Hyderabad, September 05: Leaders spearheading the Telangana movement have entered into a war of words over the deadline by which the separate state would be created.
Indirectly targeting Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao for stating that Telangana would not be a reality till 2014, the convenor of Telangana Political Joint Action Committee Prof M Kodandaram said the region would achieve statehood, at any cost, in 2011 itself. Calling the movement as a “Do or Die” battle, Kodandaram said there was no question of accepting the delay tactics by the Centre. “We gave lot of time and opportunities to the Centre to take a favourable decision on Telangana. But now we have lost our patience,” he said adding that the Centre is now left with no option but to announce statehood for Telangana.
Kodandaram was addressing the meeting of Telangana Recognised School Managements Association at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday. Incidentally, the same gathering was addressed by KCR an hour before Kodandaram reached the venue. While KCR too described the on-going movement as ‘Now or never’ battle, Kodandaram added more intensity to those words by calling it a ‘Do or Die’ battle.
Kodandaram said that the Centre backtracked on Telangana even after giving a firm commitment during 2004 elections. Similar policy was adopted during 2009 general elections and citing various reasons, the Centre delayed the process of creation of Telangana, he said. Stating that the people of Telangana were not willing to listen to waste any more time, he said the process of creation of Telangana should be completed by the end of this year.
The JAC Convener also accused Home Minister P Chidambaram of playing into the hands of capitalists from Andhra region. He reminded that Chidambaram went back on his words on Telangana in 2009.
Apparently pointing out at the TRS, Kodandaram said the success of Telangana movement was not dependent on any single party. “The agitation will continue and Telangana will soon be a reality,” he said.
——Agencies