Hyderabad, October 11: Giving the jitters to established political parties in Telangana, singer Gadar’s Telangana Praja Front (TPF) took birth on Saturday with the sole aim of forcing people’s representatives in Parliament into introducing a bill for formation of a separate Telangana state.
“The bill should be introduced in December itself in the winter session of Parliament.
Our party will organise dharnas in front of the residences of MPs to bring pressure on them. It will rope in MPs from other states who agree with our demand to keep the heat on the Centre,” Gadar said at the delegates’ meeting where the TPF was formed. The meeting, attended by about 1,000 delegates from about 100 organisations active in Telangana, adopted five resolutions: building a movement to force MPs into introducing a bill in Parliament; taking up local agitations in all villages to keep the demand alive; organising protests in front of MPs’ residences to achieve the main demand; building a movement on the basis of social justice; and to take a decision whether or not the front should fight elections when elections are round the corner.
The meeting elected Gadar as president of the TPF and appointed an ad hoc committee of 84 members whose names will be announced soon. The front will have a presidium and a secretariat. In each district, there will be district, mandal and village committees to take up agitations.
In the draft paper outlining the front’s organisation, the TPF lashed out at TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao for betraying the Telangana movement. “First he goes on an indefinite fast, then calls it off and after students take over the movement, resumes it,” the draft pointed out.
In his inaugural and closing remarks, Gadar traced the history of the movement, pinpointing the stages at which it was either diluted, hijacked or led astray. “All attempts for separate state had failed since the days of M Chenna Reddy to the present day K Chandrasekhar Rao,” he said.
The TPF is not a political party but a force pursuing a political objective, he said. The Centre had arrogated to itself the power of bifurcation of the state and therefore the movement now taking birth was aimed at the Centre. “The only way to force the Centre is to build movements,” Gadar said.Gadar said that when students took up the Telangana agitation, the Centre came to its knees and announced steps towards Telangana on Dec. 9 last year. Later, politics began to be played and the Centre became rigid again. Political parties struck a peace deal with the Centre and now the Centre has an upper hand. “The Union home minister is in control of the situation,” he said.
–Agencies