As tension gripped Hyderabad on
Sunday during Telangana march, a day ahead of an international summit in the
city, the statehood issue threatened to go out of hand for the ruling Congress,
with its ministers, including deputy chief minister, and MPs threatening to
quit.
Condemning the arrests of Telangana supporters coming to Hyderabad for the
march, deputy chief minister warned if people were harmed, he would not
hesitate to resign. Ministers K Jana Reddy and B Saraiah met the deputy chief
minister to discuss the latest situation arising out of the arrests of
Telangana protesters in various districts.
They alleged the government had gone back on its word to allow peaceful march.
Jana Reddy, who played a key role in obtaining permission for the march, said
the time had come for them to make a choice between the ministerial posts and
the cause of Telangana.
Even Congress MPs, who were
arrested twice in the day as they sat on a dharna outside chief minister Kiran
Kumar Reddy's residence, threatened to quit.
The Telangana Joint Action
Committee which was to complete their protest march at 7 pm on Sunday decided
to stay put on Necklace Road in Hyderabad until there was a decision on
separate statehood.
The
crowd numbering around 1.5 lakh decided not budge unless a positive decision on
Telangana was announced by the central government. The protests later turned
ugly as vehicles were burned in Hyderabad and police resorted to baton charges
Meanwhile, senior Congress
leaders Vayalar Ravi and Ghulam Nabi Azad apprised Home Minister Sushil Kumar
Shinde of the situation.
Shinde, who is talking to the two leaders in charge of Andhra Pradesh, in turn
will brief the Congress high command following which a decision will be taken.
The protestors, on the other hand, have been demanding that an announcement be
made on Sunday night itself, but that appears to be unlikely.
The JAC, which is leading the
protest, said that the police have lobbed tear gas shells at them, used water
canons and even lathi charged them. "Let them throw bombs on us, but we
won't budge from here," a JAC member said.
The police found it extremely
difficult to control the crowd. They also ordered the blacking out of all
regional channels in the Telangana region.
They feared that the movement
will get stronger in the districts and people may try to barge into Hyderabad
in larger numbers.
However, this did not bar the
protestors from carrying out marches and processions in the districts.
Meanwhile a statement issued by the JAC stated that they
would not move from Hyderabad.
"We had carried out a
peaceful protest, but the police used force. Had you let us carry this protest
without any interference, we would have lived up to our promise and moved out
of here," the statement read.
Earlier, violence erupted along
the Neckalce Road in Hyderabad -- the site of Telangana march -- as the
protestors went on rampage. They attacked the vehicles of the police and the
media and set fire to at least three vehicles.
The vehicles set on fire include
those of Sakshi TV, Doordarshan and a police van. The protestors
were infuriated over the lathicharge of police against the people coming for
participating in the Telangana march.
TJAC convenor Prof Kodanda Ram
told the march participants that they should not move from the place till
central government makes an announcement on Telangana state.
Chaos was prevailing on
Hyderabad roads as the police and para-military forces closed down several
routes to stop the pro-Telangana protestors from occupying the area around the
Hussain Sagar lake for a massive march.
Barricades and barbed wire were
laid on all the roads leading towards the area, where the Andhra Pradesh
secretariat and other government offices are located.
The state government permitted
the Telangana march called "Sagara Haaram" only at Necklace Road and
the police allowed the protestors to enter the road from the Secunderabad side.
The closure of all other roads
and refusal to various organisations to take out smaller processions towards
the venue of the march created a lot of anger among the people leading to
clashes.
The protestors clashed with the
police near Telugu Talli statue before Tank Bund and also in front of the
Prasad I-Max theater as they were stopped by the police from moving forward.
The police used tear gas shells after the protestors pelted stones.
Lakhs of people, coming from all
over Telangana region, were pouring on to the Necklace Road.
They were carrying
banners and flags and shouting slogans in support of a separate state.
The Telangana Joint Action
Committee, the main organiser of the program, alleged that after granting
permission to the march, the government and the police were now trying to
sabotage it by triggering violence.
They said that more than 15
trains have bee cancelled and hundreds of buses and other vehicles were stopped
to prevent the people from reaching Hyderabad.
"The police is continuously
arresting the people", said Prof Kodanda Ram, the convenor of TJAC.Telangana Rashtra Samiti,
Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and CPI-Marxist Leninist New
Democracy have taken out processions with thousands of people from different
places to reach the venue of the march.
A part form the political
parties, organisations of government employees, lawyers, doctors, women and
minorities were also participating in the march program.
However, the Osmania University
students were stopped by the police and the security forces from taking out a
procession from the campus leading to a violent clash between them.
The police lobbed tear gas
shells and made lathi charge to disperse the violent groups of students who
were pelting stones.
Meanwhile, the police detained
the Congress members of Parliament from Telangana after they tried to sit on a dharna outside
the residence of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in protest against the
arrests of the people in Telangana.
After they were released, they
again went back and started protesting there.
Meanwhile, banners and posters
have come at the venue of the march threatening that the protest will not end
till the central government makes an announcement on the Telangana state.
Congress' former
Rajya Sabha MP K Keshava Rao said, "It is time that Congress leadership
took serious note of this demand and paved way for a separate state. Else, it
will lose Andhra Pradesh. The issue was not even discussed in the Congress
Working Committee. We were made to believe that there would be an announcement
on statehood before September 30. But that has come to a naught. All MPs are
here in the police lock up with me, and nobody would hesitate to quit for this
cause."
The party MPs squarely blamed Andhra Pradesh
governor ESL Narasimhan for Congress dithering on statehood.
Congress MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi said, "The Congress president had held a
meeting over Telangana with the core group. It was decided that the chief
minister would hold an allparty meeting. But the governor went to Delhi and
played a spoilsport. He has told the party high command that Telangana movement
will peter out if the demand is ignored." Keshava Rao added the governor's
report that granting a separate state would fuel Maoist activity in newly
carved Telangana has also hurt the cause.
Congress legislators and MPs fear that if the party leadership drags its feet
on the demand, Congress could fritter away the entire state. Keshava Rao said,
"It is Congress that has always been at the forefront with the promise of
Telangana state. We included it in our manifesto. On December 9, 2009, then
home minister P
Chidambaram had announced that the process would be kickstarted soon. We
even had all-party meetings. So, it is Congress' issue. The recent byelection
results show that if the party does not take note of the situation, we will
lose the entire state".
