Telangana: Is It Show Of Strength Or Demo Of Weakness?

By Ramesh Reddy / Hyderabad

Telangana leaders of the Congress party have used the ‘Telangana Sadhana Sabha’ held at the Nizam College grounds on Sunday for its show of strength. They decided to show that it was not the TRS or the ‘T’ JAC that could mobilize crowds, they could also do it. So, naturally a day’s stay for sight-seeing, Biryani packets, night entertainment and the usual cash payment for shouting Jai Congress, Jai Telangana, Jai Sonia Gandhi, Jai Rahul Gandhi’ etc. were promised to mobilize the people.
 While leaders appeared fond of listening to their own voices, none in the crowds was so much impressed by the emotional outbursts. Possibly because they attended such meetings of the TRS or TDP or BJP on similar terms and conditions and heard such outbursts. Only the names of leaders whom they hailed changed. Even as the leaders were explaining how committed they were for the ‘T’ cause and how they would even lay down their lives, people started leaving the grounds.

They are in a hurry to see the city before it is dark. Thousands of such ‘hardcore Telangana supporters’ were found on the Tank Bund, Lumbini Park, Indira Park and other areas wearing the Congress shawls. Congress leaders made their point. They are capable of mobilizing people even in the Telangana region. 

They wanted to show that they could convince people of Telangana that it was only Congress that was capable of achieving Telangana state and none else. This is the reason why they brought so many thousands from the districts. But have they really succeeded in convincing the people that they were committed to Telangana? Do people believe that Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi or Digvijaya Singh understood their urge to have their own state? 

Apart from the thousands they brought to the meeting, what about the millions who had not attended the meeting? Were they also convinced that Congress alone would be the savior and not TRS or BJP? If they succeeded in sending such a message across to the millions and convincing them, then the meeting could be judged to be successful. Congress leaders need to do little soul-searching on what would be the real impact of this public meeting on its election prospects. If the meeting improved the party’s trustworthiness and election prospects, then they could be happy that they had succeeded in their mission.