Telangana Development Forum conducted a round table discussion on the “Secret Chapter” of Justice Srikrishna Report. Several people’s representatives, intellectuals and academicians participated in the round table which was held at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram yesterday evening.
The discussion started with Sri Narayana Reddy Ex-MP Nizamabad explaining why he went to court and how the deliberations happened before the final judgement was delivered. He said that now we have to take this issue to Delhi and ensure that it gets maximum exposure there.
He explained the various forms of exploitation that is happening in Telangana and cautioned that we should take steps to ensure that this will not continue once the state is formed.
He praised the able leadership of Prof. Kodandaram.
Dr. Gautham Pingle, Centre Director, Centre for Public Policy, at ASCI spoke next. He said that the SKC report contained over 1,50,000 words and 550 pages but the crux of the committee’s recommendations were in the Secret Chapter. He noted the Telangana issue seems to have a strange connection with the Nehru family. He recounted that it was Jawahar Lal Nehru who was against the break up of erstwhile Hyderabad State. Nehru then disliked the idea of Visalandhra and yet, he agreed to the formation of the unified state. Like wise Indira Gandhi was the main obstacle to Telangana formation in 1969 and now her daughter-in-law is the key decision maker on this issue.
Pingle also praised the efforts of Telangana Political JAC for keeping the movement strong at a village level and said that Telangana will become a reality because our movement is strong at grass-roots level.
Prof Madabhushi Sridhar, NALSAR explained the legal intricacies of the 8th chapter case and also how we should pursue further legal action on the SKC members.
Sri Yadava Reddy and Sri Kamalakar – both MLCs from Congress party explained their efforts towards Telangana formation. They said that they will wait until May and then launch an all-out agitation.
Ved Kumar garu of Telangana Praja Front proposed a united forum of Telangana intellectuals to coordinate future agitation programs. He requested the Telangana Journalists forum to mediate between various Telangana groups.
Prof Kodandaram gave a status report of the current situation and provided some glimpses of future course of action. He raised a serious concern about the indiscriminate cases that are being filed against Telangana activists across the region.
Sri Bal Reddy of Telangana Aatmagourava Vedika, Prof Ramesh Reddy, Prof Kanakadurga, Prof Harinath, Prof Eeshwaraiah and Prof Madhusudan Reddy also expressed their opinions on the issue.
The Round Table passed a resolution requesting the Prime Minister of India to declare Justice Srikrishna Committee report as void and initiate immediate steps to to take forward the Telangana state creation process as announced on 9th December 2009.
Kumaraswamy submitted the vote of thanks.