As a shrewd politician who stays tuned, Nava Telangana Party (NTP) president T. Devender Goud is spearheading the Telangana movement energetically by whipping up regional sentiments on the ground of perceived injustices meted out to them both in political and economic fields.
An additional factor that is fuelling his high-voltage ambitions is the political paralysis that has apparently crept into the Congress-I leadership at the Centre when it comes to defining its stand on the issue. With all other parties having thrown their hats into the ring, the Congress may have to repent at leisure for not acting soon as part of its damage control exercise.
How is Goud, the man of the masses, reacting to the situation? A shrewd calculator that he is, he timed his call for a separate Telangana state on the Deccan plateau a day after Andhra Pradesh celebrated its 52nd anniversary on November 1 this year.
The move was also intended to mount pressure on the Congress leadership, which has been keeping its Telangana card close to its chest. However, UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi is believed to have assured the NTP leaders that the Telangana issue was very much up front and that the introduction of a Bill in this regard might be considered by the government as soon as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned from his foreign tour.
This assurance, similar to the past Congress pledges for the last four decades, turned out to be another damp squib. The Congress High Command could justify its inaction this time by citing the extraordinary security situation, which deteriorated sharply after the November 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Yet, the fact remains that by allowing its political rivals to gain the vantage ground in the fight for a separate Telangana state, the Congress could be writing its own obituary in Telangana.
Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, who interacted with an eight-member NTP delegation led by Goud in New Delhi on October 27, reassured him that she understood the “seriousness of the issue and sentiments of the people”. The delegation, which met various party leaders to mobilise support for the issue, also sought to utilize the occasion for seeking introduction and adoption of the Bill on Telangana before the Assembly/Lok Sabha elections.
NTP general secretary and a member of the delegation E.Peddy Reddy reminded her that though the Congress had included Telangana in the common minimum programme (CMP) of the UPA government in 2004, it went back on its promise to fulfill it. When the delegation told her that this political dithering on the part of the Congress could prove costly, Mrs. Gandhi quipped: “I know it”, according to Reddy.
But Goud is taking no chances as he galvanizes his party into action. The NTP has already unfurled its party flag that features a saffron map of Telangana against a light blue background. He also set free an Indian Roller, a tropical bluish brown bird of striking beauty, which the party has adopted as the Telangana state bird.
Goud, who once served as a minister in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) till July this year before he launched the NTP, said he had to call for a separate state as the government was indifferent to their decades-old demand. When eventually it gets statehood, it will comprise ten districts, including Hyderabad, although the future status of this city is still a subject of speculation. Except the Congress, all the major and minor parties have committed their firm support to the movement.
To give it a further push, Goud announced that Telangana state stickers would be pasted in all the villages in the region as well as on four and two wheelers. He also undertook a padayatra (long march) from Pranahitha to Chevella, which received an enthusiastic reception from the people. Sensing the popular mood, the TDP also came on board by backing the cause of a separate Telangana state in the by-elections held in May 2008.
According to party sources, Goud’s magnetic pull on the people stems from several directions. A prominent backward class leader from Telangana, he also worked as a cabinet minister for BCs’ welfare, besides holding Welfare and Prohibition portfolios in the N.T. Rama Rao(former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh) cabinet. He also held Revenue and Home portfolios with a cabinet rank during the tenure of Chandrababu Naidu (former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh).
Besides his personal magnetism, what sustains the movement in favour of a separate state is his argument that the Telangana people have suffered enough at the hands of Andhra rulers in the matter of jobs, political representation, government service as well as unfair diversion of water from Krishna and Godavari rivers to non-Telangana regions at the expense of Telanganites.
The Indian National Congress, he points out, also sidelined the separate statehood demand in spite of giving assurances for a seat-sharing arrangement with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which was launched mainly to fight for a Telangana state in the 2004 elections. Its political plank was indiscriminate sales of Telangana’s public lands to the people from Andhra, inadequate representation to the Telangana people in local jobs, including those at the administrative level. Devender Goud vowed to fight these injustices meted out to his people.
His critics, however, were quick to tar him with the same brush. They point out that “former Home Minister T Devender Goud is raising a lot of hue and cry over the loss of lands by poor farmers in the Outer Ring Road project. But everybody knows he is more worried about his own lands at Tukkuguda in Maheshwaram mandal, which are now worth hundreds of crores of rupees.”
That was the reason, according to his critics, “why Goud took Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu to Maheshwaram mandal to make it a big public issue. Though he spoke at length on the loss of properties by poor farmers, it was evident that he was referring to his lands. Realising that the media was telecasting his words, he immediately changed the tune saying it would not be proper for him to speak further as his lands were involved.” Against this murky political scene, the NTP is engaged in the game of musical chairs with a host of other players. Who will emerge as the victor at the end of the final round is a jigsaw puzzle.
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