By J R Janumpalli
A 55 strong group of T-Congress legislators have visited New Delhi, to pray for the sanction of ‘Telangana State’ with their party ‘pantheon’. The determined lot amongst them, the MPs were making pilgrimage and paying ‘obeisance’ to minor gods in the pantheon at regular intervals, but to no avail. The deities were not pleased. They never got past these minor deities in to ‘sanctum sanctorum’ the presiding deity. Even these minor gods were blowing hot and cold with this lot, not impressed by their numbers. They met the next best, the PM a few days back after a considerable effort and as is the wont, got a very patient hearing and a promise to bring the prayers to the notice of the gods that matter, clearly indicating his ‘figure head ‘position in the pantheon. Sometimes minor gods will wield more power and have a say with the presiding deity, sidelining the higher.
The whole thing is in our ‘Mythology’. It is customary in our Hindu pantheon of getting boons by good guys in the hard way and the bad guys get most spectacular boons in short cut methods. It took 10 years for KCR to get the announcement of formation of state for Telangana. But it was only a matter of 12 days for andhra Congress elements and CBN to stop the announcement in its tracks and keep it at bay for one and half years and succeeded in souring the mood of the deities that matter, against the announcement. Now the good guys have to fight with their backs against the wall, make sacrifices and suffer indignities. Weak among them start squabbling, sabotaging, switching loyalties etc., while the strong do hard penance. It is the same saga and script more or less in this campaign also.
Now we may ponder over the significance of the present pilgrimage of our T-congress To Delhi ‘Samsthan’. This is the biggest ‘jatha’, ever visited the ‘Samsthan’ for Telangana. Earlier, the MPs and MLCs were more proactive in this matter. The T-Ministers as a block were assisting the andhra government, in their ‘Police – Blockade’ of Telangana. The MLAs were on the fence, except a couple of them and were waxing and waning according to the mood of ‘adhishtanam’. As Telangana people weathered the brutal ‘Police Raj’ and hardened their resolve for Telangana, political changes started taking place. JAC and TRS continued their hard work, BJP and CPI have come very strongly in favor of Telangana. Particularly the unequivocal stand taken by CPI and the resounding success of BJP and CPI meetings at Karimnagar and Nizam college grounds have galvanized the political atmosphere for Telangana.The rebellion in TDP, the fracas in ‘TDP-Ranabheri’ meetings and the success of ‘Nagara’ meetings also have added strength to Telangana Struggle.T- News held its forte, as ‘Namaste Telangana’ news paper made its foray in to the arena, to herald the determined and rejuvenated resolve of Telangana people for the statehood.The formation of JAC and round table conference at Delhi, the successful TJF meeting at Delhi, prompted ET to write an editorial with unqualified support for separate Telangana state, and the disapproval of SKC Report by South-East Asia media Commission etc., These things also have added some weight in their own way, to the idea of Telangana State. All these had a salutary effect on the lackadaisical attitude of T-Congress elements and pushed them to coalesce in to a larger group and make a pilgrimage to ‘Delhi Samsthan’. The above developments and their earlier assurance that they are going to give a call after 5 state elections made the Delhi coterie to treat the visit of this large group of T-elements with some circumspection.
There was some rile for the short time given by PC to the group and brevity of his statement. In hindsight, according to the circumstances, what PC said makes sense. PC was in support of Telangana when he made that statement in parliament. Subsequently Andhra MPs and CBN slammed him, with unfair allegations. In the changed circumstances, the members of the core group and the coterie have become reticent about the statement, isolating and embarrassing PC. Therefore he chose to explain that he made that statement with the approval of all the concerned. He alone does not have the authority to take decisions on this matter now or at that time. Since his opinion alone cannot achieve their demand, asked them to take up the matter with other core committee members. We cannot deny the verity in his talk. Though, he sounded a little brusque and did not enlarge on the talks, he made his position clear, succinctly. But, he should have discussed the relevance or lack of it on the all party meet in the changed circumstances.
Of course, the meeting with Pranab Mukharji and Ahmad Patel is important, because these two are key aides to the presiding diety in the hierarchy.The implementation of PC’s announcement hinges on the decision of core committee. These two members are the eyes and ears of the core committee. Our earlier understanding that these two and Azad were not very enthusiastic about carrying forward PC’s announcement. They have taken advantage, of the ‘volte-face’ of andhra Congress and CBN on this issue, and were persuading ‘core committee’ to drag on this and were micro managing Governor,CM, T-Ministers and T-MLAs to stifle the campaign. They have also persuaded HM to send excessive Para military forces to be deployed in Telangana to coerce, if possible to suppress, Telangna struggle. And were trying to postpone the issue in installments with an aim to take it to 2014 elections, for obvious reasons. But they were not successful in smothering the struggle, though they were successful in micromanaging T-Congress elements and andhra government, so far.
But the sudden appearance of 55 strong T-Congress groups, in the back drop of all the aforementioned political developments in the state, was a kind of surprise to these two ‘honchos’. They did not have any plausible tricks up their sleeves this time and were forced by the circumstances to sound positive and give some ambiguous promise. That was what they did and our T-Congress elements were beaming with pleasure. But they should know that this is only a vague promise and our andhra brethren will not be sleeping easy after all these happenings, this side of the border. Depending on the exigencies, our ‘coterie’ has the art, craft and cunning to mould the situation to send us in to another political spin. Yet, there is a perceptible change in the posture of T-Congress elements as a whole, because of the relentless pressure of their constituency, the Telangana people. It may not be very easy to circumvent this change in T- Congress and the political force built up by JAC, TRS, BJP, CPI and TDP (rebel) this time by Delhi Samsthan. It appears that the present pilgrimage of T-Congress to Delhi might ‘turn the corner’ for Telangana Struggle. But, it depends on the extent of propitiation of these minor gods and their counsel in granting the wish by the elusive presiding deity, Smt.Sonia Gandhi. Let us pray and hope that the unremitting efforts of Telangana people will change her proclivity in favor of Telangana people.
Whatever be the principles of parliamentary democracy, now the power lies with the ‘core committee’ and the UPA chair person. It should also to be noted by Telangana people, that the political changes that take place in the perception and actions of political parties, will be in direct proportion to the pressure created by the people. They cannot wax and wane like T-congress by the pretensions of Congress ‘Samsthan’. They have to keep up the relent less pressure without any letup, till the state hood process is completed. They cannot afford to lower the guard. There is absolutely, no alternative to a fully fledged statehood to Telangana.