HYDERABAD: Shouts of `Jai Telangana’ rent the Pingle Venkatrami Reddy Hall here this evening as thousands of Telangana supporters gathered to hear their leaders speak. A wide banner thanking the Congress for its decision to grant statehood to Telangana hung in the background while leaders took turns at the microphone, each extolling the bravery of those who organised bandhs and exulting in their recent victory.
``They listened to all the voices who demanded Telangana,’’ one speaker pointed out. Another demanded, to raucous cries from the audience, that Hyderabad become capital of the new Telangana, and the Andhra government be moved. ``We do not want a split capital!’’ he cried, ``Hyderabad is Telangana!’’ This sentiment was cororobrated by K. Lingayya, a Congress MLA, who expressed in no uncertain terms that Hyderabad would never be part of Andhra. A long list of demands and grievances was circulated among the audience. Topping the list were improved irrigation systems and an equitable distribution of water.
It als demanded a complete halt to unauthorised mining operations. The Telangana supporters want real estate be developed in Telangana district, and Scheduled Tribe unions be recognised. ``We must stop Operation Green Hunt in Telangana,’’ one supporter shouted.
Bandaru Narayana, a retired government officer, explained some of the longstanding prejudices driving the crowd. ``We have been deprived by `intellectuals’ for a long time. When Andhra and Telangana merged in 1953, Nehru said Andhra people were intellectuals and Telangana people were uneducated and backward.
Though it is not true, we have lived with this assumption for more than 50 years,’’ he pointed out.
He cited political isolation as a driving reason for separatism.
“They promised that if an Andhra becomes chief minister, his deputy would be from Telangana. This did not happen. Forty per cent of Assembly seats were promised to people from Telangana; we did not get those either. Our irrigation system has not been developed, solely due to the bad intentions on the part of the government.
Worst, during all these years of integration we have had only one chief minister and he did not complete even one term,’’ he said, summing up the feelings of the hundreds gathered there.