Telangana movement and its new course

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The “movement” for a separate Telangana state has now slipped out of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s hands.
Like in 1969, students are now coming to the forefront to give a new direction to the movement that virtually got buried when Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was at the helm as Chief Minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its affiliate students’ outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad have joined the “struggle” while the Telangana protagonists within the ruling Congress party too have stepped in to apply pressure on their high command – and take the contentious issue to its logical conclusion.
Government employees belonging to the region are doing their part by observing a silent pen down protest in support of the statehood demand.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti of K Chandrasekhar Rao – which came into being in 2001 to revive the statehood struggle – is no longer the torch-bearer as other players pushed it aside.
By his flip-flops on the much-hyped fast-unto-death for Telangana, Chandrasekhar Rao got himself sidelined and now the students and other sections have taken over the mantle.
“KCR is only one part of the story while the aspiration for Telangana state is deep-rooted. His fast has, however, become the triggering point (for a wider struggle),” political analyst Prof Haragopal observed.
What has, however, become a worrying factor is the violent turn the movement has taken in the last five days.
Not just in the state capital Hyderabad but also in other parts of the region, the pro-Telangana agitators have been vandalizing public and private properties even as the state government is caught in a fix over launching a crackdown on the unruly elements.
The state governemnt has now gathered evidence about the involvement of some former naxalites and unsocial elements in the agitation, in which the so-called students have been vandalising public as well as private properties.
“We are only awaiting orders from the political bosses to launch into action. Since it is a sensitive issue, and also going by the past experiences, the government is obviously adopting a cautious approach,” a top-ranking police official said.
Interestingly, many senior Congress leaders, who are virtually spent forces, have been trying to champion the Telangana cause. They have written a letter to their party high command seeking “immediate resolution” of the Telangana issue.
Today, 13 Congress MPs hailing from Telangana region met AICC president Sonia Gandhi in the Parliament lobbies today and apprised her of the happenings in the state in the few days and the need for taking a concrete decision on the statehood demand.
“We have informed Sonia Gandhi about the growing aspiration for Telangana state. She told us that she was aware of the issue and would take an appropriate decision. We shall meet her again on Monday or Tuesday,” Andhra Pradesh Congress MPs Forum convenor Ponnam Prabhakar said over phone from New Delhi.
Chief Minister K Rosaiah, however, pushed the ball into the Government of India’s court pleading the state government could hardly do anything on the issue.
He, however, discussed the issue and the ongoing agitation for Telangana with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi during his Delhi visit.
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas, who is also a proponent of the statehood demand, saw nothing wrong in the party seniors taking up the issue with the high command. “It is a good thing,” he remarked.
The government’s further moves on tackling the renewed agitation for Telangana will be decided upon Chief Minister K Rosaiah’s return from his two-day trip to New Delhi.