KCR asks Sonia to announce Telangana soon

HYDERABAD: TRS president and Karimnagar MP K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday asked AICC president Sonia Gandhi to feel the heartbeat of Telangana people and announce separate Telangana State at the earliest
“We, the people of Telangana region want only separate State and nothing else. We are the sufferers in the hands of Andhra rulers and we want separate Telangana State to heal our wounds caused by the Andhra rulers,” he noted.
Addressing a mammoth public meeting in in Karimnagar town, he reminded that AICC president Sonia Gandhi wore the TRS party shawl during the 2004 election meetings in Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts and promised to respect the sentiment and heartbeat of Telangana people.
“Mrs. Sonia Gandhi might have forgotten about her promise made to the people of Telangana, but the people have not and they would teach a fitting lesson to the Congress party, if Telangana State is denied,” he pointed out.
Expressing concern over humiliation of senior Congress leaders in New Delhi by not giving an appointment to air their grievances to Ms. Gandhi, he said that “it was an insult to the people of entire Telangana region” and the gathering had also supported his argument by raising their hands.
“If the Congress leaders fail to secure Telangana State by March 6, we will not allow the Congress legislators, MPs, MLCs and other leaders to visit the villages,” he warned. He said that he had set March 6 deadline not for the elections but to demand the Congress party stand on Telangana statehood.
He said that the TRS would collect a corpus fund of Rs. 50 lakh and hand over the same to the weavers association of Sircilla town to stop suicides by the powerloom weavers in Karimnagar district. TRS leaders Jayashankar, R. Vidysagar Rao, MPs, legislators and others were also present.

Tiwari hit by TRS `paper missiles’

HYDERABAD : Andhra Pradesh Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari on Monday almost got hit by “paper missiles” from Telangana Rastra Samiti benches for ignoring the Telangana statehood issue in his speech.
In his first address to the joint session of the Assembly and Legislative Council on the first day of the budget session, Tiwari sidestepped the T-issue and instead promised that the government would end all regional disparities in development. Angry TRS members then tore up copies of his speeches and flung it at him. A bunch of papers landed on his dais, forcing marshals to throw a ring around him.
The Governor’s address in the old Assembly buildings was marred by vocal protests from TRS MLAs and MLCs demanding a separate state. TRS MLAs also stayed away from the customary breakfast hosted jointly by the Council Chairman, A. Chakrapani and Assembly Speaker, K.R. Suresh Reddy. Telugu Desam and MIM members also raised their voice against the “false promises” of the government.
The Governor announced many sops to minorities, Kapus, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes in his speech. Tiwari claimed that the state government had been able to maintain peace during its tenure and added that the recent terror attacks were part of a global phenomenon.
He announced the implementation of the Rs 2 a kg rice scheme for the poor from April and extension of the Rajiv Arogyasri health insurance scheme to all Below Poverty Line families from October 2.
The Governor also promised scholarships to students from Kapu and other economically backward communities, four-lane roads to district headquarters and important towns and multi speciality hospitals in all districts. Further, the state government is planning to set up a university in every district, ports in all coastal districts, ensure air connectivity to major towns and build houses for middle class people, he said.

Bigger challenges lie ahead for YSR News Analysis

HYDERABAD: By getting the Congress high command to firmly put a lid on dissent by some party seniors over the line on Telangana, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has secured only a temporary relief.

A bigger and immediate challenge lies ahead when 16 MLAs and four Members of Parliament of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) carry out their threat to resign on March 6 and provide impetus to the emotive issue of separate Statehood and later take off on a bus yatra to garner support for their cause.]

Resignations


The resignations will also lend a new dimension to the issue by causing by-elections which the TRS is bound to portray as a referendum to justify its oft-repeated claim that a strong “Telangana sentiment” prevails favouring separate Statehood.

Till the Election Commission takes a call on holding by-polls to so many seats when general elections are due in 2009, all this is in the realm of speculation.

Some like BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu fear that the Congress could do a Karnataka here by postponing the polls citing the yet-to-be formalised delimitation process.

Harsh realities


In the event of by-polls, the TRS leadership will have to face harsh ground realities as anything less than a sweep of all these seats will be interpreted by its detractors to mean that the Telangana sentiment is confined to pockets.

