The real politick behind the Center’s back tracking on statehood for Telangana has been laid bare. According to one of the congress legislators from the state who was in the US recently, P Chidambaram’s statement on 9 December 2009, on Telangana jolted the Seemandhra lobby of industrialists, mining and construction contractors and real estate developers, which includes a few top business houses from the region. To safeguard their interests they collectively donated a sum of Rs.10,000 crore to the Congress party fund, with the request that the bifurcation of the State be stayed and even if the worse comes to worst, make Hyderabad either the Joint Capital or a Union Territory.
The chain of events post this transaction at the Center are open to interpretation, first the mild ND Tiwari is moved out of the Raj Bhawan to be replaced by a hardline Narasimhan. That Tiwari was compensated in other ways is a foregone conclusion, till now there has been no inquiry into the incident, that has shamed the dignity and purity of the Governors office. And what of Narasimhan, soon after taking over the reins of the Governorship, he prepares a report on the Naxal and Maoist influence on the demand for a separate state of which there was no trace till then, the report goes so far as to suggest, that the Telangana movement is being stage managed by the naxals. On this logic of Naxal and Maoist infiltration within the students ranks, the State administration, unleashes its terror on hapless students in the Osmania University campus.
Fast forward to January 2010, the promised Sri Krishna Commission is constituted and the Terms of Reference announced, these are so ambiguous and diluted that it will be miracle if it comes up with any concrete report. Again the police unleashes its might on the students of the Osmania University, and the order of the AP High Court asking that all police and para military forces vacate the OU campus, is challenged and a stay order brought in by the State administration from the Supreme court on the specious plea that the University is harboring Naxals and Maoists.
Today, the Vice Chancellor of Osmania University, Tirupati Rao, categorically states that there are no Naxals in the University. Do, you Mr. Home Minister believe the words of the Vice Chancellor or is he also a Naxal sympathizer and a liar. If the Telangana Movement was infiltrated by Naxals and Maoists as is the State and Central Governments propaganda, the law and order situation in Hyderabad and Telangana would have been very different from what it is today. Our youth would not be taking their own lives in desperation, they would not be sitting ducks as they are today for your lathis and rubber bullets, they would not be asking their leaders to resign. These are the acts of a desperate and exploited people and not those of extremists. We have no weapons except their lives and no assets except our mortal bodies, which we have been laying at your doorstep with the hope that you will hear our cry for justice. But, alas instead of justice and a honest hearing we are branded as naxals and maoists.
Mr. Home Minister, the people of Telangana can look the nation in the eye and swear on all that is holy, that our demand for a separate state is a people’s movement. But, can you look at us and say that your party has not bartered away our future for a few pieces of silver.
Jai Telangana
Jai Hind
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