Telangana Formation Day is observed on June 2 every year. The Government of India declared this historic day for the Telangana, the youngest state in India in 2014.
June 2, 2020, marks the sixth Telangana State Formation Day.
Last year, Hyderabad city was all decked up with festive lighting ready to celebrate the day. Unfortunately, this year there would be no such grand celebrations due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This day signifies the sustained Telangana Movement history through the years for a separate state. State every year sponsors several events. Telangana State Awards for exemplary contributions in different fields are presented at different events. At several Hotels, Telangana food festivals are organised, and so on.
Telangana Formation Day: History of youngest state in India:
- It all began in 1953 when the States Reorganisation Committee was appointed to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. After going through the recommendations of the SRC, the then Home Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant decided to merge Andhra state and Telangana to form Andhra Pradesh state on 1 November 1956 after providing safeguards to Telangana in the form of Gentleman’s agreement.
- The period between 1969 and 1973 was marked by two political kranti namely ‘Jai Telangana’ and ‘Jai Andhra’ movements. Social tensions arose due to the influx of people from the Coastal Andhra region. Protests started with the hunger strike of a student from Khammam district for the implementation of safeguards promised during the creation of Andhra Pradesh. The movement slowly manifested into a demand for a separate Telangana.
- In 1997, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed a resolution seeking a separate Telangana. In 2000, Congress party MLAs from the Telangana region who supported a separate Telangana state formed the Telangana Congress Legislators Forum and submitted a memorandum to their president Sonia Gandhi requesting to support the Telangana state.
- A new party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), was formed in April 2001 with the single-point agenda of creating a separate Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital.
- In 2001, the Congress Working Committee sent a resolution to the NDA government for constituting a second SRC to look into the Telangana state demand. This was rejected by then union home minister L K Advani citing that smaller states were neither viable nor conducive to the integrity of the country. In April 2002, Advani wrote a letter to MP A Narendra rejecting a proposal to create Telangana state explaining that “regional disparities in economic development could be tackled through planning and efficient use of available resources”. He said that the NDA government, therefore, does “not propose the creation of a separate state of Telangana”.
- However, in 2012, Advani said that if their then-partner TDP cooperated during NDA tenure, a separate state of Telangana could have been created. On 9 December 2009, the then Union Minister of Home Affairs P Chidambaram announced that the Indian government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state, pending the introduction and passage of a separation resolution in the Andhra Pradesh assembly.
- This resulted in protests across both Andhra and Rayalseema. Students, workers, lawyers, and various organisations in the regions launched the Samaikyandhra Movement demanding that the state be kept united. MLAs from these regions also submitted their resignations in protest seeking a reversal of the home minister’s statement.
- On 23 December, keeping in view the reactions of people of other regions, the Government of India announced that no action on Telangana will be taken until a consensus is reached by all parties and groups in the state. A Joint Action Committee (also known as JAC or TJAC) comprising political and non-political groups was formed to lead the demand for separate Telangana with Osmania University professor M Kodandaram as its convenor. On 3 February, the government appointed a five-member committee headed by Justice Sri Krishna to look into the issue.
- On 3 October 2013, the Union Cabinet approved the creation of the new State of Telangana. A Group of Ministers (GoM) was created to settle issues concerning the new state and the State of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad will be the shared capital for 10 years, after which it will belong to Telangana, said the Home Minister.
- On 8 February 2014, the Telangana Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha with support from the BJP and Congress. The Telangana bill was passed by Rajya Sabha with the support form the BJP. The bill received the assent of the President and published in the gazette on 1 March 2014. On 4 March 2014, the Government of India declared 2 June 2014 the Telangana Formation Day.
In 2019, on the occasion of Telangana Formation Day, K. Chandrashekhar Rao paid tributes at the memorial of Telangana martyrs on the road opposite Public gardens and unfurled the national flag at the venue. He was given the guard of honour by an armed police contingent.