This is where Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy feels that the Congress is sitting pretty.

He is confident that the TRS will find this task difficult since the performance of some of its MLAs is perceived by voters as less than satisfactory, especially in South Telangana districts where the ‘sentiment’ is not considered very strong.

Dr. Reddy explained as much when he presented his views to the Congress Core Committee meeting in New Delhi on February 5.

Solution


While giving his assessment of the Telangana issue, the Chief Minister outlined the Congress party’s strengths and weaknesses from the viewpoint of elections, the naxalite angle and that development and not separation was the solution to Telangana’s problems.

That the Congress high command endorsed his line was evident when it agreed to constitute a committee to supervise development of Telangana.

Different treatment


In contrast to the opportunity given to Dr. Reddy to present his case to AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Congress Committee members Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, Shivraj Patil and A. K. Antony, Telangana Congress leaders received a different treatment.

During their six-day long sojourn in the capital, they could not get the ear of Ms. Gandhi though they met AICC leaders individually.

This rebuff was, however, no indication that the AICC had foreclosed its options on Telangana but as a strong pointer to its thinking that it would not be pushed around or hustled into taking instant decisions.

It was firm that it would not upset the Congress applecart with the bifurcation of the State when elections are just one year away.

KCR upset


Although Congress Working Committee member G. Venkataswamy hid the leaders’ feelings by expressing optimism that the AICC would indeed make commitments that will take shape in 2009, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao was upset over the way Congress seniors were treated.

He said as much at the Karimnagar rally on February 9 when he described the inability of Ms. Gandhi, to give the seniors an appointment as “an insult to the people of Telangana.”

TRS to press on Telangana

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Sunday decided to exert pressure on the Congress government to move a resolution in the Assembly seeking formation of Telangana state during the budget session beginning on Monday.

This is for the first time that the TRS is pressing for a resolution in the state Assembly. The party has been maintaining all along that an assembly resolution is not mandatory for the creation of a new state.

The party MLAs and MLCs who met here on Sunday resolved to make the separate state issue a priority subject in the budget session.

"Apart from raising the issue of injustice being meted out to the region in allocation of funds, the party is primarily pressing for the adoption of a resolution asking the Centre to form a separate state,"TRS spokesperson T Prakash told TOI .

"Though a resolution is not mandatory for creation of Telangana, we want to expose the duplicity of the Congress, which went back on its commitment it had made to us during the release of its election manifesto,"Prakash said.

"Our MLAs and MLCs will raise the issue on every occasion in both the Houses. If necessary we will not hesitate to stall the proceedings of the House,"he warned. The meeting was chaired by party president K Chandrasekhar Rao

TRS to obstruct Tiwari’s address

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has said that it would stage protests in the Assembly in a novel way including obstruction of the Governor N. D. Tiwari’s address to the joint session, to express its grievance over the delay in granting statehood to Telangana.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of the TRS legislature party, ahead of commencement of budget session of the Assembly, its leader G. Vijayarama Rao said they would exploit every opportunity that came their way to focus the injustice done to Telangana.

He said the TRS would mount pressure on the State government to move a resolution in the Assembly in support of separate Telangana. Acting on it, the Centre should initiate the process of creating the State.

Asked if the TRS MPs and MLAs would not submit their resignations on March 6 if a resolution was moved, Mr. Rao said mere resolution was no deterrence to them from putting in their papers. The UPA Government must go ahead with formation of the State.

BJP dares Centre to bring Telengana Bill in Parliament

Rejecting Congress' claims that the BJP was opposed to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in the context of Telengana, the main opposition on Thursday said it favoured creation of a separate state of Telengana. The party also challenged the Centre to bring a bill in parliament to this effect to which they would extend unconditional support.

The assertion by the BJP, also aimed at enticing the Telengana Rashtra Samiti led by K Chandrashekhara Rao, rebutted the Congress charge that the party has been indulging in "double speak" over the issue. Instead, the BJP countered that it was the ruling party that had tied-up with TRS during 2004 general elections and promised a separate Telangana state.

