Lack of credibility keeps TTDPF inactive

VV Balakrishna
First Published : 25 Mar 2010 06:24:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 25 Mar 2010 09:17:09 AM IST

HYDERABAD: Though Telugu Desam’s Telangana leaders formed a separate forum within the party to wage a fight for Telangana State, the forum has remained non-functional so far.

The Telangana Telugu Desam Party Forum (TTDPF), which was officially launched on March 5, has not taken up any concrete action plan to continue its `fight’ for T-State.

Several party MLAs from the region, including TTDPF convener N Janardhan Reddy, maintained silence when asked why the forum was inactive. They neither refute the charges nor try to counter the argument.

When the forum was launched, Janardhan Reddy said that they would finalise the modalities for the struggle and declared: ``We feel T cannot be achieved without a fight. That is why we have started a forum to spearhead the movement.’’ Later, the party faced the wrath of the political Joint Action Committee and was expelled from it. Yet, the leaders have not met officially once, leave alone launching an agitation. ``When we are meeting regularly in the Assembly, what is the need for a separate a meeting?’’ argued an MLA.

However, some MLAs from the region admit that people would not believe them whatever they might do for T, even if the party was in a position to deliver statehood,’’ said another MLA. ``So, we have decided to confine to Hyderabad and avoid visiting our constituencies,’’ he admitted.

The MLA was known for such outspokennes.

Though, most of the MLAs have not spoken in such a candid manner, they too are of the same opinion. TDP MLAs fear unpleasant scenes when they visit their constituencies. Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu is no exception. When he participated in a college function at Meerpet here recently, students raised pro-Telangana slogans. That they were arrested by the police was another matter. A similar incident took place again when Naidu visited the Cherlapally Central Jail today. There had to be a lathicharge on Telangana agitators.

The TTDP Forum has only one work on hand, and that is to submit a report to the Srikrishna Committee highlighting the injustice done to the region in the last 60 years. Except this, the forum has no work on hand. Denying that the pary was inactive another MLA said the TDP raised the issues of Hyderabad free zone, students’ suicides and the lathicharge on advocates in Delhi in the Assembly during the Budget session. It remains to be seen whether the TTDPF will limit its programmes to expressing lip sympathy for the Telangana cause or plunge into action.