JOIN USTime and again the demand for separate Telangana state has been suppressed by the Centre and Andhra Pradesh Government by unleashing police force. The struggle of the people of the region to wriggle out of the ''marriage'' with the Andhra region and preserve their cultural identity was silenced by political bosses by deploying massive central forces.
Even though Andhra Pradesh was formed on November 1, 1956, by 1969 the Telangana agitation was started by unemployed people and students, who feared that their employment opportunities were being hijacked by people from Andhra region.
“Within nine months the Jai Telangana agitation, spread to every nook and corner of Telangana region. But it was suppressed by the then Kasu Brahmananda Reddy government by using brute force,” says Doasju Sravan a politburo member of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
According to him, over 370 youngsters were killed, more than 70,000 people were arrested, of whom 7000 were women. People were lathicharged 3,266 times, about 20,000 people were injured and 1,840 people suffered bullet injuries and fractures, while tear gas shells were burst 1,870 times.
Despite overwhelming support for Telangana in 1971 followed by a call for stricter implementation of Mulki Rules by a Supreme Court judgment in 1972, “Jai Andhra” agitation ensued. President's rule was imposed on January 10, 1973, giving a free hand to CRPF to quell the agitation.
But a new wave of agitations began after the formation of TRS in 2001.For the first time students from all the universities in Telangana region took charge of the agitation suspecting the sincerity of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao’s intentions.
“What followed was a complete seizure of Osmania University by Rapid Action Force. The police allege that Maoists infiltrated into student ranks, just as they said of the recent Rajpath sit-in by students in New Delhi,” said Prof B Satyanarayana, President of the Osmania University Teachers’ Association.
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