Telugu States hurtling towards doom

Ramu Sarma has asked an anguish-filled question, "Where are we heading?" (THI 28th September). He may not get a satisfactory reply to his question, methinks.

As a Telugu man belonging to both AP and Hyderabad, I feel that we are heading towards disaster and entering an era of dystopia.

History is witness to periods in which people fell prey to the mesmerising oratory of charismatic leaders and lost sight of real issues.

Right now, the states of A P and Telangana are passing through such a phase if the current trends are any indication. Intolerance of the legitimate exercise of criticism by the public, the opposition and the media has become the hallmark of governance in both the states.

If anything, they are in the vice grip of outright consumerism packaged by their governments as welfare schemes of various shades.

The repeated claims made by one state in 2014 of being the only richest state of the country have ultimately proved to be so much sound and fury signifying unmanageable debt in 2019.

This is matched only by the other state's singular and remarkable ability to see only darkness at both ends of the economic tunnel.

Destruction and demolition of assets so assiduously built by the people during the earlier times are the other pathetic display of lack of a sense of purposeful direction in both the states.

'Quo Vadis?', asked Peter of Jesus. 'Where are we heading?', asks Ramu Sarma. Unlike Peter, Sarma, like millions of others, may not get a satisfactory response.

M S R Seshu, Secunderabad