JAI TELANGANA MOVEMENT OF 1969

[shyamnaikbanoth]

• Jai Telangana Movement of 1969
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS BACK THEN
After Nehru’s death, Smt. Indira Gandhi, in her father’s footsteps,
became a staunch champion of socialism. Mrs. Gandhi’s socialist
economics were pushing the country deeper and deeper into poverty.
Politicians were clueless about why the economy was floundering
despite their best intentions. Nizam Telangana economy suffered along
with the rest of the country. Poverty in the region created an ideal
environment to incite people against each other.
Ever since the formation of the Andhra Pradesh state, there have been
occasional rumblings of dissatisfaction by the disgruntled Nizam
Telangana leaders who failed in their demand for a separate state in
1956. The Nizam Telangana leaders had two main grievances: the first
one related to employment in government services, and the second one
involved using the balance of funds from the Telangana region.
JOBS, WATER & FUNDS
According to the gentle men’s agreement, jobs in the Telangana region
were reserved for locals. Ironically, Nizam Telangana leaders violated
this agreement in certain instances, and often for good reasons. For
example, when teachers were not available in the Nizam Telangana
region, they were hired from other regions. The local Telangana
leaders running the zilla parishads made these hiring decisions. There
were violations in other government departments, and these violations
happened in all ministries, including under the very eyes of the Nizam
Telangana ministers
According to the then Deputy Chief Minister J. V. Narasinga Rao,
hailing from Nizam Telangana, there were 107,000 non-gazetted
employees in the Nizam Telangana region in 1969. Out of these, about
4.5% were nonmulkis 1,600 were teachers, 1,800 were nurses, 400 were
stenographers, and the remaining few came from other departments.
The second major issue was the balance of funds. In Circar districts,
alcohol was banned; as a result, there was no excise revenue. That was
not the case in Nizam Telangana districts, which generated significant
excise revenue on alcohol sales. Consequently, the government received
more revenues from the Nizam Telangana region than from the rest of
the state. The gentle men’s agreement stipulated that the excess
revenue should be invested in the Nizam Telangana region for economic
stimulation. The government failed to fulfill this clause effectively.
All party Telangana legislatures determined the balance of funds to be
33 crores. Undoubtedly, a significant sum in those days, but it was
accrued over 15 years. The state government agreed to resolve the
issue of balance of funds. Based on all party legislatures’ demands,
the government planned to spend 33 crores in the early part of the
fourth five-year plan.
With that background, let us now delve into the bloody fight for the
separate Telangana state that was fought for less than 5,000 non-mulki
jobs. In other words, the issue affected a minuscule 0.033% of the
approximately 1.5 crore people living in the Nizam Telangana region.
BIRTH OF MOVEMENTS AND PLAYERS
There were two major people movements between 1968 and 1973— the first
one was Jai Telangana, and Jai Andhra followed it. With these
movements, Telugu politicians reached the lowest depths of opportunism
and demagoguery. This must be one of the darkest chapters of our
modern Telugu history.
There were three main players in this tragic story. Dr. Marri Chenna
Reddy, a prominent leader at the time of state formation. In 1956, he
was an integrationist who supported Vishalandhra. However, when he
realized that Nehru was against an integrated state, Chenna Reddy
quickly changed colors and became a separatist and a proponent of a
Telangana state. Chenna Reddy later advocated a bilingual state of
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. His changing position on the separate
state issue is ample evidence of his opportunism and lack of
conviction. After the formation of the state of Andhra Pradesh, Dr.
Chenna Reddy went on to become the central minister of steel in the
Congress government.
In 1968, the High Court nullified Chenna Reddy’s election, and the
Supreme Court upheld the decision. He was found guilty of using
religion as a platform for his election campaigning. As a result,
Chenna Reddy was forced out of power, and he had to stay out of public
office for six years. Chenna Reddy made the Telangana movement his
fulltime job, puppeteering the student movement for a separate state
from behind the scenes. Once the movement caught on people’s
imagination, he burst onto the separatist movement scene as its
leader.
The second important player was the Deputy Chief Minister B. V. Subba
Reddy, a staunch integrationist who later went on to lead the bloody
Jai Andhra movement. As deputy chief minister, he, along with Chief
Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, took out full-page newspaper
advertisements promoting peace and urging people to stay calm during
the Telangana movement. His position changed when the Jai Andhra
movement took off. He became the fiery leader representing Kosta, and
he was blamed for large-scale violence occurring in the region.
The last player in the tragic saga of separate state movement was Smt.
Indira Gandhi. Unlike Chenna Reddy and Subba Reddy, Smt. Gandhi is the
unintentional hero of our story. She ( though not out of trying to the
real cause, but…) single-handedly saved Telugus from disintegrating.
She understood the legacy of Telugu glory, though her ulterior motive
was to preserve national integrity. If it were not for her iron will,
our state and Telugu people would have been torn apart into pieces
long ago. When it came to toughness, Indira Gandhi was unlike her
father Nehru. She displayed an uncanny ability to understand the
separatist leaders’ psychology. She adamantly refused to give in, even
when leaders threatened her with violence in the region and made good
on their words. She did not flinch when the Nizam Telangana and Kosta
regions erupted like a volcano. In the end, she walked away with
getting what she wanted and did not give up an inch of her territory.
( Telugus believing in the unity of our race owe her a great deal. If
there had been any other leader at the helm during that time, today,
the so-called integrated state of Andhra Pradesh would be confined to
history books. )
Let us now walk through the separate state movements occurring from
1968–1973.
The gentlemen’s agreement coming into effect at the time of state
formation had now been in effect for 15 years and was ending. As a
result, the term of the Telangana Regional Council, overseeing
development in the region, was also ending. The regional council
created to oversee development in Nizam Telangana, failed in ensuring
that excess revenue from Telangana would be spent locally. During the
15 years of its existence, the regional council, whose members were
ministers, MPs, and MLAs from Nizam Telangana, never once objected to
the government misspending.
