Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
had become a member of parliament just five months earlier. Jagan's supporters were not,
however, trying to ensure that Andhra had a strong and reputable leader in charge: in fact,
rather the opposite. They wanted the dynastic succession to continue so that they and their
business contacts could continue with the contracts, deals and favours that YSR and Jagan
had set up during the father's five years in office. So avaricious was their greed that they
openly campaigned and shouted slogans during the memorial and other functions that fol-
lowed YSR's death, turning what should have been respectful and sombre occasions into a
political jamboree. Sonia Gandhi received Jagan's claim when she arrived with Manmohan
Singh for YSR's funeral, but she resisted the proposal, understandably thinking that Jagan,
aged 36, was not the right candidate so early in his political career.
that is significant in the same way as clans such as the Marwaris or the Chettiars. The Mar-
waris moved from their desert home state of Rajasthan to serve and make money, first with
Mughal rulers in Delhi and then with the British in Calcutta.
The Chettiars, based in Tamil Nadu, migrated as traders and bankers to nearby countries.
With easily identifiable names like Reddy, Raju and Rao, the Andhra businessmen travelled
much smaller distances within Andhra, bearing farming wealth from the state's ? ourishing
coastal regions to Hyderabad, especially when the city began to grow in the 1990s with
the growth of information technology. There they worked with politicians, and together
grew rich in real estate, land deals and infrastructure projects - and then became involved
in politics themselves. Some have now expanded their businesses across India and abroad
with power ventures, highways and airports. The most ambitious, however have become
over-extended and faced financial problems.
The growth of Hyderabad's wealth has exacerbated a decades-old claim for the creation
of a separate state of Telangana, centred on the city - one of several demands across India
for the creation of new states. The claim has varied in intensity since 1956, when Hydera-
bad was merged into the newly formed state of Andhra Pradesh, and has frequently been
mishandled by the central government, especially since 2009. It is only now being imple-
mented.
Andhra Pradesh is rich in farmlands along its coastal regions, with a port and industrial
city at Visakhapatnam (Vizag), and with a capital city, Hyderabad, that is built on a spec-
tacular landscape of ancient rock formations, hills and lakes. It became prosperous and im-
portant because of its software and allied IT businesses. Now those advantages have been
damaged by greed and corruption. This is not unique, of course. Corruption cases link-
ing government, political dynasties, ministers, bureaucrats and business have emerged on
a massive scale in many states, notably Maharashtra with irrigation and other scandals,
