Several Telangana movement ‘Warriors” families attended the Telangana Formation Day celebrations in Hyderabad, but were dismayed by the government’s, including Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s, lack of acknowledgment of their presence.
A large group of men and women holding photographs of their loved ones who are no more attracted an audience under the tent not far from where chief minister A. Revanth Reddy addressed the official state formation day celebrations by the Telangana government at Hyderabad’s Parade grounds on Sunday on June 2.
They turned up in scores from different parts of the state, hoping that the government will take notice of them and give them their due.
To their dismay, there was none even to recognise their presence.
Even the chief minister avoided addressing their plight despite the fact that they were specially picked up by government officials from their villages in buses at 3 am to be present for the celebrations at least seven hours later.
The stock reply from government’s side for the chief minister not speaking about them was that the model code of conduct was in force, and therefore no announcements could be made.
Who are all these people and what did they have to do with the fete?
They are relatives of those people who killed themselves by setting themselves on fire, hanging themselves, consuming poison or drowning in village tanks during the peak of the Telangana statehood movement, which occurred during its second spell between 2009 and 2014.
Barring a few like 48-year-old police constable Kishtaiah, who shot himself dead with a revolver at Kamareddy in the erstwhile Nizamabad district, all those who resorted to the extreme step were youth who were frustrated over the delay in the formation of a separate Telangana state.
Many were emotionally moved by speeches by leaders and songs of cultural troupes highlighting injustice to Telangana.
Though the Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC), which spearheaded the agitation with the participation of all parties, put the figure of casualties at 650, leaders who are demanding justice to the affected families point out that the government had made commitments in the state assembly to the kin of at least 1,200 people who died during the agitation.
Of them, about 450 families have got assistance as promised by a government order in May 2016.
Hope among the remaining families looking for help has not diminished in subsequent years. They have continuously knocked on the doors of the government, but to no avail.
On Sunday, they pulled out photographs of their kin who died whenever someone enquired about them. They surrounded everyone, including mediapersons, who approached them and wanted their details to be recorded.
All of them had heartrending tales to narrate. Among them was Raghuram, the younger brother of a child in conflict with the law then (Surender, name changed) who burnt himself after attending a meeting of Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrashekar Rao at Suryapet in Nalgonda district on December 12, 2012.
Raghuveer, who is now a major, recalled that his sibling was among a number of youth who were shifted by leaders of the agitation to Suryapet in a bus from their native Panagal village. Upon reaching home, his brother, who was a class ten student, raised the ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan and burnt himself. He later succumbed to injuries in hospital.
Similarly, Panjala Lata of Nagampet village near Jammikunta in Karimnagar said her sister Uma, who was a talented BCom final year student, hanged herself at their house after participating in the rail roko programme organised by the T-JAC at Jammikunta. Lata was studying at a college in Warangal.
There were several students pursuing BTech, MBA and other degrees who died by suicide. Among them were Bandloja Seshu Varma of Gavicherla village in Sangem mandal of Warangal district and Dinesh Chandra of Saroornagar in Hyderabad.
Dinesh Chandra’s mother Sashikala regretted that no one talked about them at the function. The widow of Kasha Raju, who burnt himself to death in October 2011, said she got Rs 10 lakh and a job for herself as an office superintendent at Medak district’s medical and health office. But she said she was not given a house site of 250 square yards.
The government order as part of a scheme to rehabilitate such families contemplated Rs 10 lakh as ex-gratia, a job and a house site or cultivable land measuring three acres.
Pittala Ravinder, a former convenor of the T-JAC, said the government had given up the enumeration of affected families after extending assistance to 459 families out of 650 persons who were found dead by official figures.
In fact, the figure of 1,200 casualties as committed to the assembly by the government on a different occasion was never taken into consideration.
As the celebrations drew to a close, many of the families were seen leaving the venue cursing at officials for their indifference toward them.
B. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, a real estate businessman, said he mobilised victims’ families from Wanaparthy on a specific promise by the government that they will be felicitated on stage. But they were not even thanked by the chief minister for travelling all the way to the venue.
A graduate of IIT Kharagpur, Nurapureddy Abhilesh Reddy said he had specially come down for the function from Bengaluru to relish the ambience of a separate Telangana after ten years. He is an engineer at the Tata Motors unit in Bengaluru.
Chief minister Reddy unfurled the national flag and reviewed a parade by the police on the occasion. He earlier paid tributes to the Telangana martyrs’ memorial opposite the legislative assembly.
A video message of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who could not make it after she was invited, was played on a large screen.
A carnival, laser show on the Hussainsagar lake and fireworks on the Tank Bund road overlooking the lake were organised in the evening.
Former chief minister Rao participated in separate celebrations by his Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) at the party’s office. On Saturday evening, he launched a candle light rally by the BRS from the martyrs’ memorial to Amar Jyoti, which was also constructed in memory of martyrs near the secretariat.
On Sunday, Rao had lunch with the wife and two children of Kishtaiah – the the police constable who had shot himself – at his house. He presented a cheque worth Rs 24 lakh for the fees for Kisthtaiah’s daughter Priaynka’s post-graduate medical education. As chief minister, Rao had already ensured a government job for Kishtaiah’s wife.
Rao also sent a 22-page letter to Revanth Reddy explaining the reasons why he turned down his invitation to attend the government’s celebrations. He said the invitation was an insult to him as no place for him on stage, nor any opportunity for him to speak, were ensured. #hydkhabar
About The Author
