All eyes are on the students who form part of the Telangana movement as the Justice Srikrishna commission readies to give its all important report on December 31. The students who led the protests the last time however have made it clear that they have no expectations from this report and say that their movement will continue since they are very sure that it will not be in their favour.
"We do not want violence, but will peacefully continue to express our opinion and pressurise the government to grant Telangana," the students say. A word of advice for the politicians especially from the Telangana Rastriya Samithi from the students is, "Keep your jhandas (flags) and agendas aside and come join the movement, do not use it to further your political careers."
The reaction by the students will be crucial. Dr Sangam Prithviraj, who is the head of the Students Joint Action Committee says that the movement will continue. "We are not even waiting for the report since we are fully aware that it will not be in favour of Telangana. This will however not deter us and we will continue to voice in our opinion. We need an unbiased media to voice our concerns for us and in this regard we have planned on launching the Telangana News Network which will be done very soon."
"When Andhra was separated from the Madras state, only the opinion of the people of Andhra was taken. It was based on their decision that statehood was granted. However in this present case, why is it different? Only the views of the Telangana people ought to have been taken. This commission has taken the opinion of the people of Andhra and they obviously are in majority which will ensure that the verdict is not in our favour.
We the people of Telangana have a separate culture and identity. These factors don't find a mention in the terms or reference. In addition to this they have not studied the irrigation projects, not visited the families of those who lost their loved ones for the movement and have also not bothered looking into the areas which are all matters of concern. Worse the terms of reference does not mention the creation of a separate state and hence since day one we did not have any hope," Prithviraj said.
He also added,"The students will not turn violent and neither will we damage any property even if the report goes in our favour. Your question as to what we will do if the report goes in our favour has no relevance since we are sure it will not.
The moment is gaining shape and we can say with confidence that it has become a full fledged peoples' movement today. Let us leave this commission report aside and focus on what the governments both state and centre will do. The fact is that the government cannot continue to sit on the matter for too long since it is a boiling point and at some point of time patience is bound to run out. We have no expectations from the TRS which according to all of us is just waving its political flag. All of us have realization the TRS does not want this issue to be solved at any cost since their political careers will end the day it is sorted out.
On 16 December at a TRS meeting in Warrangal, a student named Anjaya immolated himself and in his dying declaration stated that he did so for Telangana. This boy from the Nalgonda district was in hospital for three days before he died. Did any member of the TRS or even KCR bother visiting him? This itself says a lot about the seriousness this party has for the movement."
