Siasat News 8th Dec 09. Hyderabad continues to seethe and simmer even on the tenth day of the fast unto death taken by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi President T Chandrashekhar Reddy .
Started by the new messiah of the Telangana masses TCR who continues with his fast unto death for the tenth day, today sending ripples and violent storms from time to time. Though there have been earnest pleas from different quarters big and small, political and non-political to call off his FAST he refuses to budge. There was an intermittent drama in between when he is supposed to have broken his fast and all his ardent supporters raised a hue and cry and declared him dead, even taking out his mock procession , for having let them down by giving up his fast unto death . All his ardent supporters whom he had promised Telangana even over his dead body felt cheated again and raised a bigger agitation and protest then they were raising for Telangana. Lo! Again he went back on his fast unto death saying that he was blackmailed and drugged and fed intravenously thus making him break his fast. For after all was it the first time that such Drama was taking place in Hyderabad? Way back in 1969, when the Telangana agitation was raised for the first time and the city and other parts had witnessed similar such scenes all over the region, especially in Hyderabad, with Schools, Colleges and even Government Offices and establishments being shut down and the government machinery being brought to a standstill for months on end. After many such tense and turbulent scenes and disruption of normal life, the agitation cooled down and almost fizzled out . There was a talk that the leaders of the agitation were bought and thus sold out and let down all their supporters. Some compromises were made behind the doors in closed meetings where in the main leaders seems to have fallen for some lucrative baits and were more than satisfied by their personal gains and security of their families nay a few generations, were happy and let go of their demand for a separate Telangana, just letting down the whole myriad masses of common people who had staked their all and rallied behind their call for a separate Telangana.
As usual and as it is a practice with the political opportunists all over the world to instigate and take the students along in their agitation, for their recklessness and violent energy , the Champions of Telangana of 1969 too had taken the Osmania University – the students, the faculty and the campus en masse and had achieved the effect an impact and showdown they had expected. The young innocent and gullible students had come in handy for the political goons and their agitation had taken a toll of nearly 400 students. The loss for the state exchequer after months of strikes and blackouts, wherein the work in all the state departments was brought to standstill can well be imagined. After causing so much of disturbance , loss of life and property and government revenue the agitation was called off.
The Telangana issue seemed to be forgotten on a state level until recently till the new maverick on the block T Chandrashekhar Reddy raked it up a few years ago and has been fanning and pursuing it making the usual noises and turbulence.
This time he seems to have taken the Late Potti Sriramulu as his ideal, who in 1956 had taken up a fast unto death for a separate Andhra Pradesh and succeeded in securing it and in the process had become a martyr, he had literally died, fasted unto death. Now the TCR as he is now famous, has taken up the same fast unto death and the fast is continuing for the tenth day today, sending the general life in the twin cities into a tizzy , taking a toll of more than six people, all young lives, committing suicide on the spur of the moment getting emotional. A huge loss is incurred by the State Transport system due to the damage caused by the agitators to the government buses and vehicles. Some unlucky commercial shops which chanced to come into the sight of the agitators too suffered losses and damage to their business and property.
The final decision of a separate Telangana is said to be in the hands of the Italian-born President of the Indian National Congress, Mrs.Sonia Gandhi., who seems to be deliberating with different leaders of different factions who seem to feeding their own versions to her from time to time and she taking her own time to come to a final decision.
At present, even after violent and volatile action in different parts of the city for the past ten days the fate of a separate Telangana seems to be hanging in limbo .
Some wiseacres are predicting that even the 2009 version is going the see the same ending as the 1969 Telangana Drama. ( Arshil Khaiser)