Telangana Movement : What Lessons It Gave To Democracy
Telanana has been one of the longest demands for separate statehood in India. The movement has come to a logical conclusion, leaving lot of lessons for our democracy.
Hyderabad: Without going into the merits and demerits of T-movement, the demand for separate state existed for more than 60 years. The various political parties used this issue more as a poll issue to cash the sentiments of the people of this area.
The various parties in government in united AP showed lot of partiality as far as development activities in this state are concerned. As per some statements by the movement leaders, more priority and funds were given to Seemandhra completely ignoring Telengana area and as such the area could not get as much development as it was supposed to get.
History has record that the T-sentiment was provoked by Dr. Chenna Reddy, a congress leader who raise the movement because of his political unemployment. Once he got his political employment, he left the movement.
Once again the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) under the leadership of KCR took reign of the T-movement for the last 13 years and ultimately the state formation formalities are under process.
Now that the T-movement is almost over, there are certain lessons to be learnt from the movement.
1) First and foremost concern is the suicides committed by the many students and youth. More than 1000 people committed suicide. Their sole cause of worry is formation of state without any further delay.
2) Leaders like T Devender Goud who parted ways with TDP to form his Nava Telangana Party provoked the sentiments of the people. They suggested change of number plates for their vehicles. Even before forming the state, they ensured that the new registration in the form of “TG” (indicating Telangana) is painted on all vehicles registered in place of “AP”. The transport department could not raise any objection to this act.
3) During and as part of the T-movement, many dharnas including ‘sakala janula samme’ were conducted leading to huge inconvenience to the people of the state (mainly Hyderabad). Who are going to compensate the inconvenience and how?
4) During dharnas, many public and private properties were destroyed (including the statutes on the tankbund in Hyderabad). Similarly, During ‘Rail Roko’ incidents in the movement, some of the railway properties were damaged (including removing fish plates etc).What is the legal course of action on the persons who committed these violations and what is the remedy?
Ultimately, it is proved that the T-movement (under leadership of KCR) and the conclusion of the movement turned out to be master plan of congress. This is in view of the fact that KCR confirmed that TRS is ready to work with congress once the present elections are over.
