The State government on Friday used everything in its power to thwart the Chalo Assembly call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) with the result that protesters failed in their primary objective — which was to reach the Assembly. But the fact that hundreds of them managed to make their presence felt in the city, if not the Assembly, despite precautionary arrests and a massive security build up, did bring smiles to their faces and sound bytes of a moral victory.
The police turned Hyderabad into an impregnable fortress, sealing off all roads and flyovers leading to the State Assembly. About 15,000 policemen, including 25 platoons of Central forces, began patrolling the city right from the wee hours and picked up all the main leaders of the TJAC, the separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), BJP and others as soon as they hit the streets. In fact, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Assembly Speaker N Manohar arrived at the Assembly by 6 a.m. to personally monitor security arrangements. But people had a harrowing time, what with the traffic diversions and sealed roads, many couldn’t go to offices on time and worse, ambulances carrying patients were stuck in traffic. Some patients weren’t even allowed to proceed to hospitals through the “hot spots” in the city. As the day progressed, it became increasingly clear that the police had, with an iron hand, thwarted the T protest. No wonder, TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao called for a Telangana bandh on Saturday. “This bandh call is to protest the high-handedness of the police,” he said in a statement.
The Chief Minister was happy after a congratulatory call from Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for ensuring that there was no breakdown of law and order. TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram, on the other hand, termed the protest a moral victory for Telangana activists. “In spite of the police turning Hyderabad into a fortress, they have managed to reach the city,” he said.