The Telangana legislative members of all parties woke up from their
slumber in February 1968 and demanded that the balance of funds from
Telangana be invested in the region. These members also demanded
removal of the ban on alcohol sales in the Andhra region, which was
ineffective anyway. In addition, they demanded extending the term of
the Telangana Regional Council by another five years. Political
parties and their leaders did not object to any of these reasonable
demands.
The Telangana Regional Council and the state government estimated that
about 33 crore rupees (difference between income and expenditure) in
the Telangana balance of funds have accumulated since the state’s
formation. Responding to the legislators’ demand, the state government
agreed to spend the balance of funds in the early part of the fourth
five-year plan.
An insignificant event in 1969 acted as a trigger for a massive
student uprising in Nizam Telangana. On January 8, 1969, a student
named Ravindranath started an indefinite hunger strike in Khammam
demanding protection for Telangana. It is unclear what motivated him,
but this was mostly a localized protest. Five days into the strike,
students in Khammam ransacked some government offices and burned the
road transportation corporation (RTC) buses. Students in Warangal also
organized protests in solidarity with their fellow students in
Khammam.
On January 12, 1968, the Osmania University Student Union held an
extraordinary meeting to assess the situation in the districts where
students were protesting. The union expressed its profound
dissatisfaction with the political leadership from the region and
demanded the resignation of MLAs and nine cabinet ministers from the
Telangana region. In addition, they laid out a set of demands:
= Release the 70-crore balance of Telangana funds ( it is unclear how
the 33 crores that even the Telangana Regional Council agreed as the
balance of funds became 70 crores )
= Create a separate five-year plan for Telangana including the balance
of funds from the region
= Complete the Pochampad Project on a priority basis (Pochampad is the
current Sriram Sagar Project
= Strictly implement Mulki rules
= Extend special protections to Telangana by another 10 years
= Give Telangana graduates local jobs and transfer non-locals
immediately
= Establish teacher training institutes in all the Telangana districts
= Have the Andhra and Telangana regions bear expenses incurred on all
the government buildings in the capital city in a 2:1 ratio.
The students announced that, unless the government met these demands,
they intended to go on an indefinite strike starting January 15, 1969.
The student demands went up in number and size when compared to the
original demands of the all-party Telangana leaders.
START OF THE BUNDHS
As announced, students across the twin cities boycotted classes on
January 15. They headed to the Nizam College grounds for a meeting.
Two groups emerged among the students: one group demanded protections
for Telangana whereas another group demanded a separate state for
Telangana. During the debate, the group demanding a separate Telangana
state clearly had an upper hand. After the meeting was over, President
of the Osmania University Students Association Mallikarjun led a
student rally from the Nizam college grounds to the Abids Circle.
Despite heavy police security, there were stray incidents of students
throwing stones at city buses.
Student Ravindranath who lit the Telangana forest fire in Khammam was
still on fast, and his health continued to deteriorate. In solidarity,
students intensified their protests. Kodada is a Nizam Telangana town
on the Coastal Andhra border. Agitators stopped the buses going from
Kodada to the Kosta districts, stranding 500 passengers.
As days passed, the student movement gradually turned violent. Two
student groups, one demanding a separate state, another demanding
special protection for the region, staged rallies in the city.
Students blocked the gates of the Secretariat for 90 minutes. In
Khammam, students resorted to throwing stones and damaged many Road
Transportation Corporation (R.T.C.) buses. They also attacked the
telephone and telegraph offices and destroyed the communication
infrastructure. Because of the violence, the R.T.C halted bus services
between the Telangana and Andhra regions.
CM Sri Kasu Brahmananda Reddy urged people not to be misled by the
separatist slogans. He said that, with the limited resources it has,
the government was doing everything in its power to develop backward
regions of the state. He reminded people that, out of 165 villages
electrified in the state, 85 of them were in Mahaboob Nagar alone.
The Employee Union leaders concerned with politicians dragging their
issues into the controversy signed a statement requesting their
members not to act in a way that hurts the cordial relations existing
among employees. They also stated that in the Telangana protections
debate, it was unfortunate that the issues of state employees came up.
They stated that the employee union needed to address these things.
The A.P. Non-Gazetted Officers (N.G.O.) Union President Sri A.
Sriramulu, Telangana N.G.O. Union President Sri K. R. Amos,
Secretariat Employees Association President Sri P. Satya Moorthi, and
the Teachers Union President Sri Rama Brahmam and others signed this
statement.
During the early part of the separate state movement, government
employees resented politicians and students using their issues.
However, that changed quickly. Amos, a main signatory of the Employee
Union resolution, who urged employees not to get involved in separate
state politics, became a firebrand leader of the separate Telangana
movement.
Student protests continued to rock the capital city. Both the student
unions—one demanding a separate state and the other demanding
protections for Telangana—marched on the city. Police tried to keep
the path of these marches away from each other. Despite their best
efforts, the marches crossed paths at the Abids center. In the ensuing
clash, students attacked each other with sticks and stones. They threw
stones at the R.T.C. buses passing by and at the street lights, and
then resorted to throwing stones at the shop windows in the Abids
center. Police lathi-charged and fired teargas while eight students
and a few police officers were injured.
Chief Minister Brahmananda Reddy started realizing that he needed to
deal with the problem more aggressively. He called for a meeting of
all the political parties to find a solution to the student movement.
Forty-five members of all the major political parties operating in the
state met and held a 10-hour marathon meeting. They reached an
agreement that addressed the issues raised by the students. The
agreement assured the people of strict enforcement of the gentlemen’s
agreement. In addition to that, the agreement stated the following:
Andhra employees in the jobs reserved for Telangana locals will be
immediately removed and provided alternate employment in the Andhra
region.
Mulki rules will be extended by another year, and corporations, such
as R.T.C. and the Electricity Board funded by the state government,
will be brought under the purview of Mulki rules.
An executive appointed by the auditor general of India will determine
the extent of Telangana’s balance of funds.
Given this agreement, which all the political parties accepted, the CM
urged students to end their stir and help restore peace in the state.
