The Sunday’s Telangana Political JAC-sponsored “Telangana March” or “Sagara Haram” on the Necklace Road turned out to be the greatest-ever show of pro-Telangana activists’ congregation on Sunday.
The metropolitan city was almost under siege by the people, who descended from near and far-flung areas in the region. All through the “Sagara Haram” meeting, “Jai Telangana” slogans rent the air and the ‘Pink Party” (TRS), which claimed to be the true champion of the T-cause, was relegated to the background.
Though the Congress MPs from the region enacted the drama as scripted by the party high command by holding a ‘dharna’ sort before the Chief Minister’s Office at Secretariat only to get court-arrested ahead of the scheduled meeting slated at 3 pm and be whisked away to Shamshabad police station on the city outskirts, a few MLAs of the TDP belonging to the region also played similar ‘drama’ to perfection by holding some meetings elsewhere in the city.
What does the yesterday’s “Telangana March” indicate? Did the TJAC ’s Prof. Kodandaram hijack the T-cause from the TRS? Had he succeeded in conveying the message to the TRS chief that mere ‘lobbying in Delhi’ was no way to realize their dream of creating a separate statehood? The TJAC Convenor as well as other T-protoganists like Vimmalakka indeed made no bones in making it clear to those who choose to sit in New Delhi in a bid to lobby for State bifurcation. If Prof. Kodandaram’s thunder that “Delhi lo koorchoni lobby cheste Telangana yemi raadu” (Sitting in Delhi to lobby for State bifurcation is futile exercise) was an oblique reference to TRS Chief KCR, who had been camping there for more than a month, then Telangana United Front president Vimalakka was more vociferous when she said; “Delhi gallila thiruguthe Telangana raadu, ikkada raallu pattukuntene vasthadi” was meant for TRS supremo.
Obviously, hurt by Vimalakka’s remarks, TDP MLAs Etela Rajender and others, coolly walked out from the venue one after the other, expressing their displeasure.
One of them apparently got peeved as Prof. Kodandaram, who was listening Vimalakka, made no attempts to dissuade Vimalakka for her pungent remarks against the TRS, which had been fighting for the cause since 2004. Overall, the Telangana March had its impact to establish that the movement was no more in the hands of any one political party, but the people’s direct fight against the Congress Mughals.
That it was no more a secret the reason behind the Congress MPs and Ministers, some of whom even held out threats of resignations from the N Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet, have played to perfection of the prepared script as they feared of facing the wrath of people, if they dare venture to climb the dais of TJAC to express their solidarity. In fact, during the Million March organized by the TRS and TJAC last year, some of the senior Congress MPs were manhandled by the agitators. Similarly, the TDP MLAs from the region also chose to play the same card in a bid to avoid possible humiliation from the activists by organizing a ‘dharna’ before the Secretariat and later getting arrested.
“Can they deny the fact that the police were told in advance to arrest them to avoid possible attacks from the activists?” asked a TJAC member on condition of anonymity. Even granting permission was also a ‘drama’ enacted by the government, he alleged. He wondered how the government could grant permission on one hand and direct the police to prevent the people from far-flung areas from joining the ‘Sagara Haram?” The conspiracy of the State government got exposed as lakhs of people voluntarily came out from the villages in the region and joined the ‘chorus’ to demand separate T-statehood.
It is now more or less clear that the TRS alone cannot claim to be the champion of T-cause, but its the TJAC which emerged as the most strongest forum in motivating the people to keep the ‘sentiment’ strong to teach the political parties a lesson or two and also show them their place in the movement. This was evident from yesterday’s ‘show of strength’ by TJAC in spite of State police trying to play spoilsport.
–Agencies