The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Veteran reminisces 1969 stir

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Monday, Dec 07, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Veteran reminisces 1969 stir

S. Harpal Singh

ADILABAD: It was no less a personage than former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to have held talks with the Telangana protagonists in 1970, when the struggle towards carving out a separate State was on. “he had air dashed to Hyderabad to hold talks with the leaders of Telangana Praja Samiti (TPS),” recalls T. Madhusudan Reddy, former Adilabad MP, wondering why no such efforts were being initiated now.

Mr. Madhusudan Reddy is a member of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and had been the president of the Students Action Committee in Adilabad district during the eventful years of late 1960s and early 1970s. He had been jailed for three months for participating in the separate Telangana agitation.

“Failure to settle the issue had made the Congress party lose politically. In the March 1971 General Elections, it lost 10 of the 14 Parliament seats in Telangana to the TPS,” he adds, in an effort to point out the consequences of denying a rightful claim of the people in the region.

Walking down the memory lane, the Telangana veteran drew parallels with the current agitation being witnessed across the region. “There was an element of romance to that agitation. Bereft of the modern communication facilities, we kept in touch by writing letters to the agitation leaders at Hyderabad. The drivers of the only two RTC services to Hyderabad every day used to oblige us by carrying the letters,” remembers the former MP. During emergencies, the agitation leaders made use of the ‘free’ phone owned by ‘seths’ or wealthy people. Occasionally, they had to pay for the only public telephone at the head post office in Adilabad, says Mr. Madhusudan Reddy.

Travelling in RTC buses was however, free of cost. “The conductors kept away from those who raised ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan while entering the bus,” he quipped.

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