Hyderabad, December 03: Will the ongoing agitation for a separate Telangana State be a game-changer? That’s as tricky a question as any.
But one thing seems certain. It could well be a name-changer. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) workers, pro- Telangana activists and students are not only staging protests but also rechristening a few things.
TRS men, led by its minority wing leader Mahmood Ali, on Wednesday vandalised a statue of former chief minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, branding him a ‘‘Telangana traitor’’ for his alleged role in foiling the 1969 agitation. Alleging that he was responsible for the death of almost 400 Telangana supporters, they poured tar on his statue at the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Park in Banjara Hills and set it afire.
They also disfigured a plaque and smashed windows of the ticket counter.
And then, renamed the park as Asaf Jahi Park, in an irony of sorts. Police, who rushed to the spot, took 20 of them into custody.
On Tuesday night, Osmania University students did something similar.
They went out in full force to the Andhra Mahila Sabha and the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University and renamed them both as Telangana Mahila Sabha and Komaram Bheem Telugu University respectively.
Late on Wednesday evening, the OU students again marched, this time, to a hospital of the APSRTC, everybody’s favourite whipping boy. They changed its name to Telangana RTC Hospital. Not content with it, they scribbled TRTC on some RTC buses. They also took out a rally and formed a human chain at the Tarnaka cross roads.Earlier, some suspected TRS workers set ablaze two coaches of the Kacheguda-Nanded Express at the Kacheguda Railway Cleaning Yard. At the OU campus, protests continued for the third consecutive day with the students demanding suspension of East Zone DCP Stephen Ravindra and tabling of a separate Telangana Bill in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. Students of the other colleges also staged demonstrations.
–Agencies