The Chinnamma of Telangana who made statehood possible

HYDERABAD: She may have been diminutive in appearance but in the battle for statehood for Telangana she towered over everyone else. Former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, hailed as ‘Telangana’s Chinnamma’, was a staunch supporter of the statehood cause from among all Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.

Her speeches in the Lok Sabha before the introduction of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 and during its passage are now part of BJP folklore. Her passionate plea in the Lok Sabha, as the leader of the Opposition, to the youth of Telangana not to take their lives but to live and enjoy life in a new state, ranks foremost among the many debates revolving around Telangana.

When the time came for voting on the Bill for reorganising Telangana, it was at her behest that every single BJP MP from across the country was present and voted for passing of the Bill.

It was not just within Parliament that Sushma Swaraj became the voice of the BJP on the subject. During the UPA I and UPA II governments, she was a regular at the party public meetings, where she articulated the need for granting immediate statehood to the region.

In one such debate in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj had said, “There have been enough wider consultations, and consensus talks. I am not asking for anything. I just have an appeal to the government. You bring in a Bill for creating Telangana which will be a Constitutional Amendment Bill that will require two thirds of the members to support it. We will ensure those numbers. We will support it. Telangana must be formed.”

It was in the same breath that she continued: “I am also appealing that all of us in this House should appeal to the people of Telangana against taking lives and instead live to see the state’s formation.”

Such was her widespread appeal in Telangana that people from all walks and across the political spectrum regarded her as one of their own. Upon her demise at the age of 67 in August of 2019, as the new state mourned her passing, KT Rama Rao, working president of the then TRS, had said that the people of Telangana will forever remember Chinnamma's support to the statehood cause.