Winners and Losers

The general strike in Telangana came to an end last week, just the way I had predicted. There has been a barrage of opinions and counter opinions in the media ever since, on what the strike achieved and what it didn't achieve. But I think the most important measure of understanding the impact of the strike is a profit and loss statement of the strike. There were some winners who profited out of the strike, and there were many others who lost.

First the winners:

• Kodandaram - How many people knew his name two years ago? But now he is the most popular person in AP, more popular than any movie star, celebrity or politician. People crave publicity. Not even the super stars or the super rich could get on the front page of news papers everyday, but he did. What more can any person ask for?
• KCR and Family - The TRS party expanded to all parts of Telangana and grew much stronger than it ever was. With the party being the fiefdom of KCR, it was his family which became more influential and thus more powerful. More power means more money, obviously.
• Leaders of employees unions - Especially Swami Goud. He would also be among the ten most popular persons in AP now. No amount of money can buy that kind of publicity. He and other leaders got all of it for free, without losing anything, not even their salary for the period of the strike.
• Congress Party - It is the indirect beneficiary because the main opposition party in AP, TDP, is wiped out in Telangana.
• BJP - The party has marginally improved its support base in Telangana, but not enough support to win seats on its won.

Now the losers:

• TDP - Everything worked against the party. It has been losing cadres, its very foundation, in Telangana for sometime. Now the trend has only accelerated. It is a much weaker party in Telangana now.
• Ordinary People - They were the biggest losers. A man on the street had to pay more for his daily commute to work. A family had to pay more for its groceries. Students lost valuable school days and college days. Businessmen lost money. Farmers across the state lost their crops which withered under power cut. Everybody in the state of AP had to endure longer power cuts. Lot of them wondered how their loss would achieve a separate state of Telangana.
• Democratic Culture of AP - This was the biggest and most serious loss suffered by our society, yet it went unnoticed. In the name of revolution, the educated sections of the society seem to have lost their capacity for tolerance, for meaningful public discourse. A disagreement is seen as betrayal. Everything is seen as either pro-Telangana or anti-Telangana. Rational thought vanished as emotions took over. Moderate views are loathed. Rise of this "either with me or with my enemy" attitude is not good for any democratic society.