K.Srinivas comments on the chasm between people and leaders in Telangana movement
suneetha achyuta
-K.Srinivas, Andhra Jyothy, 21st February, 2010
In a discussion organized by a Telugu news channel in Karimnagar, this
is how a senior Congress leader and a member of Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy’s
coterie, reasoned why a separate state of Telangana was needed: “When
YSR was alive, Telangana leaders could get whatever they wanted and in
the absence of such a great leader, Telangana would get justice only
if a separate state is formed.” If that is so, naturally, the audience
could not but wonder if his commitment for Telangana would do a
somersault if the current CM or the ‘high command’ lures him back with
an offer that he could get all his things done!
There are numerous reasons why many leaders jumped into the fray
(movement): to get their things done; to get their contracts or bills
passed; to get a berth under the Telangana quota in the impending
ministerial expansion; to grab CM’s chair in case the Center, giving
in to the pressure, decides to offer it to a Telangana person, as PV
Narasimha Rao was made CM after the 1969 movement; or to protect the
interests of their party in case a Telangana state comes into
existence. Just like the proverbial new converts, all these newly
anointed activists bombarded people with their fiery speeches and
roaring pledges. Through this animated dynamism, they even managed to
plant a ray of new hope in the minds of those people who had earlier
lost faith in them.
On Saturday, February 20th (when Yadaiah immolated himself while the
budget was being presented in the A.P. state assembly) all such
leaders, dutifully listening to budget speeches in the Assembly,
focused their attention on the ‘Development’ of Andhra Pradesh. A few
did not even show up, despite being in town. A few others safely hid
their wonderful faces safely in Delhi. And the greatest of them, who
usually pop up to make the fiercest of speeches when they make rare
appearance, suddenly fell silent. They seemed to have forgotten even
the origin of the current crisis. Instead of leading the rally (to
Assembly), they quietly gave students the slip. Rather than backing
the passionate, they left them to their fate.
Chidambaram’s first speech awakened the dormant hopes of the Telangana
youth. But the second one nipped such hopes in the bud. The
leadership, knowing fully well, that a rightful movement can be
revived any number of times, surrendered it to the (Sri Krishna)
Committee. Hopes were diverted to discuss the terms of reference. They
made everyone believe in the illusion of a constitutional crisis as a
solution. In the end it was obvious what their stand was. The fate of
Telangana too was evident. It’s clear that an uncommitted leadership
cannot create a constitutional crisis. While Chidambaram nipped
Telangana hopes in bud, Telangana leadership struck at its very roots.
On one hand, we have the students and youth ready to give up their
education and lives, and on the other, a leadership which winces at
moving even an inch away from their positions and ministerial berths.
We have a people surging ahead with a spirit of sacrifice, struggle
and fearlessness on one hand, and a leadership steeped in betrayal and
brokerage. Their commitment to peace, non-violence and self-sacrifice
is confronted with a mixture of verbiage and violent rhetoric. An
innocence that believes in sure ways of rebellion is being met with
machinations of strategic politics. It is not Andhra Pradesh but
Telangana that stands deeply divided.
Perhaps History has cursed Telangana. Its two flourishing empires—of
Kakatiyas and Kutub Shahis—were destroyed by Tughlaq and Aurangazeb
respectively. It would have been better if the British Empire had made
Telangana its province. Good or bad, Mecaulay’s heirs would have
thrived here too. Telangana people would have learnt a bit of
strategy, a bit of administration and a bit of politicking.
Unfortunately, it is their proclivity to struggle that was always
dominant here. It is in this place, swords were drawn for the first
war of Indian independence. Ramji Gond was hanged here. While
mobilizing Adivasis, Komaram Bhim lost his life here. When the entire
country was scoring victories through ‘refomative’ nationalism, even
satyagraha was banned here. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation,
prohibited Satyagraha only in Hyderabad. When entire villages armed
themselves to fight against the feudal order, the world eulogized
Telangana saying “you are second to none in shedding blood.” The
sacrifice of five thousand martyrs and the struggle of ten thousand
villages—got lost in time. Here, every battle ends with either a
sacrifice or a betrayal. The snake in ‘Snakes and Ladder’ game keeps
biting. But the Vikramarka hauls Bhetala onto his shoulder yet again.
You experience a 1969 and a 1978. For the next three decades, it is
the dead bodies of Telangana that would be hung from the threshold of
the fort. Still these people don’t learn or won’t accept defeat. Even
as experience tells them that nothing can be achieved, they don’t give
up. To get something, one keeps raising one’s voice. To live here, one
has to die.
For Telangana, its ‘present’ is another curse. One who grows into a
leader turns out to be a landlord. Youth become Naxalites. And there
is so much concern (from others) for the people of leaderless
Telangana!
What a wonderful people! But what a disgraceful leadership! Stubborn
or strong or naïve or foolish they may be, and yet what a great
people! Telangana took pride—when Telugus and the rest of the world
lauded them for its tremendous courage and struggle. When such a
people are begging the leaders to assume their role of guiding people,
pleading them to occupy the throne of Telangana government, isn’t it a
pity that the leaders, in self-deception, choose to land at the gates
of the high command and feel secure? What a great tragedy to openly
admit that they are not qualified to become leaders, and that they are
happy to remain in the second rung and get whatever the higher ups
dole out to them?!
Siripuram Yadaiah is an orphan, just like Telangana. Telangana is
without a leader. No leader to give a little assurance to its people.
No one to at least pledge that he will not compromise, if not resign,
from his position. There is no leader to dispel the thick clouds of
despair fast engulfing the hearts of these orphans.
Perhaps Telangana requires a new leadership, not merely for a separate
state, but for the future. It needs a leadership that doesn’t abandon
its people midway, but shows them the path ahead. The disturbed and
the orphaned people should lead themselves. They should be led by
wisdom and rationality and not by illusions and wordiness. They should
stop getting disheartened when betrayed by the leaders who lack
integrity. They must not waste their valuable lives by dying.
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K.Srinivas is the editor of Andhra Jyothi, one of the largest
circulated Telugu newspapers. A well known critic in the Telugu public
sphere, he also worked on the cultural and literary movement in the
Hyderabad state for his doctoral thesis. In his essays on Telangana
question, he is critical of the strategies of the Communist Party that
led the Telangana Armed Struggle in 1948 and its subsequent support
for Visalandhra. Andhra Jyothi’s literary page carried many writings
and debates on lesser known aspects of Telangana culture, history and
politics, especially under the Nizam, three years ago. Although the
newspaper is taking a ‘neutral’ strand on Telangana, its pages carry a
lively debate on the pros and cons of the issue. Srinivas’s piece is a
response to the death of Siripuram Yadaiah, a 19- year-old student,
who immolated himself in support of Telangana, while participating in
the Chalo Assembly programme organized by the Osmania University Joint
Aciton Committee on February 20th.
Translated by A.Suneetha, with considerable help from N.Manohar!
Mary E John
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Mary E. John
Director
Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS)
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