Telangana Government Puts Governance On The Calendar

The Revanth Reddy government gave Telangana’s employees a date: September 18. The Second Pay Revision Commission was expected to submit its report by then, after months of demands over pay revision, pending dearness allowance, arrears and pensions. The message was wonderfully modern: the file was moving. September 18 has now arrived, performed its constitutional duty and departed. The report may still appear, but there is no public confirmation that salaries have been revised, DA arrears have been paid, pensions have changed or the promised delivery has happened. The deadline, however, was delivered on time.

This is the Congress administration’s neatest innovation in Praja Palana: announce movement, schedule a date, postpone the confrontation and allow the calendar to accept the blame. Employees paused their proposed agitation after talks with Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju. The assurances included an expedited PRC process, discussions on pending DA and other bills, and a committee to examine restoration of the Old Pension Scheme. No money was paid during the handshake. No pension scheme changed while the microphones were warm. The strike was paused; the paperwork remained in its natural habitat, somewhere between “under process” and “soon”.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s government has also demonstrated that attention is a scarce resource best spent elsewhere. The Assembly found time for black T-shirts, suspensions, personal remarks and arguments over whether BRS legislators could enter wearing protest slogans. Twenty-one BRS MLAs were suspended during the session. The previous government deserves scrutiny, and BRS leaders do not require a certificate of innocence from this column. But a government with a working majority is not required to choose between governing Telangana and arguing about KCR. It can do both. It could even try doing the first before staging the next episode of retrospective politics.

The irony is especially polished because Congress arrived promising a people’s government. People have instead received appointments, assurances and dates, while employees waiting for their dues are invited to admire the administrative choreography. A report deadline became a press release; a protest became a postponement; a demand for money became a committee. The government has not abolished the Old Pension Scheme, but it has perfected the old politics of delay.

In Telangana, the only thing arriving on schedule is the next explanation.