Student leader Mallikarjunn met with his organization’s members and
announced that they would continue their agitation because they were
dissatisfied with the all- party agreement. He said that the agreement
did not address the injustices done to Telangana, as it merely
repeated the gentlemen’s agreement. He protested the policy of giving
access to educational facilities in Hyderabad to people of all the
regions. He then raised frivolous issues such as the government not
doing anything about grants to Osmania University.
The Student Union, under Mallikarjun’s leadership, resolved to
continue their agitation and boycott the classes. Mallikarjun urged
all thestudents to come to the Nizam College grounds for a meeting on
the following day at 11 a.m.
The students’ stance exasperated CM Brahmananda Reddy, especially
after he spent so much of his political capital to get all the
political parties and public representatives to agree to a deal. He
probably felt that it was time to get tough with the students. The
government imposed a ban on all public meetings and processions in the
twin cities for the next six days and instructed law enforcement
officials to implement the ban strictly.
FROM COLLEGES TO SCHOOLS
Telangana fever at this point spread to primary and secondary schools
in the region. For instance, students from Shamshabad’s primary and
secondary schools, after completing the school prayer, boycotted their
classes. They then headed to a local Umda Nagar railway station, threw
stones at the station office, and damaged the windows. The school kids
then proceeded to stop traffic. They did not allow the vehicles to
move until 2 p.m. in the afternoon, causing a major traffic jam in the
area. Police eventually decided to intervene to remove the blockade.
Students welcomed them by pelting stones. Police retaliated by lathi-
charging first, and then opened fire, injuring some students. All the
students injured were between 11 and 16, while two students, aged 12
and 14, were admitted to the hospital in critical condition.
As violence spread across the region, student union leaders met the
CM. The never-ending list of demands the students put forth continued
to grow. The new set of demands included raising the age limit for job
applicants from the Nizam Telangana region from 25 to 27 and a demand
for a post- graduate center at the Gandhi Medical College.
The following day, the student union came up with one more demand.
This time, the union leaders wanted to open new medical colleges in
the Telangana region to match the numbers in the coastal districts.
The CM, exasperated with the ever-growing list of demands and unabated
violence, announced the closure of all educational institutions until
January 27, 1969.
In the interim, he did not waste any time implementing the all-party
agreement, as he feared the student union would take advantage of the
issue.
On January 22, 1969, the state government issued a Government Order
(G.O.) to remove all the non-Mulkis from their current positions and
set a deadline of February 28, 1969. All the department heads were
required to certify by March 7 that all non-Mulkis had been removed.
The government threatened action against department heads who did not
comply with the G.O.
On the state government’s request, the comptroller and the auditor
general of India agreed to send a senior executive to determine the
Telangana balance of funds. The state government also announced that
it was extending Mulki rules to the Electricity Department, as the
government funded it.
MODERATES AND INTENSIVISTS OF THE MOVEMENT
Student Ravindhranath of Khammam, the original source for the inferno
spreading across the region, decided to end his 15-day fast based on
the assurances the government and the opposition leaders gave.
However, it was already too late for him to stop what he started.
Readers might recall that there were two student unions: one demanding
protections for the Telangana region and another demanding a separate
state. The student union demanding protections for the Telangana
region met the CM. Brahmananda Reddy, not wanting to let the situation
get completely out of hand, conceded to the students’ demand for
increasing the age limit of the job applicants from Nizam Telangana to
27. With that assurance, this student group announced that they were
ending their strike.
However, Osmania University Student Union leader Mallikarjun announced
that their strike would continue until a separate Telangana state was
achieved. At this point, it was an open secret that politicians from
behind the scenes were managing the student union leaders.
As the CM continued to concede to the Telangana students’ demands,
students from Andhra and Venkateswara Universities were alarmed.
Seeing the effectiveness of the pressure tactics of their peers in the
Nizam Telangana region, they jumped into the fray, claiming that the
government had failed to protect the properties and lives of the
Andhra people living in the Nizam Telangana region and gave a call for
a boycott until February 10, 1969.
VIOLENCE , MORE VIOLENCE AND COUNTER VIOLENCE
The following day, on January 25, 1969, violence erupted across the
Andhra region. Students attacked a sub-inspector’s residence in
Sadasivapeta. When police opened fire, several students were injured.
They all were between 17 and 22. Two youngsters, 17 and 18, were
critically injured.
Violence at this point caught on like wildfire. People were attacking
each other across the Andhra and Telangana regions, including
Ellandhu, Karaypalli, Kothagudem, Bhadrachalam, Ashwaraopeta,
Dhaamapeta, Nirmal, Bhimavaram, Manchiryala, Karimnagar, Medak,
Suryapeta, and many more places.
Student leader Mallikarjun was taken aback at the scale of violence.
He probably did not realize the power of his vitriol to incite people
to commit violent acts. A day after widespread violence across the
state, Mallikarjun called off the students’ strike. While ending the
strike, he expressed sadness at the protests organized by the Andhra
and Venkateswara University students.
However, Mallikarjun’s decision to end the strike was a little too
late. The wildfire had been lit, and it was now unstoppable and had
engulfed the entire state.
In the Andhra region, agitators stopped trains in Bapatla, Bhimavaram,
Undi, Aravalli, and Tanuku. In Nandigama, police opened fire when the
mob turned violent. Eight hundred students attacked a police station
near the Nagarjuna Sagar right canal, and police opened fire, killing
one student. An eighth-grade student, Shankar, injured in the
Sadasivapeta firing, succumbed to his injuries. Shocked by the levels
of violence, all activist groups in Telangana called off their
strikes.
Despite it, violence continued unabated. In Warangal, an electric
parts shop, two auto spares shops, a general store, and two hotels
belonging to Kosta people were set on fire. In addition, a trader’s
store was looted and another store of the same trader, hailing from
Kosta, was burned down. Hooligans entered a low-income neighborhood,
beat up two post-graduate students from Kosta, and threatened other
residents from Kosta districts to leave. In Kothur, two houses were
set on fire. In Karimabad, mobs looted a rice mill and burned a car
and a lorry. In Nalgonda, Deputy Surveyor Sri Rangacharyulu, hailing
from the Coastal Andhra region, was set on fire with petrol, and he
died of his burn injuries. In Gajwel town, high school students
processed to the Block Development officer’s house to warn him to
leave the town, as he was a non-local. When students resorted to
throwing stones, police opened fire, and a 12-year-old 7th grade
student Narasimhulu died.
