STATEMENT BY STUDENTS’ SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE FOR SEPARATE TELANGANA, DELHI
Manmohan-Sonia-Chidambaram are Responsible for Mandadi Yadi Reddy’s Martyrdom!
Indian State is forcing Hundreds of Youths from Telangana on the Path of Suicide!
Form Telangana State Immediately!
No More Delay and False Promises!
Today on 20 July at around 7.30am, Mandadi Yadi Reddy –a thirty-year old student from Ranga Reddy district of Telangana– hung himself to death in front of Krishi Bhavan, a stones’ throw away from the Parliament, the North Block and South Block, and from Rashtrapati Bhavan. In his 20-page suicide note written in Telugu, he demanded the formation of Telangana state without any delay.
The Delhi Police and the political class at the Centre who directs it, tried its best to temper with the note written by Mandadi Yadi Reddy, wishing to portray it as a common case of suicide. They tried to hush-up the incident fearing that Mandadi Yadi Reddy’s martyrdom will further stoke the ongoing peoples’ struggle for Telangana. They are scared that Telangana youths have come to the country’s capital – and to its political nerve-centre, the Parliament/North Block– to register their protest by taking the extreme step of suicide. There has been a concerted attempt also to completely black-out the news of this suicide in the so-called ‘national media’ in a condemnable act of corporate media’s self-censorship in order to please the Central government.
Mandadi Yadi Reddy’s suicide is only the latest of the more than 600 Telangana youth who took their own lives for the cause of Telangana. They, along with the people of Telangana, have rightly accused the Central government of deliberate manipulations to delay the formation of Telangana state. The Union Home Minister himself promised the formation of the state on 9 December 2009, only to back out a few days later. After this, there has been only deception and delay by the Congress-led UPA government on the issue Telangana, testing the patience of the people of Telangana and especially its students and youth, who have waited for five decades for their own state. The Indian state is responding with brutal repression to crush the democratic aspirations of the people, and have turned the campuses in Telangana into police camps.
The Central government run by the Manmohan-Sonia-Chidambaram is squarely responsible for the martyrdom of Mandadi Yadi Reddy and hundreds of others who have died for separate Telangana state. It is high time that the Indian state takes an immediate decision to form Telangana state, or else be prepared to face in the days ahead for an intense struggle of the people fighting for their democratic rights.