Hyderabad, December 25: On a day when Central forces arrived in the State to tackle possible post-December violence, Telangana statehood protagonists decided to resort to the good old Gandhian ways to sustain the movement.
Representatives of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and various JACs of teachers, doctors, lawyers and employees held a marathon strategy session here on Friday where they mulled the course of action to be followed if there was no positive decision by the Centre on the Telangana issue.
The consensus that appears to have emerged was that every care should be taken to ensure that the movement does not take a violent turn. “History has proved that demands can be achieved through non-violent means. Eruption of violence will only help opponents of Telangana state and we should not give such a handle to them,” TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao said in his opening remarks.
Those who spoke later more or less endorsed the position but came up with various ideas on how to immobilise the functioning of the administration in Telangana and also cause a dent to the government’s revenue. Broadly, it would be a complete civil disobedience and non-cooperation movement and would be launched after giving the Centre a couple of weeks to study the report of Justice Srikrishna Committee and formulate its position. According to sources, many speakers emphasized that student representatives championing Telangana cause should avoid violent activities. It was also felt that JACs, whether of students or others, should not call for bandhs without proper consultation as it was hurting the people and also conveying a lack of coordination.
The speakers pointed out that the Centre’s decision on Telangana state should not be merely based on the report of Srikrishna committee as the demand existed for decades and people’s support for the same had been reflected many times.
–Agencies