Border towns on Andhra resorted to retaliation as well. From the
Andhra border town of Nandigama, many lorries filled with people and
weapons headed to attack the Telangana border town of Kodada. Police
tried to stop the vehicles. When the lorries failed to stop, they
opened fire, injuring two persons. However, a few lorries managed to
get past the police barricade. God only knows what violent acts were
committed as a free flow of news was not there.
In another example of hatred gone amok, in Nalgonda, two men went to
the house of L.D.C. Chandriah and asked him to come out. They poured
kerosene on him and set him on fire. The miscreants thought that
Chandriah was from Coastal Andhra. However, what they did not realize
was that he was from the Telangana heartland, Warangal.
Coastal Andhra people living in the Nizam Telangana region left the
towns and villages and sought the safety of their native places.
Student leader Mallikarjun announced the end of even the relay hunger
strikes going on at the Osmania University campus and said that Andhra
people have a right to live in Telangana and vice versa. People
ignored all these calls. Their minds had already been poisoned.
The living icon of the erstwhile separate Telangana movement, Konda
Lakshman, in January 1969, while condemning hate speeches, chastised
the leaders for grossly exaggerating a few stray events to incite
people against other regions. He further assured people that he would
strictly implement the all-party agreement. He announced that he was
cancelling all his travel plans and urged concerned citizens to meet
him personally.
Because of unabated violence, Chief Minister Brahmananda Reddy called
the army into the state. However, the Indian Army could not control
the violence. He then requested Central Reserve Police Force
(C.R.P.F.) reinforcements, and that turned out insufficient to quell
the violence as well. He then called the police from the neighboring
state of Mysore (Karnataka), and even that had limited success.
Eventually, 40 days of non-stop violence that started on January 8,
1969, took a reprieve in late February. Taking advantage of the
situation, the government announced that it would reopen the schools.
FROM THE PAN IN TO THE FIRE
On February 17, 1969, the Supreme Court issued a stay order on all the
removing of non-Mulki employees, putting the entire Mulki issue in
limbo.
It was an open secret that politicians were coordinating the ongoing
agitation from behind the scenes. This group of politicians was a
coterie formed against CM Brahmananda Reddy’s rule. For the first
time, these leaders started to emerge into the open.
On February 20, 1969, the octogenarian politician K. V. Ranga Reddy,
father-in-law of Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy, after whom Ranga Reddy
district was later named, stated that if the central government failed
to implement the recent agreements, he would be forced to start the
satyagraham. While referring to the reduced levels of violence in the
last week, he made a veiled threat and said there was a peaceful
environment in the state now; this could be a temporary state unless
the CM took actions ensuring peace in the state. Through that
statement, Ranga Reddy was not only hinting at his group’s ability to
ratchet up violence in the state, but was also establishing his
complicity in the violence that had happened in the past few weeks. It
was widely known that Marri Chenna Reddy was using his senile father-
in-law K. V. Ranga Reddy as his proxy.
Ranga Reddy announced that he would be making himself available to all
the political leaders and students for discussions on the 26th and
27th of February 1969 between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. He said that a plan
would be charted out after these discussions.
It is unknown what plan was schemed at these meetings, but the color
of the Telangana movement changed from that point on. Politicians
singing the integration tune changed their positions overnight to
become separatists. Not only that, but if the violence across the
region was bad so far, it became worse. Leaders operating from behind
the scenes openly emerged on the public stage. These leaders, without
an iota of shame, used students, including young children, to achieve
their selfish goals.
On March 6, 1969, the Supreme Court confirmed its stay on the transfer
of non-Mulki employees. It went a step further and blocked the
creation of super-numerary positions. This effectively tied down the
hands of the CM Brahmananda Reddy, who was under pressure to implement
the Telangana protections.
Now a full three months into the movement, 52 MLAs from Telangana
served an ultimatum to the CM that unless he took actions toward
implementing protections to the Telangana region by March 16, the MLAs
would not participate in the Assembly sessions, and the ministers from
the region would resign from the cabinet. These MLAs knew very well
that there was a Supreme Court stay on non-Mulki transfers and that
the CM could not fulfill their demands.
CHANGED POLITICAL EQUATIONS: TWISTS AND TURNS
Student leader Mallikarjun re-emerged on the stage with renewed
energy. There can be no doubt that the top political brass of Nizam
Telangana reinjected him into the separate state politics.
Mallikarjun, who a few weeks ago seemed shocked by the violent
consequences of his seemingly insignificant actions, now seemed more
comfortable with his newfound power. His first step was to give a call
for bandh across the Telangana region, effectively bringing the
students back into the violent movement. The bandh was successful,
except for the districts of Khammam and Nizamabad. Congress Party
leaders behind the students’ movement continued to emerge, one after
the other, from backstage.
Former Minister Smt. T. N. Sadaalakshmi presided over a meeting with
1,500 student leaders from all the Nizam Telangana districts. The
delegates, under the guidance of Sadaalakshmi, met for six hours. At
the meeting’s end, they released a statement, saying that the students
of all nine districts would not go to classes until the formation of
the Telangana state. They then passed a resolution demanding the
resignation of all the Telangana ministers and MLAs. Later, in a
meeting held at the Reddy hostel, 30,000 people participated and took
an oath not to rest until they achieve a Telangana state.
Sadly, leaders such as Sadaalakshmi and many others were personally
overseeing the destruction of students’ futures by helping them
organize the college boycotts and sending them into the streets to
protest, which often turned violent. What the innocent students,
sacrificing everything they had for the crooked politicians, did not
know was that they would be cheated and left in the cold as soon as
the opportunistic politicians’ ulterior motives were met.
Universities fearing violence announced closure of colleges until the
end of summer holidays and indefinitely postponed exams. As a result,
students were on their way to losing their entire academic year.
