admirer Chandrababu Naidu, this “city of pearls” has now become a laboratory for scams. Take a look at the impressive list that tots up misdeeds worth hundreds of thousands of crores. From the collapse of the Global Trust Bank in 2001 to Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju shocking the world in ’08 to Deccan Chronicle’s strange meltdown, it’s evident that all is not well in Hyderabad.

In terms of scale too, you have to give it to Hyderabad—the sums involved are mind-boggling, the corruption seemingly endemic. So much so, it’s even started affecting popular culture. Corruption is now an accepted phenomenon, evident in the mass public support for Jagan Reddy. Rich kids who flaunt flashy gadgets are teased by their friends, “Kyun, tera baap scamster hai kya?” Only partly in jest, people have added Hyderabad’s love for money (‘dabbu’, in Telugu) to its well-known tag as the IT city—“dabbudabbudabbu” has replaced “www” as Hyderabad’s dotcom calling card. Why, adman and columnist Anvar Alikhan recollects how his Mumbai sharebroker, unaware of his roots, advised him, “Be very careful about investing in Hyderabad-based companies.”

There’s no shortage of recent evidence. Apart from the travails of Deccan Chronicle (see box), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently come out with a stinging indictment of Hyderabad-based GMR’s handling of the Delhi airport. More recently, the CBI raided offices of Navbharat Power in Hyderabad to investigate the company’s role in Coalgate. One of Navbharat Power’s promoters, Y. Harishchandra Prasad, is a widely respected industrialist who often holds forth in various round-table discussions about flaws in government and industry policies.


The triggers for Hyderabad’s scams are (not surprisingly) a combination of land, politics and greed. But what continues to amaze is the sheer scale of this loot: Jagan’s illegal assets were alone supposed to be worth over Rs 1,00,000 crore, and none of the scams listed on the previous page are less than $1 billion, about Rs 5,000 crore. How? Well, being a pioneer of money politics, Andhra Pradesh is naturally a fertile ground for scams, feels Lok Satta party president and MLA Jayaprakash Narayan. “Corporate activity is still feudal in AP. Locally grown entrepreneurs are too intimate with the political class. Since political parties invest huge money in elections, they have no option but to indulge in all kinds of irregularities,” he says, adding that since the media has become so polarised, “there is massive corruption and massive publicity as well.”

Member of the Legislative Council and political analyst Prof K. Nageshwar agrees that high economic growth, political manipulation of the economy and emergence of crony capitalism have created a class of people who want to use political power for windfall private gains. “As long as Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju was producing software, it was fine. But then he got into real estate and tried to make money through shortcuts. That caused his ruin. Similarly, in the case of Deccan Chronicle, as long as Venkat Ram Reddy was in the newspaper business, he did well. Trouble started with their speculative businesses and lavish spending,” he says.



—estimated as one of the highest in India—is also the cause of many ills. An MLA aspirant spends a minimum of Rs 5 crore and a prospective MP at least Rs 10 crore. Obviously, these MLAs and MPs will try to recover their expenses through corrupt means. The linear equation for politics in AP appears to be corruption+welfare=power. It doesn’t help matters that this corruption- and welfare-fuelled boom has created expectations in the middle class who want a share of the pie. “New money has created anomalies,” warns political scientist Jyotirmaya Sharma.

Apart from a few corporate scams, however, the bulk of problems have to do with AP’s drive to transfer public resources to private players. G. Haragopal, a professor with the Centre for Human Rights, University of Hyderabad, says that land-grabbing began in right earnest when the Telugu Desam came to power as there was a concentration of social, political and economic power in one class, the Kammas. “Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy went a step further, began auctioning lands to fund his welfare schemes. But this was a one-time income. Naturally, funds had to come through other means. Welfarism gave YSR a good image and he began to rule ruthlessly, unleashing various scams,” he says. Sure, there were scams earlier too: the biggest scam that rocked the Chandrababu Naidu government was the Yeleru scam involving the construction of the Yeleru Canal in 1996 in Visakhapatnam district. Farmers were supposed to get enhanced compensation for the loss of their farmland. Politicians and bureaucrats sanctioned release of funds but the amount never reached them.
In this regard, it’s indicative that the state has the most number of operational SEZs in the country. “Land is the commodity where the scams take place. Apart from this, AP has a high number of mineral franchises and merchant power plants. Its coastline, 940 km, is very long. Roughly half of this has been given away to the private sector with exclusive sovereign rights over waters. What else can you expect but plundering of resources?” asks ex-Union power secretary E.A.S Sarma. Citing Vanpic as an example, Sarma says the hinterland of about 28,000 acres cutting across three districts has been gifted on a platter. The government even went to the extent of amending the laws meant to protect assigned lands in this case.



http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282212

sorry, the last post was made in error on the wrong thread. proper corrections have been made subsequently in the appropriate threads.

Propagandhi711 wrote:sorry, the last post was made in error on the wrong thread. proper corrections have been made subsequently in the appropriate threads.

Thank you for highlighting the problems with Hyderabad. Ever since the Nizam left to graze sheep in Australia, the city hasn't quite been itself. Mughal miniature paintings are distracting Rashmun from highlighting this adequately -- thanks for filling in.

panini press wrote:

Propagandhi711 wrote:sorry, the last post was made in error on the wrong thread. proper corrections have been made subsequently in the appropriate threads.

Thank you for highlighting the problems with Hyderabad. Ever since the Nizam left to graze sheep in Australia, the city hasn't quite been itself. Mughal miniature paintings are distracting Rashmun from highlighting this adequately -- thanks for filling in.

I have stayed and worked in many parts of India, I also had the
misfortune of staying in Hyderabad for a year. Let me tell you one
incident maybe that could help you guage the Gulti psyche.

I used get air pressure in my car tyres checked at petrol bunks, in
Hyderabad everywhere they used to 'demand' money, on the contrary in
Maharashtra the guys need to be offered money after they do their job.
Same is the case with restaurant waiters if you eat at joints such as
'Bawarchee'(Naraynguda cross roads) or 'Paradise' they simply dont
return you five rupees as they just deduct the tip from your bill
expenses without your permission, thereby denying you the pleasure of
giving a tip. None of this shit ever happens in Maharashtra....


But I do admire they way the Gult's cook up their resume. I also know of
a lot of Gultis who had married only so that they get a few lakhs as
dowry and then with the help of another Gulti who has a body shopping
unit in the USA 'manage' a H1 visa and then stay on jobless for months
on end shifting from one friends appt to another. Needless to say that
they leave their wives back home in Hyderabad, Guntoor..wherever for
years together.

One guy I knew was a hawaldar(constable) in Hyderabad police, he married
a girl extracted some dowry and with his connections in the Osmania
univ 'managed' a degree and then where else..landed straight in the lap
of the USA. The buggar has been sacked several times from many
workplaces(for obvious reasons). But he still hangs on to good hope of
getting a good job. The last idea I gave him was to start with learning
English first!

Fact check: harischandra Prasad was not a promotor of navbharat. His surname was not y. It was m. He died some time ago. He was a honest principled business man, an andhra version of warren buffet.