"The previous government has put in place a procedure to create separate states out of present ones. The three states during the NDA tenure were carved out on that basis. So, what stops Congress from fulfilling its promise to the people of Telangana. Probably the Congress was never interested in giving separate statehood and so constituted Mukherjee Committee, as an eyewash," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, adding that the party has invited all to join hands, who wanted a separate Telangana. The pro-Telengana posture of the BJP, however, has not come as a surprise as it has been trying hard to woo the TRS into the NDA fold and increase its prospects at the Centre in a post Lok Sabha election scenario.

The NDA, when in power, had turned a blind eye to the Telengana demand because of the TDP, only creating the three states of Uttrakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

‘TRS can control naxalism in six months of gaining power’

Statehood movement not targeted at people of coastal Andhra: KCR
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Rulers charged with creating obstacles‘Development no alternative for self-respect’
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HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said that the party had a political agenda to control naxalism in six months after Telangana achieves statehood.

Dismissing the argument that naxalism would spread rapidly if a separate State of Telangana was formed, Mr. Rao told a meeting at the Hyderabad Central University campus on Monday that in fact peaceful and harmonious conditions would unfold in the new State.

He emphasised that the separatist movement was not an ethnic struggle targeted at people of coastal districts. People demanding separate Telangana had no right to disturb the lives of people hailing from the coastal districts who had settled down in the region, particularly Hyderabad. The movement would lose the human angle if the migrants were targeted, he said. Moreover, development of the region would be affected by mutual acrimony.

People of Telangana would extend a ‘red carpet welcome’ to migrants in the separate State. The order of the day also called for attracting investments, necessitating coexistence with outsiders. The vibrant, cosmopolitan culture of Hyderabad enabled migrants to adapt to local conditions easily, Mr. Rao added.

The TRS chief also said it would not take one day to whip up tensions and repeat the turbulent period at the peak of the separate Telangana agitation in 1969. But the leaders of the movement did not have a negative approach. Violence could render innocent women and children victims.

Obstacles to statehood


Mr. Rao maintained that the ruling parties had set up obstacles to the creation of Telangana by claiming that they were committed to the development of the region. Development was the civic right of people and a separate State their birthright. Development was no substitute for self-respect and self-administration. Development in real terms meant increase in purchasing power of people. That had not happened in the last five decades. An example was the livelihood of people living in the old city here, the TRS president said.

FROM HINDU

Chicago 2006 Bathukamma Festival

http://www.telangana.org/Bathukamma/Photos/BathukammaPhotos.asp

Bathukamma :

Batukamma is a spring festival celebrated by women in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. This festival usually is in the months of September/October (Aswiyuja), concludes two days before Dussera on durgashtami.
The name Batukamma is given to a flower mound, arranged with different flowers usually in seven concentric layers of potter’s clay like a cone.
Batuku means live, and Amma means mother, hence Batukamma. Batukamma celebrates the glory of Gauri goddess (meaning fair or white) - the patron Goddess of womanhood [1].
This festival is an all-woman affair. Women celebrate this festival dressed-up traditionally in silk sarees, wear Jewelery and girls in a two-piece saree called as Langa oni, and participate with great fervour.

The Ritual:

In the evenings, women gather different kinds of unique seasonal flowers, some coloured, some scented and arrange them on a wide plate called as tambalamu, in the shape of a conical mound.
Women then gather in large numbers along with their batukammas in their locality, place them in the middle and dance around them, synchronizing steps and claps in unison, and singing soul stirring batukamma folk songs.
After the singing and dancing, batukammalu are set afloat in a lake or river.
This festival goes on for seven days and concludes on Durgastami, the main festival day is called Saddula Batukamma. On this day they celebrate into wee hours and later go to a nearby village lake to set their Batukamma afloat. Lakes with floating batukammas in the evenings is a treat to the eyes.
Maleeda,a sweet made of jaggery, is prepared on this day.

Observed by
Hindu women of Telangana

Type
Spring festival of Goddess Gauri
Begins
Aswiyuja
Ends
Durgashtami
Date
September/October
Celebrations
7 days
Related to
Dussehra

Telangana Kanneeti Katha

Videos:

1) This is a video produced by TDF with the help of Retd. Chief Engineer R.Vidyasagar Rao.View Video (Windows Media Player required)

Telangana Kanneeti Katha (Documentary)

2) Prof. Jayashankar on Telangana Issues (Recorded in Aug 2000)

Part 1, Part 2

3) Story of Telangana - Still Seeking Justice (View in Windows Media Player)

Story of Telangana - Still Seeking Justice

From :http://www.telangana.org/home.asp


Thanks
Venkat Reddy
Jai Telangana

Telangana issue divides Congress into two camps News Analysis

Congress seniors opine that the party would face a rout unless it takes a forthright stand on Telangana, writes S. Nagesh Kumar


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HYDERABAD: What started off as a competition with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to be seen as a champion of the separate Telangana cause prior to the 2004 elections, has now turned into a confrontation within the ruling Congress party.