CM Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, still hoping to defuse the crisis, busied
himself with fulfilling other items in the all-party agreement not
constrained by the Supreme Court stay.
One major point of contention was the balance of funds—that is,
additional tax revenue obtained from the Telangana region over its
fair share to the state exchequer. On the state government’s request,
the Auditor General of India appointed a senior official, Sri Lalith
Kumar, to assess the balance of funds issue. Sri Lalith Kumar
submitted his report on March 14, 1969, and determined that the
balance of funds between November 1, 1956, when the integrated state
was formed, and March 31, 1968, was Rs. 34 crores and 10 lakhs.
Telangana leaders disagreed with the auditor general of India’s
assessment. They claimed this time that the balance of funds was
107.13 crores. The Telangana Regional Council approved this number.
This was the same council that a few months ago determined that the
balance of funds were 33 crores. Minister Konda Lakshman, for his
part, claimed that the balance of funds was 82 crores. He also
proposed a new model of administration for Telangana. He suggested a
self-governing authority for the region, while continuing to exist as
a united state. Konda Lakshman along with Sri Chokka Rao took this
proposal to the PM but failed to impress it upon her.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called for a high-level meeting to
discuss the Telangana issue, and she precisely knew whom to invite to
the meeting—Dr. Chenna Reddy. It is worth noting that Dr. Reddy still
was not publicly supporting the separate state movement and was, on
paper, an integrationist.
In addition to Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
held extensive discussions with the state and central leaders,
including Home Minister Chavan, Congress Party President Nijalingappa,
Kaachuraj, Sanjeevaiah, Central Minister Kotha Raghuramaiah, CM
Brahmananda Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Congress President Kakani
Venkataratnam, Minister V. B. Raju, Nookala Ramachandra Reddy, and
Chokka Rao. At the end of these extensive discussions, the prime
minister proposed an 8-point formula to resolve the ongoing crisis.
Dr. Chenna Reddy and the other Telangana leaders participating in the
discussions expressed their disappointment with the outcome. They
complained that the regional council did not have the constitutional
authority to implement planning, development, and employment and that
the PM had not invited the leaders, Achyutha Reddy and Konda Lakshman.
For the next round of discussions, Prime Minister Gandhi invited all
the prominent Telangana leaders, including Konda Lakshman, K. V. Ranga
Reddy, Jalagam Vengal Rao, and C. H. Vidya Sagar Rao, for talks. They
all declined the invitation. K. V. Ranga Reddy went a step further and
suggested that the PM should come to A.P. to assess the situation
personally. Though Ranga Reddy said it politely, he was trying to show
off his position of strength by asking the PM to come to the state,
instead of his going to Delhi.
K. V. Ranga Reddy committed a political blunder. With his extensive
political experience, it is surprising that he did not realize that he
was dealing with a woman who did not like to be muscled around. The
tough position taken by the Telangana leaders made Smt. Gandhi even
more resolute.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Regional Congress Committee met in Gandhi
Bhavan. During the two days of discussions, Dr. Chenna Reddy argued
for a Telangana state, and P. V. Narasimha Rao argued for an
integrated state while admitting that the government made some
mistakes that affected the Nizam Telangana region. Rao said that the
separatists had exaggerated these mistakes to such a point that they
sounded absurd. Alluding to Chenna Reddy’s role in dragging the
students into the movement, Rao warned that the leaders were taking
the students down a wrong path. P. V. Narasimha Rao remained a staunch
integrationist throughout the movement and never flinched, even when
the public mood was overwhelmingly for separation.
Dr. Chenna Reddy who was running the Telangana Praja Samithi (TPS)
from behind the screens now came out in the open, became its
president, and announced his support for a separate Telangana state.
His home became a hub for political activity. Thirty Congress Party
legislators met at his place to discuss their plan. Chenna Reddy
threatened to launch, in a few days, a “powerful movement that would
paralyze the entire administration in Telangana.” The leaders’
language turned highly provocative with open threats of violence.
Chenna Reddy warned the Coastal Andhra employees in the Telangana
districts that unless they behave as servants of the Telangana people,
very serious consequences would follow.
Telangana NGO leader K. R. Amos, who mere weeks before had been
concerned about politicians dragging employees into the controversy,
was now in bed with the Telangana separatists. He raged that unless
India’s government announced the formation of the Telangana state
before June 15, 1969, there would be “bloodshed and destruction.”
Chenna Reddy’s TPS called for a region wide bandh on June 3. The
events following the bandh seemed as if the leaders of the movement
wanted to prove it to the state and central government that they were
not making empty threats of violence. As its leaders promised, the
Nizam Telangana region erupted like a volcano on June 3, 1969.
THE SHOW OFF
Telangana separatists attacked public and private properties with
vengeance. Capital city Hyderabad looked like a war zone. There was
collateral damage to many businesses and stores. The fire department
attended at least 85 incidents of arson. Thirty-eight people were
injured in police firing, including six dead that included a young
girl. Stray bullets fired by the police as they were clashing with the
separatists hit four members of a family sitting in the living room of
their home. TPS activists set the Durga Vilas Hotel in Abids on fire
after the hotel employees lynched an 18-year-old protestor who tried
to force the hotel’s closure.
Skirmishes between the protestors and the police went on until 10 p.m.
in the capital city. As things got out of control, the state
government called the Indian Army in and clamped curfew on the city
for 33 hours. After four days of non-stop violence, 30 people were
dead, and life in the capital city of Hyderabad came to a standstill.
TPS President Chenna Reddy, now openly using students for his
political means, demanded that the government postpone the final
exams. If the government proceeded to conduct the exams, he threatened
that he would call for another bandh, which by now everyone knew was
synonymous to large-scale violence.
India’s Home Minster Chavan abruptly ended his trip to Maharashtra and
headed back to Delhi to assess the situation in Andhra Pradesh. CM
Brahmananda Reddy also headed to Delhi for consultations with PM
Gandhi. At the end of their huddle, PM Gandhi released a statement
that the government would not yield to violence.
