Telugu Ganga, Emergency & a formative federal moment

N T Rama Rao’s rise in Andhra Pradesh symbolised a wider transformation in Indian politics — the emergence of powerful regional parties challenging the dominance of the Centre

As India marks another anniversary of the Emergency, public memory understandably turns to the suspension of civil liberties, the curtailment of democratic institutions and the concentration of power. Yet some of itsenduring political legacies are hidden in unexpected places. One such legacy flows through the canals of the Telugu Ganga project, a celebrated interstate water-sharing arrangement that offers important lessons about the relationship between water politics and Indian federalism.

The Telugu Ganga project is often celebrated as the finest example of cooperative federalism and interstate cooperation. Perhaps the only instance so far, the riparian states of Andhra Pradesh (now bifurcated into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Karnataka and Maharashtra agreed to share a portion of their shares of Krishna waters to meet the drinking water needs of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, a non-riparian state.

The agreement did not arise from a political vacuum, nor was it the uncomplicated triumph of cooperative federalism that it is often portrayed to be. It emerged from a convergence of opportunistic political interests that reveals how interstate river-water arrangements shape Centre-state relations and federal politics. In a country where 25 river basins are shared by 36 federal units, rivers turn into arenas of political negotiation, instruments of statecraft, and catalysts for reshaping federal balance.

The Telugu Ganga agreement took shape in 1976, under the Emergency. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi secured the concurrence of the Krishna basin states for diverting water to Chennai. The timing was significant. Earlier that year, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu had been dismissed for opposing the Emergency. Amid growing political discontent in Tamil Nadu, securing Krishna waters for Chennai served the Centre’s political interests.

The agreement was a remarkable moment, but it was also inseparable from the extraordinary power of the Union that characterised the Emergency. The Congress party was in power at the Centre and also in all the three riparian states. The Emergency provided the exceptional concentration of power that enabled Indira Gandhi to secure compliance from the states. The idea of bringing Krishna waters to Chennai had been there for over a century, but the Emergency made the agreement possible.

The Emergency however provided just the agreement. What followed later to implement the agreement — after the Emergency — is far more defining about Indian federalism and Centre-state relations. Giving effect to the agreement shifted the power from the Union to the states, bringing the debates on Centre-states relations to the front.

N T Rama Rao’s rise in Andhra Pradesh symbolised a wider transformation in Indian politics — the emergence of powerful regional parties challenging the dominance of the Centre. The Telugu Ganga project could neither be technically feasible nor economically viable without downstream Andhra Pradesh’s cooperation, giving NTR considerable leverage. He used the project to build alliances with leaders such as M G Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu to build a broader coalition — the “Southern Council” of states — to advance a broader challenge to centralisation. Mobilisation coincided with the wider federal transition marked by the establishment of the Sarkaria Commission in 1983 — the first to review Centre-state relations. The Telugu Ganga project was a symbol of southern cooperation and regional assertion at that moment. The same project that had initially served the Centre’s political objectives was used to challenge central dominance. Water had become a vehicle for a larger debate about federalism.

The saga did not end there. Andhra Pradesh’s expansion of the project to provide irrigation benefits to the drought-prone Rayalaseema region generated new disputes, with upstream states alleging it as Andhra Pradesh’s attempt to strengthen its future claims over Krishna waters. This remains a source of contention among the riparian states before the ongoing Second Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal proceedings.

This exceptional and enigmatic nature of interstate river-water sharing brings home the political geographic reality of shared rivers. Those are the sites where power, autonomy, control of resources are frequently negotiated. Cooperation does not eliminate conflict, but coexists with it. The Emergency is remembered as a cautionary tale about concentration of power. The history of Telugu Ganga project reveals a formative moment of Indian federalism from the lens of interstate river-water politics. India’s shared rivers are indispensable to the working of its federalism and remain the enduring sites where the federal compact is contested, negotiated and continually reproduced.

The writer is president and chief executive, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Views are personal