B.N. Srikrishna and Chandrasekhar Rao

Hyderabad, Jan. 6: Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao today rejected the Srikrishna Committee report as “vague and indecisive” and said that nothing short of a Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital would be accepted.

The politician whose indefinite fast in December 2009 had lit the statehood fire said he would stage another one rather than accept the committee’s recommendations, which he lampooned as “chit bhi hamara aur patt bhi hamara (heads I win, tails you lose).”

“Committee or no committee, Telangana is our mission,” Rao said.

He was speaking at a “maha dharna” organised by the TRS-led Telangana Joint Action Committee, which repeated its demand for the tabling of a statehood bill in the budget session of Parliament. The action committee was to meet in the evening to chalk up a strategy.

The rally was attended by leaders of the TRS and the BJP as well as pro-Telangana lawmakers from the fence-sitting Telugu Desam Party. Maoist sympathiser and balladeer Gaddar sang Bol Telangana to rouse the crowd and asked them to fight on till statehood was granted.

The only sour note was struck when the crowd refused to let Yeravatri Anil Kumar, former MLA of the anti-statehood Praja Rajyam, to get on the dais even though he raised the slogan “Jai Telangana”. Kumar was chased off the venue and left under police escort.

“I urge the Prime Minister not to dilly-dally on Telangana but to fulfil the promise given on December 9, 2009,” Chandrasekhar Rao said, referring to the Centre’s announcement about the “process of forming” a state that Telangana campaigners had construed as a pledge.

He blamed the Congress for the delay in statehood and urged the party’s lawmakers to be ready to join other Telangana MLAs and MPs in creating “a political tsunami by resigning en masse”.

He wondered why students and other Telangana supporters faced baton charges and firing and said Congress lawmakers from the region would have to take most of the responsibility for any police action.

“They should be at the forefront of the struggle... they should be ready for sacrifices. And if necessary, they should quit their posts and create a constitutional crisis.”

Rao said the Srikrishna committee’s recommendation of a regional authority for Telangana’s development was evidence enough that the Andhra Pradesh experiment had failed.

“I would like to remind the home minister that none of the states formed earlier were formed on the basis of a committee report. It is a political decision that needs to be taken. We are hoping the UPA government will take the right decision,” Rao said.

He, however, appealed to students not to commit suicide for the cause of Telangana.

Other speakers at the rally said the sacrifices of students and martyrs must not go in vain. “Around 500 people have died for the Telangana cause since the 1960s,” Rao’s son and MLA K.T. Rama Rao said.