By: Mahesh Thipparthi
The idea of Telangana, if I have to define, is fighting for justice at all costs against all manifestations of social ills. What is an idea? Idea is something which awakens, empowers, inspires to fight, and gives a sense of purpose. This is what Telangana movement is all about. When a personal trait of an individual help in achieving the very goal society is fighting for then individual becomes an idea. It is very rarely we see in the history that people become synonymous with causes they are fighting for. This happened few times in the history. For instance, MKGandhi was the face of Indian independence, Dr.King was the face of civil rights movement and recently Anna Hazare became the face of Anti-corruption movement. And in the case of Telangana – Mr. KCR was the face of movement as he did all it takes to give a purpose to whole society.
Telangana and fighting are inseparable as we have a great history of fighting against all odds be it against powerful Nizam or landlords or Andhra rulers. History observers say that Telangana was always let down by its own leaders. If you observe Telangana history it is always common people who led from the front and leader followed later to hijack. Thus there was always a trust deficit between Telangana people and its politicians. It reached a point that it resigned to its fate. This was the very reason Telangana challenged Mr. KCR to prove his credentials time and again and once it realized he is the leader they have been looking for, then they rallied behind him. Let me take you through past ten odd years to understand this man and what he has done to Telangana society.
Low confidence
As they say history is always written by winners, so Andhra establishment in Telangana rewrote the whole history books sans mention of Telangana word. Mr. Chandrababu Naidu went to the extent that he has given a ruling in the AP assembly through speaker that the word “Telangana” must not be mentioned in assembly instead it should be referred as “backward region”. Every oppressor knows what can unseat him. Even Telangana oppressor knows Telangana monster can bulldoze Andhra hegemony if not controlled. The identity of Telangana is replaced cleverly by identity of Telugu.Telangan language and culture was degraded in movies and official circles.Telangan society was pushed to believe that they were inferior lot. Telangana people changed Telangana slang to suit the Andhra slang .Telangana entrepreneurs are not encouraged as most of the secretariat and other agencies such as APIIC and SFCs were staffed with Andhra.Thi s is a systematic suppression and looting of one region by the other in the name of language.
In 2009 when I wrote an article about KCR, a reader commented that he returned from US to run a business in Hyderabad as his father always used to discourage him saying we, Telanganites should not be doing business as it was privy of Andhra elite. The self-belief of Telangana society plummeted to that level. This was not the story of one family but of every family story in Telangana. Andhra thought policing and control over Telangana was total.
New Confidence
In times like this ray of hope beaconed on Telangana in the form of KCR.With the emergence of TRS, KCR started explaining the Andhra exploitation in chaste Telangana slang and Telangana slang has started appearing in prime time TV news. It is very refreshing to note that Telangana dialect is in free flow across offices and on the streets. He exhorted youth why we could not make movies and movies started coming out till that time personal fiefdom of Andhra families. He has also proven a point that Telangana politicians can establish political parties and can run successfully amid all the turbulences. He identified Andhras were ruling the roost through media, newspapers; pooled in the resources to establish newspapers and TV channels to further the cause of Telangana. With his arrival, suppressed Telangana society has found a new found confidence.
He never minced words to explain to the Andhras exploitation. Even Andhra people started feeling the pinch. A case in point is -an Andhra mimicry artist was saying in “Open Heart With RK” that, sometimes he gets a feeling why he born that side of the Krishna river, if he was born other side he must have been spared from KCR tirade. This speaks volume how enemy was pushed to the corner.
Cultural renaissance
As somebody puts it, brilliantly, a multidimensional like Telangana can’t be comprehended by simple minds and that was the reason Telangana goes unreported and this phenomenon is under understood across country. People who visited Telangana villages during SJS (All people strike) could only gauge the depth of cultural richness of Telangana society. It is very refreshing to see how many Telangana folks songs were written and sung to enthuse the crowd and how many of them turned into self-financed private albums.
I still remember the words of KCR saab when he said when Telangana people start writing fire oozes out not words as we have strong emotional attachment to subjects. This was only KCR trademark quality- a compassionate poet and hard taskmaster politician both at same time and he switches between one role and other effortlessly and this very quality endeared him to both class and mass.This was the inspiration to most of the people to put up websites and blogs to promote Telangana movement. It is no wonder that we have the best editors form Telangana be it Allam Narayan or K Srinivas or Katta shaker reddy.
Culminating figure
KCRs greatest contribution to Telangana movement was to unite people from all walks of life. Right and left of political line were aligned, poor and rich sharing same space, fortunate and unfortunate occupied with same thoughts, near and far fighting for the same and village, cities, foreign cities are on same line of thought. I just wonder if any other movement in the world united so many. With their innovative programs they made to sit all caste groups to sit together share a meal and danced together. It will be forever etched in our memories how Telangana activists used to support each other- one takes lathi charge from one hand and tries saving fellow activists from other. The camaraderie and brotherhood this movement bought can never be forgotten.
All is well and Father of All
Last 4 years were most emotionally draining period for Telangana society. Some people succumbed to by choosing death as option and others were silently taking it.Everyday was anxious day, you never know what is going to be in new paper tomorrow and what new rumor or what new innovative way to stop Telangana.Eevry political joker was a threat as everybody was looking like a potential destructor to the idea of Telangana, given the economic might of individual. Though repeatedly KCR has given assurances but they could not withstand the propaganda Andhra mills working on. In this emotional roller coaster time, whole society was looking for his assured words. A society which was robbed of its leadership who has spine and can talk for it, he is “no worries man” at the same time worrying figure for all Telangana detractors. At times youth of Telangana society forgot about their own parents for counseling on Telangana issue but waiting for few words of assurance from this man.Everybody saw a father figure in him
Political strategy
He had enviable political career till he shunned the comfort of taking shade under the umbrella of TDP to float a political party to fight for the cause of Telangana separate state. He emerged victorious in the very next elections and subsequently in many other elections. He is the only politician who used the “Resignations” as a weapon to reflect the public mood and his party has the highest number of resignations in typical 5 year duration. In times when politician cling to power till his deathbed, he demonstrated that giving up power -being a minister without any portfolio or giving up MLA and MP posts. He ensured that all ruling and opposition parties toe the line of Telangana by having electoral alliances with them in 2004 and 2009 general elections thus exposing the duplicity of their support to Telangana cause. It needed absolute political brilliance of the bony man to invite TDP and congress along with every other political party to Telangana den.He ensured that every political party in AP stood nakedly before the public of Telangana. This kind of political expose forced government of India to finally concede.
Here is person who influenced individual thoughts and channelized all energies to a cause and finally ensured that we collectively achieved it. So KCR is philosophy and thought and it is permanently etched in every Telangana person memory forever.