Friends to Foes: Prof Kodandaram declares war against KCR

Once the point-man of Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), Professor M Kodandaram is now plunging directly into 'post-Telangana' politics. 

 

A former political science Professor at Osmania University, Kodandaram will now stage a silent sit-in on October 2, 2016 - protesting the all-around failure of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government over the past two years. 

 

Though direct the trigger for the 'Satyagraha' is the non-implementation of drought relief measures as per the drought manual, the Deeksha is being seen as the flash point for a future mega-confrontation between the two stalwarts of the Telangana movement. 

 

Kodandaram is said to have played a crucial role in giving ideological flesh and blood to KCR's Telangana movement in association with Professor Jaishankar. 

 

He was picked by KCR to forge unity among all political parties and organisations fighting for the Telangana cause. The result was the creation of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) in 2009 with Kodandaram as its head. 

 

From then onwards, Kodandaram became the face of the T-movement while KCR remained in the background. 

 

While giving a new thrust to the movement, the professor's entry had also generated bad blood between him and KCR, which finally resulted in the marginalisation of Kodandaram after the creation of Telangana.  

 

Though he led the movement in the final leg, Kodandaram found no place in the effort to steer Telangana as per the ideals of the movement. 

 

Kodandarams oft-repeated statement that the TJAC  would continue to fight for justice for the people has also widened the gap between the TRS and the TJAC. 

 

While the TRS says the TJAC was scrapped, Kodandaram is all for reforming it for a 'post-Telangana' context.

 

What has mostly infuriated the TRS is Kodandaram's historic statement that chief minister KCR should step down if he can't  deliver.

 

 Kodandaram toured every district in the state and claims to have discovered that the TRS government was not living up to the expectations of the people.  

 

There is no aspect of Telangana on which Kodandaram has not expressed his dissatisfaction. And several times, he warned that he would mobilise people for justice.

 

On Tuesday, after a roundtable discussion, he said he would organise a 'Chalo Hyderabad' march with farmers from all districts. He demanded that all farm loans be waived as earlier promised.

 

Prof Kodandaram's charge-sheet against KCR is very long. Here, we highlight the significant irritants. 

 

1. Kodandram said the TJAC would approach the Green Tribunal to get opencast mining stalled in the state. He was critical of CM KCR for now favoring the opencast mining of coal, which KCR had opposed during the T-movement. 

 

2. His TJAC team visited  Ranga Reddy, Mahabubnagar, Adilabad and Karimnagar districts, which he said were reeling under drought but were not declared as drought-hit by the state. 

 

3.  Kodandaram says the water sharing agreement with Maharashtra is good but asked for the details to be made public.

 

4. The former professor has serious reservations about the way KCR created new districts.  He wants the state government to give credence to public demands about Gadwal and Janagama, which are currently burning with agitations. "There should be a rational discussion on the creation of new districts,"  was his demand.  

 

5.  Kodandaram sees no logic in the division of Warangal city into two districts. He requires the government make public the criteria used for creating new districts. 

 

6) Kodandaram demands KCR fulfil his election promise of providing 12% reservation for Muslims. Should KCR fail to meet the pledge, he has threatened a large-scale protest.

 

7) He charges that the TRS government is backing out of the reopening of the Nizam Sugar Factory. KCR had supported the demand during the Telangana movement. Kodandaram claims that the reopening of the plant would spur development in the region. 

 

8) The TJAC chairperson has demanded the KCR government rehabilitate contract employees of Singareni Collieries, dislodged due to opencast mining. 

 

9) He backed the agitation of Mallanna Sagar farmers and organised a camp to educate them about Land Acquisition, which strengthened their resolve against giving up their lands as per the controversial state GO No 123.

 

10)  On the political defections being engineered by the TRS, Kodandaram has asked those shifting loyalties to quit their elected positions before joining other parties.

 

11)  Kodandaram demands the KCR government to make public the names mentioned in the diary of the slain gangster Nayeem.

 

12) He has supported the cause of home-guards, contract employees, weavers, students, unemployed, etc. which has the potential to inspire several movements across the state.