Chenna Reddy, for the first time, hinted the real motivation behind
his support to the Telangana movement. He announced that he was
willing to pause the Telangana movement if the president’s rule was
imposed in the state—in other words, if CM Brahmananda Reddy was
removed from power. He also set that as a precondition for any talks
with the Center.
The state government got tough with the leaders of the movement and
started arresting them. “Those arrested included the Mayor of
Hyderabad Smt. Kumud Nayak, the wife of Dr. Chenna Reddy, Smt.
Saavitri Devi, and the wife of the Vice Chancellor of Osmania
University Smt. J. Eshwaribhai.
When taken to court, the judge sentenced them to seven days of jail
time. Police also arrested prominent leaders of the movement—Chenna
Reddy, Konda Lakshman, Achyuth Reddy, T. Anjaiah, and Maanik Rao—under
the Preventive Detention Act.
Ministers from Telangana, resenting the government’s tough stand
against separatists, resigned from the state cabinet. A seemingly
distraught Kasu Brahmananda Reddy announced that he was also resigning
and sent his resignation to the Congress President Nijalingappa.
However, his resignation was not accepted.
A group of Osmania Unversity students demanded reopening of the
colleges. They blocked the vice chancellor’s car as he was on his way
to the office and vented that, while the American university
professors were sending their students to the moon (referring to Neil
Armstrong’s recent landing on the moon), our professors were busy with
politics and sending us into the streets.
CM Brahmananda Reddy continued to give sops to the Telangana region.
He announced a plan to build a fertilizer factory in Ramagundam with
60 crores investment. He allocated more funds to the Pochampad Project
for its speedy completion. None of these actions could stem the
violence across the state.
Twenty-five-year-old Sriram Chandar and ten-year-old Dasthagir died in
police firing when they gate crashed into a felicitation ceremony
organized for the Home Minister Jalagam Vengal Rao in his native
district of Khammam. In another incident in Secunderabad, an eighteen-
year-old Ravinder was killed when the satyagraha movement got out of
control.
LOBBY TIME
On August 23, 1969, a full eight months into the movement, the tough
Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi said she would only intervene to
find a solution if the leaders for a separate state ended the
agitation and peace reigned in the state. As a conciliatory gesture to
make way for the peace process, CM Brahmananda Reddy released the TPS
leaders from the jails.
Upon his release, Chenna Reddy went to Delhi for discussions and made
a statement that TPS would end the stir if the CM was changed.
However, on his return to Hyderabad, he distanced himself from the
news reports and said that the creation of a separate state was the
only solution, setting September 1, 1969 as the deadline. The date
came and went. Violence in the state started to recede gradually.There
were stray incidents of violence such as pelting stones at buses.
The crescendo for the resignation of the Chief Minister Kasu
Brahmananda Reddy was building. Telangana legislators gathered 50
signatures of their peers and planned to collect 36 more and send
their petition to the Congress Party President Nijalingappa.
It had been nine months since the students of the region left their
classrooms, and most of them lost an academic year. Those in the final
year of schools and colleges were particularly hard hit.
On September 22, 1969, President of India Sri V. V. Giri was on a
state visit to Andhra Pradesh. TPS was already taking much heat for
playing with student’s lives by involving them in a political
movement. On the eve of the president’s visit, TPS and the Students’
Union gave a call for all the students to return to their classes.
Student leader Mallikarjun said that the union had decided to ensure
that the movement did not affect the students’ education. After
ruining an entire academic year, student leader Mallikarjun realized
that he needed to protect the students’ futures.
Chenna Reddy personally visited President V. V. Giri and gave him the
news that the students were returning to classes. President Giri was
elated and assured Chenna Reddy that he would do his best for a speedy
resolution of the crisis.
The government continued to give sops to the Telangana region in an
effort to win over the people’s hearts. Education Minister P. V.
Narasimha Rao announced that the government would open 10 more junior
colleges in the Nizam Telangana region. In the fourth five-year plan,
the state government earmarked 45 crore rupees for Telangana,
including 28 crores of the balance of funds. The government also
announced that it would spend 38% of the state’s total development
budget on Telangana. In addition, CM Brahmananda Reddy agreed to
increase Telangana’s share of the budget to 42% for the next two
years. The government, for the first time, released water to 40,000
acres under the Pochampad Project. It further announced special
subsidies to industries coming in six districts of Nizam Telangana and
two districts of Rayalaseema. These subsidies included 7.5% interest
on industrial loans and a choice to pay the first installment after
five years from the time the enterprise raises the loan.
TPS got an opportunity to test its mettle in the electoral waters. In
the by- election necessitated by the death of the candidate in the
Khairatabad constituency, TPS presented its candidate. TPS candidate
Nagam Krishna Rao won with a landslide majority. Encouraged by this
success, TPS, on July 23, 1969, decided to become a political party.
Three months later, in the Siddipeta re-election, the TPS candidate
again won with a landslide majority of 20,000 votes.
On December 10, 1970, the A. P. High Court passed a judgment,
reversing its prior verdict, that the Mulki rules are legal. CM
Brahmananda Reddy promptly announced that he would implement the Mulki
rules in compliance with the high court’s judgment.
Around this time, the political scene at the center was changing
rapidly. Indira Gandhi and her young cohort’s aggressive adoption of
socialism put Gandhi at odds with the older generation leaders that
believed in a more moderate approach. Smt. Gandhi’s bank
nationalization turned out to be the last straw. The Congress Party
split in two, and Gandhi did not have the majority in the Parliament
to continue as the PM. As a result, the Loksabha mid-term elections
were around the corner. To strengthen her position for the upcoming
elections, Mrs. Gandhi expressed renewed interest to resolve the
Telangana crisis.
By winning two by-elections with a landslide margin, Chenna Reddy
succeeded in sending a message to the PM that he was a force to reckon
with. On January 1, 1971, PM Gandhi, CM Brahmananda Reddy, and TPS
leader Chenna Reddy met face-to-face for 90 minutes. It became clear
during the discussions that state division was not acceptable to the
PM, and she did not want TPS to contest the elections by themselves.