The TRS is sitting pretty politically by announcing its resolve to pressure the Centre by resigning en masse from the legislatures on March 6 and even collecting letters from its members.

Party in turmoil


On the other hand, the Congress finds itself in a turmoil with pro-separation leaders, unable to make any headway with the Centre, accusing Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy of being the main hurdle in achieving Telangana.

By all available indications as also his interactions with the media, Dr. Reddy is unambiguous in his views on Telangana.

He is clear that statehood cannot be achieved in the absence of consensus among political parties at the Centre. Such an agreement, as is too well known, is impossible unless a miracle happens and the CPI (M), Samajwadi Party and the Telugu Desam retract from their opposition to separate Telangana. Against this backdrop, Dr. Reddy stated that AICC president Sonia alone could not take a decision as the present regime at the Centre was a coalition of several parties.

By the same token, the AICC has made evident its disinclination to take any new initiative on Telangana before the 2009 elections, more so in the wake of pro-separation leaders vetoing its move to constitute a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC).

High command’s snub


It even administered a snub to the Congress seniors by summarily rejecting G. Venkataswamy’s, demand to convene a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting to discuss Telangana besides asking them to defer their planned meeting with Ms. Sonia Gandhi at New Delhi on January 29.

The AICC has to reckon with the impact that any decision on Telangana will have on the Congress party’s electoral prospects in 2009. In a situation, a hypothetical one at that, where it announces its clear intention to carve out a separate Telangana in 2008, it will have to factor in highly contentious issues relating to sharing of resources between the various regions besides demands for separation from other sub-regions.

Seniors fear rout


Once its fundamental plank is undermined, the TRS will definitely up the ante by demanding a greater share for Telangana thus attracting counter claims from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. This is a situation the Congress can ill-afford to face in an election year. Congress seniors appear unfazed by these considerations and insist that the party will face rout at the TRS’ hands unless it takes a forthright stand on separate Telangana.

Much of their criticism at the end of their daily conclaves is directed at the Chief Minister or his supporters conveying an impression of an ongoing struggle between dissidents and loyalists. It is reminiscent of the rebel activity in 1980 when rebels gathered at residence of the redoubtable Backward Classes leader late G. Rajaram and made life difficult for the then Chief Minister M. Chenna Reddy.

Some of these seniors have a chequered past of being pro-Telangana and pro-integration at different points in history but their political journey has always been with the Congress. They justifiably nurse a grouse that the Congress leadership has failed to recognize and amply reward their long services to the party.

from hindu

Gaddar calls people’s movement for Telangana

HYDERABAD : Balladeer Gaddar, who floated Telangana Samskruthika Samakhya (TSS) to fight for Telangana state, said besides a political movement, there was a dire need for a people’s movement in order to achieve a separate state.
At a ‘Meet The Press’ organised by the Telangana Journalists’ Forum here, Gaddar said ‘‘no single party or individual can achive Telangana. What is needed is a coordinated movement involving the people of the region.’’

Blaming the Congress and the TRS of pursuing vote bank politics in the name of a separate state and forgetting it on coming to power, he said the people will not believe the TRS as its legislators and the MPs were submitting their resignations at the drop of the hat only to seek re-election.

"They should explain why they failed in their mission everytime they got a fresh mandate," he asked. Gadar dismissed the apprehensions that separate Telangana will create more law and order problems. "The people need a democratic Telangana," he said.

He claimed that even the settlers from other regions were supporting separate Telangana as the exploitation of the poor by the Congress has increased manifold in recent times.

The TSS is conducting a meeting tomorrow at the Nizam College grounds, in which leaders from the BJP, BSP and RJD will take part. The TSS has decided to float a joint action committee to press for a separate state

from andhracafe