Wheres Telangana?

 In a stinging riposte to Delhi’s veiled messages in characteristic Congress language that it is in no hurry to deal with the Telangana statehood demand, people of the region on Sunday put up a massive show in the state capital and answered the off-the-cuff question asked by AICC high commando Vayalar Ravi last week: Where’s Telangana.

 Overriding all barricades erected by the police, their water cannon and tear gas, despite all Machiavellian devices employed by the regime and even a torrential downpour, thousands of people from across Telangana swarmed Necklace Road skirting the Hussain Sagar in the heart of the capital, and sent up a roar that could be literally heard in three important locations of state: the Raj Bhavan, the CM’s Office and the Secretariat.

 And till late in the evening, as the clouds poured down and the police opened up their water cannon, the Telangana marchers refused to leave.

 It was only at about midnight, after a fivehour sit-in that made a mockery of the government’s permission to protest till 7 p.m., that TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram called it a day due to heavy rains. But not before he announced a roadmap of agitations, starting with dharnas and rasta-rokos across the state on Monday.

 Sunday morning began on a tense note with thousands of policemen, a majority of them drawn from various paramilitary forces, doing everything possible in their command to prevent marchers from entering the capital.

 All highways from the Telangana districts to Hyderabad were barricaded, and trains and buses to the capital were cancelled.

 In the capital too, police battled with the marchers at several places to prevent them from going to the venue. On the Osmania University campus, the hotbed of Telangana agitations, police used teargas more than once to stop students from marching to Necklace Road. Telangana lawyer groups were stopped in their tracks and so also Telangana government employees.

There were skirmishes at each point, with students replying to teargas canisters with stones. However, the exchanges got no worse, barring sporadic incidents of burning of some vehicles.

 Police tactics to deter marchers, after having given permission for the march, forced Telangana Congress MPs and ministers to respond. Senior minister K Jana Reddy fumed at the government’s handling of the march and said he was willing to sacrifice his post.

MPs from the region staged a sit-in in front of the chief minister’s residence-cum-office. They did not get an audience from Kiran Kumar Reddy and instead were packed off in a police vehicle and let off at the residence of one of them.

 They returned once again, only to be arrested again and this time taken to the Shamshabad police station, 25 km from the city.

 “Congress will not survive in Telangana if this is the way it is going to handle a people’s movement,” railed MP Manda Jagannadham. Even as Congress and TDP leaders from Telangana were busy giving soundbites to TV cameras, the marchers kept streaming in and by 3 p.m, the official inaugural time for the march, Necklace Road was completely occupied by the whole rainbow coalition of the Telangana movement: farmers, labourers, teachers, employees, lawyers, artistes, men and women, young and old.

 The show started to exuberant song and dance from Telangana folk groups.

 Then, Prof Kodandaram delivered the shocker to the government: the marchers wouldn’t go home until a commitment was given by Delhi on Telangana.

 Though heavy rains came to the government’s aid, the next spell of agitations starting Monday is sure to keep it on it’s toes.