Indira Gandhi therefore made an offer that was by far the most she had
ever offered since the agitation for Telangana started. She offered
Chenna Reddy the following:
TPS should not contest the Congress Party in the Loksabha elections.
Allow five years of time until 1977 for the eight-point formula to
affect the region.
In the year 1977, if two-thirds of the Nizam Telangana legislators
supported separation, the center would agree to the formation of the
Telangana state.
The third point in her offer was the most crucial one and the closest
she ever came to agreeing to the bifurcation of the state. However,
Chenna Reddy was not interested in something that would happen five
years down the road, but was interested in immediate results.
Chenna Reddy came back to Hyderabad and presented the PM’s proposal to
his party. TPS members overwhelmingly rejected Indira Gandhi’s offer.
As a result, a contest between the TPS and Congress in the region then
became inevitable.
The decision to run against the Congress party probably was the worst
political blunder Chenna Reddy committed during the separate Telangana
movement. He was haughty with his successes in the by-election and
thought that he could arm-twist Mrs. Gandhi by winning the elections
in Telangana by a landslide. He certainly got the landslide, but he
terribly miscalculated the leverage such a win would give him when
negotiating with Mrs. Gandhi.
In the run-up to the elections, CM Brahmananda Reddy announced more
sops to win over the Nizam Telangana voter. He announced that the
Kothagudem power plant would become operational in March 1972 and
started construction of another plant in Ramagundam. He announced
plans to provide electricity to 1000 villages a year in the state—600
in the Telangana region, 200 in Rayalaseema, and 200 in the Coastal
Andhra region.
None of the sops announced by the CM affected the Nizam Telangana
voter. TPS won 10 of the 14 Parliament seats it contested in the mid-
term elections.
Two months passed after the elections. Chenna Reddy did not get the
recognition he was hoping to get. It gradually dawned on TPS
politicians that they had been victorious electorally but defeated
politically.
POLITICAL – BARGAINS
Chenna Reddy was arguably in an advantageous position after winning 10
of 14 loksabha seats that they contested. In the upcoming state
assembly elections, his candidates would easily win many seats in the
Nizam Telangana region.
Despite his position of strength, Chenna Reddy was now, more than
ever, eager to strike a deal with Mrs. Gandhi.The reason for his angst
lay in the political game of numbers.
Indira Gandhi won the mid-term elections with a huge majority and got
352 seats. She did not need the support of the 10 TPS MPs in the
Parliament. In the upcoming state assembly elections, even if Chenna
Reddy won 70% or more of the seats in the Telangana region, Congress
was almost certain to win by a landslide in the Kosta and Rayalaseema
regions—thanks to the seeds of hatred planted by the Telangana
politicians. If that happened, TPS would be confined to opposition in
the state assembly and would become a no-name party in the Parliament
with its miniscule 10 seats.
For TPS leaders, if the Telangana state was not going to happen, they
did not want to sit around wasting their time with agitations.
Instead, they would rather be enjoying power in the Congress Party.
Chenna Reddy and his fellow TPS followers were in an interesting
quandary. They knew that they could win the elections by a landslide,
yet they did not want to contest the elections on their own party
platform.
In this backdrop, Chenna Reddy went to Delhi for negotiations with
Prime Minister Gandhi. Several original TPS demands did not appear
anymore, as they either were fulfilled or were in the process of being
fulfilled.
Chenna Reddy presented a new list of demands and they were:
= Remove CM Brahmananda Reddy.
= Depending on the performance of the Telangana region over time, give
Telangana legislators the power to make a decision on the separate
state.
= Create a separate Pradesh Congress Committee for Telangana.
= Ensure that the Telangana Regional Council is effective.
= Eliminate the regional disparities existing between Telangana and
the other regions.
Quintessential politician Indira Gandhi took full advantage of the
quandary that TPS was in. She knew well that TPS was eager to merge
with the Congress Party before the upcoming state assembly elections.
She fulfilled one demand and one demand only. She agreed to the demand
most important to Chenna Reddy and the easiest one for her to fulfill—
removing CM Brahmananda Reddy from his seat. Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi called CM Brahmananda Reddy to Delhi and asked him to resign in
the interest of the state’s well-being. He obliged.
Chenna Reddy congratulated Brahmananda Reddy for making the right
decision and thanked the PM for making it happen. Chenna Reddy said
that he hoped that the PM would act equally quickly on the rest of the
demands. As it turned out, that was the first and the last demand of
Chenna Reddy that Indira Gandhi would ever accept.
A day after Chief Minister Brahmananda Reddy announced his
resignation, Mrs. Gandhi called Chenna Reddy back to Delhi for talks.
PM Gandhi and Chenna Reddy spent two days behind closed doors in
marathon discussions. We might never know what kind of give-and-take
political agreements were made in those meetings. Obviously, the
bargaining was for political seats, particularly for MLA tickets and
ministries.
POLITICAL CLIMAX: HERO TURNS VILLAIN
Chenna Reddy returned to Hyderabad and met the TPS Central Working
Committee. He briefed them about his discussions with Indira Gandhi.
After a mere three hours of discussions, TPS announced that they are
merging with the Congress Party. The decision required the TPS State
Council’s ratification.
On September 18, 1971, after nearly two years of death and mayhem over
a Telangana state, the TPS State Council met to discuss their
movement’s future. During the TPS State Council meeting, several
members argued that the TPS should not have agreed to the merger just
based on Kasu Brahmananda Reddy’s resignation. Members argued that the
TPS should have insisted on the six-point formula that Chenna Reddy
took to Delhi.
Council member E. V. Padmanabhan brought copies of the letter he wrote
to the TPS president and distributed it to the members. In the letter,
he said, Thanks to the TPS, Telangana today is in a worse state than
it was prior to October 31, 1956, before the Gentlemen’s Agreement was
signed. He added, “I am fortunate to have worked with you all for this
great cause. You all fought bravely for a common goal. However, now,
you have dumped the people of Telangana in the middle of the lake.
