3 months ago
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At the centre of a caller governmental contention successful Telangana is simply a symbolic but emotionally charged question: who deserves to beryllium called Jatipita, oregon the Father of Telangana?
The contiguous trigger for Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leaders and cadres hailing enactment president and erstwhile Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) arsenic Jatipita was the announcement served connected him by a Special Investigation Team, summoning him for questioning successful transportation with an alleged phone-tapping lawsuit during the BRS regime. The enactment saw this arsenic an insult to their leader, who they claimed had singlehandedly fought with the Centre and ensured the instauration of Telangana successful 2014. Calling him the designer of the State, they questioned however helium could beryllium treated similar a criminal.
The repeated attempts by the BRS to bestow the rubric of Jatipita connected Mr. Rao did not spell down good with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who launched a scathing onslaught connected the BRS chief. “KCR is not worthy of being called the Father of Telangana. He is lone a self-proclaimed fatherly figure,” helium said. Accusing Mr. Rao of corruption and mismanagement, Mr. Reddy said that helium “looted the State and plunged it into debt.” The Chief Minister argued that if anyone deserved the title, it would beryllium either Professor K. Jayashankar oregon Konda Laxman Bapuji, some of whom made genuine sacrifices for the origin of statehood.
Intellectuals who person intimately observed the Telangana question — from the aboriginal agitations successful 1952 and 1969 to the last propulsion led by Mr. Rao aft enactment of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) successful 2001 — person a antithetic perspective. Former Telangana Joint Action Committee Convener and ex-MLC M. Kodandaram, a prof who worked intimately with Mr. Rao earlier their fallout, said that Prof. K. Jayashankar is wide regarded arsenic the main ideologue of the Telangana statehood movement. Jayashankar, a erstwhile Vice Chancellor of Kakatiya University, was progressive during the 1952 and 1969 Telangana movements. During the last stages of the movement, helium was instrumental successful bringing unneurotic each sections of nine and offering clarity to the long-pending demand. “He had an quality to unify the radical and articulate the cause, truthful helium was often referred to arsenic the ideologue of Telangana, though helium himself ne'er claimed that title,” Prof. Kodandaram explained.
Others specified arsenic Bhupati Krishnamurthy from Warangal, Konda Laxman Bapuji, and Prof. Keshav Rao Jadhav besides played important roles successful sustaining the movement.
Prof. Kodandaram noted that aft the enactment of Telangana, the communicative shifted. During the yearly Deeksha Diwas, celebrated by BRS cadres to commemorate Mr. Rao’s accelerated that pressured the Centre to denote statehood for Telangana, the enactment began calling him Jatipita.
On the different hand, erstwhile BRS MP B. Vinod Kumar has powerfully defended the party’s position. He argued that it is communal successful statehood movements to honour leaders with titles specified arsenic Bapu oregon Jatipita. He said that Mr. Rao deserves designation arsenic Jatipita, since his enactment was cardinal to the enactment of the State.
Drawing parallels with Jharkhand, Mr. Kumar pointed retired that Shibu Soren, laminitis of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, is known as Jatipita of the State. Soren led the question for decades, and though Jharkhand was carved retired of Bihar by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government, his relation successful sustaining the agitation earned him that recognition.
“The agitation for a abstracted Telangana had a convulsive past. During the 1969 movement, much than 360 radical died successful constabulary firing. On the different hand, KCR’s stewardship successful the last signifier of the statehood disturbance was mostly non-violent,” Mr. Kumar said.
While the BRS cadre whitethorn consciousness justified successful honouring Mr. Rao with the title, past suggests that specified designation cannot beryllium manufactured done enactment resolutions oregon governmental campaigns. Titles similar Jatipita endure lone erstwhile they are affirmed by a wide societal statement that transcends partisan loyalties. The existent contention appears little astir past and much astir present-day governmental positioning, with some the BRS and the Congress seeking to consolidate their enactment basal up of the municipal elections. Ultimately, nationalist representation volition find however Mr. Rao’s bequest successful the Telangana question is defined, oregon who gets to beryllium called Jatipita.
