2 states !

I often seem to be forgetting the number of states in my country these days. It was 25 when I was in class V(at least my Geography book said so). Then Delhi graduated from an Union Territory to a state. That is 26. So did Goa. So 27. Or did it? Back to 26. Then we got Chattisgarh, Uttarkand and Jharkand. 26+3=29. But well, is Andhra +1 or +2? What the fuck? Two things are unfortunate here. When someone asks me the number of stated in India, I end up answering "Late twenties or Early thirties", as if I am some novel writer telling the age of my lead character. And my kids(who are a decade away from birth)will have to learn the things I learnt in my Geography, in their history. Well, not a big change when the number of planets in our Solar system change.

Little would have Potti Sreeramalu known when he died 57 years ago, that the state he gave birth to would be fighting itself to get split in less than 60 years. His death lead to one of the biggest events in the Indian history. It led to physical separation of states on linguistic basis. And the state for which he died, its spilling its blood for another separation. Well, if it happens, The Marathis would want a Vidarbha, the Kannadigas, their Uttar Kannada, Kashmiris, their own country and what the hell not. Soon people will fast and die for merging states, and then splitting them and all those shit. But why all this? The fasting, the rath yatras, violence and hatred? Is started to think.

A new state means, a new government. Well, that means more jobs. Maybe in thousands, may be more. With two Governments for the same area, governance become much easy and effective(well, that is assuming we have a capable government). This will in turn help the growth of the state, at least economically. Literacy rates will go up and hence the probability of getting a job and improved standards of life. Infrastructure will get built, Health care will be taken care of, crime will be punished more effectively and hence we get a better civilization. Really?

Splitting a state will definitely cause communal unrest. One can be sure that a violence will break out between the new born state and its mother. Sharing of resources will become a problem(we see that everyday, Split states don't even share water anymore. You know which states I mean). This will give any government a tough time. And eventually each Government will be plotting against each other. That is a real bad sign. Development activities will be given second priority to Dirty politics and pulling each others legs. The so-called aam aadmi can be left to suffer, as he always is. People can forget their freedom of movement. Hindiwallahs will be driven out of Maharastra, Tamilians and Kannadigas will kill each other, and so on. Restricted movement will lead to limited jobs and hence zero growth.

Economy will collapse, Unity will be forgotten. And well, Peace will have to rest in peace. And more than anything, it will set a bad example and everywhere people will want a separate state. This will challenge national integrity and people will be interested to identify themselves as Punjabis and Bengalis over Indians.

If this season of splitting starts now, we may soon have to call the country "The Divides States of India(DSI)" and well, before the turn of the century, we may be back in the old times, when we were just a collection of princely states. In a 100 years, Chennai, Bangalore and all other major cities will be states or even separate countries, and we may be citied as an example over Soviet for splitting.

(The article but the title has got nothing to do with Chetan Bhagat's book. The title was not insired by his book, but well, I don't want someone scolding me on national television. So all TITLE CREDITS to Mr. Chetan Bhagat. )