T-Demand: Emotionally surcharged students made scapegoats

With the Centre giving a week-long gap between the Srikrishna Commission Report’s submission and it being made public, the time is ripe for the for students' community to pause, contemplate and take a decision.

They should contemplate and this thought process should not be swayed by emotions. Instead, they as the future of the country, must realise that at this crucial juncture, every decision they make must be decisive. They have to ensure that they do not fall prey and succumb to the self-Centred politicians’ gimmicks.

Today's situation is a reminder to the situation earlier where students lost their academic careers in 1969 and 1972 when Telangana Praja Samithi at its height came into play with leaders like Mallikarjun initially spearheaded the movement and then switched sides to become a Congress Minister at the Centre.

That stir took such a violent turn that it tore apart the social fabric with huge losses suffered by the government, till the time former prime minister Indira Gandhi crushed the 'movement' and restored normalcy.

Succinctly, the state of Andhra Pradesh came into being in 1953 after Pottisriramulu's 62-day fast unto martyrdom in late 1952. Later, under Justice Fazal Ali's supervision, the States Reorganisation Commission report was inclined to recommend a separate Andhra Pradesh state on linguistics basis.

It is of extreme interest and concern that the Nizam's Firman (Royal Decree) in 1919 mandated 'Mulki' rules which specified that one who was born or lived in Hyderabad for 15 years was entitled to a government job. The same was applicable to even the State Cabinet in which 40 percent of the ministers should hail from Telangana.

Probably, the then 'Firman' induced the pragmatic NT Rama Rao to issue GO 610 to safeguard the interests of those hailing from Telangana. Thus Hyderabad has been placed in Zone 6. 

But the leaders of the day took full advantage of this to make political brownie points, protesting against making Hyderabad a Free Zone. Efforts have been made to delete Clause 15 F of the Presidential Order, which refers to the GO 610 and makes Hyderabad a ‘Free Zone’ for recruitments in the Police Department.

Further, prior to the constitution of the SRC, people from all walks of life live in Hyderabad -Kannadigas, Maharashtrians, Keralites, Bengalis, Rajasthanis, including Telugus and Muslims. 'Mulki' rules dispelled the doubts of the locals. After 15 years' stay, any settler automatically enjoyed the eligibility criteria for government service in Hyderabad.

One need to examine that political leaders have never bothered to get the Firmans and GOs implemented to avoid any uprising. The agitations clearly served their purpose to hog the limelight.

The Telangana Praja Samithi contested the 1971 elections and captured 10 out of 14 MP seats. Amazingly, the Telangana Praja Samithi was dissolved and its 10 MPs joined the Congress party leaving their student followers in the lurch. Not only that, several students were shot dead in the 1971 stir.

The 'issue' again came to a boil in 2009, this time under K Chandrasekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which also fought elections and won 26 Assembly seats. Most of his MLAs later joined the Congress party under YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s captaincy. 

Interestingly, a settler himself (KCR hails from Vijayanagaram) KCR's son and nephew ( K Taraka Rama Rao and Harish Rao) became MLAs (daughter Kavitha is in the offing).

It is evident that they promoted their own interests.

The ultimate victim was had is still only the students, who have been successfully manipulated and used. The wily politicians have managed play on the emotions of the students.

The end result has been that the students have been the ones to have suffered the most, some of them even languishing in jails, while some of them losing their lives in the process. A grim reminder is that the cases against them were lifted only recently.

A repetition lifting of cases is most unlikely in the event of another stir and this is what a student must grasp.