By Chuppala Nagesh Bhushan T. Chiranjeevulu A grassroots movement argues that the road to power runs through better maths, not more slogans HYDERABAD— For a certain kind of Indian political speech, statistics are less a rhetorical device than a weapon. In a recent address to Backward Caste (BC) activists in Telangana, T. Chiranjeevulu, a retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service and founder-president of the BC Intellectuals' Forum (BCIF), deployed numbers on judges, billionaires, distilleries and irrigation canals with the precision of a prosecutor building a case. The verdict, delivered repeatedly and without much subtlety, was that Telangana's dominant castes have converted every organ of the state—courts, bureaucracy, budgets, even canteens—into instruments of their own advantage, while BCs, who make up roughly 56% of the state's population, remain spectators to their own governance. The speech ranged widely, but three threads stood out: an attack on the gove...
T. Chiranjeevulu IAS(ret), Founder and President BCIF (BC Intellectuals Forum) The argument we keep hearing these days is that over the last twelve years, the state of Telangana has achieved unprecedented economic development. Pointing to indicators such as Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), per capita income, IT exports, industrial investment, and infrastructure construction, the ruling establishment describes Telangana as the fastest-developing state in the country. However, a crucial question arises here. Has this economic development truly reached all sections of society equally? Have the fruits of development reached every family, every caste, every region? If that is indeed the case, where do we stand on the Human Development Index? There is a foundational principle in development studies: Economic Growth and Inclusive Development are not the same thing. A state may generate a great deal of wealth, but that wealth may not reach all sections of society, all regions, and a...