What else can I say? Till Telangana is fortunate enough to see good
days, I take leave from you all.” Former MP Baqar Ali Mirza, who
resigned from the Congress Party for the Telangana cause, said that,
in his 40 years of political life, he had never seen an instance where
this sort of deceit was done for political positions.
The TPS State Council, after four hours of discussion, unanimously
approved merging TPS with the Congress Party. Members expressed “hope”
that the remaining five of the six demands put forward by the TPS
would also be implemented immediately.
As the council meeting was underway, students descended on the TPS
office, raised slogans against the leaders, and accused them of
treason. They argued with the members who were entering the building.
These students probably wanted to know why they had to sacrifice a
year of their academic life.They probably wondered what purpose the
deaths of 12-year-old, seventh- grade student, Narasimhulu; 10-year-
old Dasthagir; 18-year-old Ravinder; eighth-grade student, Shankar;
and hundreds more like them served.
STUDENTS TURN FOOLS: THE PERFECT ANTI-CLIMAX
TPS members claimed that the students were not even students but
outsiders. In an ensuing scuttle, TPS members physically assaulted
some students and forcibly removed some from the premises.
In the end, Chenna Reddy and his clan dissolved the separate Telangana
movement based on a mere “hope” that Indira Gandhi would concede to
their demands. They clearly knew that she would not fulfill their
demands. Indira Gandhi did not budge when the state was going up in
flames; why would she concede to their demands now.
At the end of September 1971, Congress legislators elected education
minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, who hailed from the Telangana region, as
their leader and made him the chief minister of the state. The new CM
inducted former TPS member Achyut Reddy into the 14-member cabinet.
The tragic saga of the Telangana movement that consumed hundreds of
innocent young lives, caused massive collateral damage to pubic
assets, and pushed the state economically back by many years thus
ended.
REMAKE OF THE MOV(IE)MENT NOW , TITLED : WHO IS THE FOOL AGAIN!!??
Now let us look at how the leaders and proponents of today’s separate
state movement are distorting facts to further their agenda.
Professor Jayashankar wrote the following: The Gentlemen’s Agreement
of 1956, which was an assurance of fair play given to the people of
Telangana to facilitate the formation of Andhra Pradesh, was scuttled
the very same day on which the state was born, by the very same
Gentlemen who were signatories to the agreement.” The Vice Chancellor
makes a profound statement about violating the agreement but does not
clarify how.
The gentlemen’s agreement was not scuttled, and large portions of it
were effectively implemented. The Telangana regional council was
formed according to the agreement. During its reign, the council
unanimously passed all the resolutions, and no dispute whatsoever
existed with the government. In terms of ministerial appointments, all
rules laid out in the agreements seem to have been met because none of
the leaders raised this as an issue, even during the height of the
separatist movement in 1969.
The agreement fell short in only two areas: balance of funds and
government jobs. The first issue of balance of funds was resolved
without much controversy. The second issue involving a mere 5,000 jobs
was delayed as the judgment was bogged down in the courts.
Today, the Telangana Martyrs Memorial stands tall at Gun Park opposite
the State Assembly Building. The Web site dedicated to those who died
during the separate state movement says the following: “After the
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre it was the 1969 Telangana movement which
took more than 370 brave Indian sons, unparallel in the recent Indian
history. The real culprit was Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, known to be
General Dyer of Telangana.”
The culprit was not Kasu Brahmananda Reddy.The culprits were the
cowardly politicians who did not have the guts to fight for their
cause democratically and resorted to using young men and children for
their selfish ends. Who is the real villain of this tragic episode—
Kasu Brahmananda Reddy or Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy?
The Telangana memorial is neither a symbol of bravery nor martyrdom.
To the contrary, it is a sad reminder of political opportunism. It is
a standing reminder of scores of innocent children who laid their
lives down for a mere 5,000 jobs and 33 crore rupees.
The philosopher George Santayana said, Those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it.” Unfortunately, students are
particularly prone to repeat past mistakes. Given their age, students
lack the historic perspective and are driven by emotions, rather than
facts. Today’s students, for the most part, do not know how the
leaders duped students in 1969–1970 and how they lost an entire
academic year while many lost their lives.
KCR so far has not fully exploited the students for his cause.
However, when push comes to shove, he is capable of using students as
his trump card. On July 2, 2007, he said, “In 6 years of Telangana
movement we have not shown a desire to include the students in the
agitation. However, the time has come where the role of students is
needed.” KCR instructed the leaders of his organization to make a
personal visit to every intermediate and degree college in Nizam
Telangana. He instructed them to form committees of 15– 24 students.
These committees of students, he said, would then receive special
training in Hyderabad’s Telangana Bhavan.
Special training to do what—training on how to recreate the mayhem of
1970 or training on how to become targets of police guns? It is
repulsive that the Telangana leaders continue to exploit 15- to 17-
year-old children for their selfish ends.
The hero of our story, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, probably patted
herself on the back for skillfully defusing the Telangana crisis.
Little did she know that there was a much larger problem brewing on
the horizon that would fully test her leadership capabilities—and that
challenge was the Jai Andhra movement.
I MYSELF SEARCHED A LOT OVER THE INTERNET BUT COULD GATHER ONLY
LIMITED INFORMATION. BUT OUT OF THE SNOWS I FOUND THIS INFORMATION IN
Mr. NALLAMOTU CHAKRAVARTHY’ S WEBSITE .
I FOUND IT USEFUL SO THOUGHT OF PUTTING THIS IN MY BLOG .
SO THIS PRESENT TEXT IS TAKEN FROM HIS WEBSITE.
THE LINK TO HIS WEBSITE IS GIVEN BELOW.
THANKS TO Mr. NALLAMOTU CHAKRAVARTHY FOR ALL THE PAINS IN RESEARCH AND
GATHERING THE INFORMATION WHICH IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR.
SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS FOR BRINGING OUT THE BOOK ” MY TELUGU ROOTS –
NALLAMOTU CHAKRAVARTHY ”
links :……….
the jai telangana movement of 1969 and also ” MY TELUGU ROOTS ” Book.
Thank You ,

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