Hyderabad: In the first week of September,deputy chief minister D Raja Narasimha made a telling comment that was a thinly veiled reference to chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.The commander is the conspirator, Telangana politician said when asked about the strikes by government employees in the wake of the CWCresolution on T at the end of July. In all fairness,Kiran Reddy who as speaker of the state legislative assembly had played a pro-active role in organizing the resignations of MLAs to stall the December 2009 announcement on Telangana - had told Sonia Gandhi on the eve of the CWC resolution that he would rather quit.But stories say that Sonia flared up at Kiran and asked him why he kept quiet after becoming chief minister knowing full well that the high command was mulling about Telangana.Other Congress leaders like Digvijay Singh sweet-talked him: You are our main man in AP.Dont do this as loyal Congressman, was the burden of the arguments.A chastened Kiran who had gone to Delhi returned to Hyderabad crestfallen and skipped office for a few days.But then his advisors convinced him that by continuing as chief minister,he would be in a better position to stall the bifurcation of the state.This was because he would have the entire state machinery in his hands.
Soon thereafter,government employees across sectors began to form joint action committees and embarked on go-slows,bandhs and strikes.This affected road transport,tax collections,educational institutions and even pilgrim movement to Tirupati.Even the state secretariat which has a large chunk of employees from the Seemandhra region struck work and daily held demonstrations within the secretariat complex.Interestingly,when in the last few years, employees belonging to Telangana had gone on strike to further their demand for separation, the Govt was quick to promulgate sections of the ESMA to stymie them.Cases were also booked against university students. But this time around,Kiran remained unmoved.Insiders claim that he even encouraged the employee unions to continue their strike though this cannot be proved.But officially,he never called them for negotiations to end the strike. Dinesh Reddy who retired as DGP on the last day of September told a press conference on Tuesday: When I asked for additional forces for Seemandhra,Kiran refused.He also told me to state publicly that Maoist forces would become dominant if Telangana was created.
Kiran continued with his provocative comments and used his official capacity to tell the press how the high command was wrong to divide the state and declared his intent to resign.Behind the scenes,he encouraged his ministers to resign (with no intent to accept them) to put pressure on the high command to reverse the Telangana decision. However,Telangana leaders remained unfazed and so was the high command which was probably grappling with many other problems.A month ago when this correspondent spoke to TRS leader K T Rama Rao he said: They are striking in their own region and affecting their own lives.How are we concerned But there was a method behind the madness.The prolonged strike had the effect of spreading and deepening the sentiment for a united state.As a result,even poor laborers and many others who have never been to Hyderabad in their life are grieving at the prospects of division of Andhra Pradesh, says a Congress leader from Nellore.
Seventy days on when the protesters realized that the high command had not reacted,they began cutting power supplies reasoning that the effect of this would be felt across the entire region and pressure from other states would force the bosses in Delhi to react. In the meanwhile,Kiran Reddy has upped the ante by leaking out information that not only would he step down as CM but resign from the Congress and form his own party.Kirans gambit was working as his popularity soared in Seemandhra.But with Jaganmohan Reddy announcing that he would fight to save Andhra Pradesh and embark on an indefinite hunger strike,the initiative has gone out of Kirans hand.Chandrababu Naidu has followed suit.Whether the spiraling crisis will force the Congress high command to act and sack Kiran and impose Presidents rule,one does not know.But one thing is sure the Congress party is all but wiped out in Seemandhra.
(Source-toi)
Soon thereafter,government employees across sectors began to form joint action committees and embarked on go-slows,bandhs and strikes.This affected road transport,tax collections,educational institutions and even pilgrim movement to Tirupati.Even the state secretariat which has a large chunk of employees from the Seemandhra region struck work and daily held demonstrations within the secretariat complex.Interestingly,when in the last few years, employees belonging to Telangana had gone on strike to further their demand for separation, the Govt was quick to promulgate sections of the ESMA to stymie them.Cases were also booked against university students. But this time around,Kiran remained unmoved.Insiders claim that he even encouraged the employee unions to continue their strike though this cannot be proved.But officially,he never called them for negotiations to end the strike. Dinesh Reddy who retired as DGP on the last day of September told a press conference on Tuesday: When I asked for additional forces for Seemandhra,Kiran refused.He also told me to state publicly that Maoist forces would become dominant if Telangana was created.
Kiran continued with his provocative comments and used his official capacity to tell the press how the high command was wrong to divide the state and declared his intent to resign.Behind the scenes,he encouraged his ministers to resign (with no intent to accept them) to put pressure on the high command to reverse the Telangana decision. However,Telangana leaders remained unfazed and so was the high command which was probably grappling with many other problems.A month ago when this correspondent spoke to TRS leader K T Rama Rao he said: They are striking in their own region and affecting their own lives.How are we concerned But there was a method behind the madness.The prolonged strike had the effect of spreading and deepening the sentiment for a united state.As a result,even poor laborers and many others who have never been to Hyderabad in their life are grieving at the prospects of division of Andhra Pradesh, says a Congress leader from Nellore.
Seventy days on when the protesters realized that the high command had not reacted,they began cutting power supplies reasoning that the effect of this would be felt across the entire region and pressure from other states would force the bosses in Delhi to react. In the meanwhile,Kiran Reddy has upped the ante by leaking out information that not only would he step down as CM but resign from the Congress and form his own party.Kirans gambit was working as his popularity soared in Seemandhra.But with Jaganmohan Reddy announcing that he would fight to save Andhra Pradesh and embark on an indefinite hunger strike,the initiative has gone out of Kirans hand.Chandrababu Naidu has followed suit.Whether the spiraling crisis will force the Congress high command to act and sack Kiran and impose Presidents rule,one does not know.But one thing is sure the Congress party is all but wiped out in Seemandhra.
(Source-toi)
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