‘Hyd inseparable from T’

27th anniversary celebrations of Manjeera Rachaitala Sangham.

Why the people of Telangana have a greater sense of belonging towards Hyderabad and how it turned a lucrative zone for investments by greedy realtors and corporate post globalization, was the focus of the debate at the 27th anniversary celebrations of Manjeera Rachaitala Sangham at Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University here on Sunday.

Several writers, poets, singers, social activists, professors and Telangana ideologues participated in the debate to make it clear why the ‘city of pearls’ deserved to be in Telangana region post-demerger.

Eminent writer Gilani Bano said the Deccani dialect which was a mixture of Telugu, Marathi, Hindi and Urdu has a distinct identity and the Deccani culture was created by people of all religions.

Professor Haragopal wondered how YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy could claim the ownership of Hyderabad just because he had roots in the city for the past 60 years, while people of Telangana had their roots for more than 400 years. He blamed financial, political and cultural domination as the main factors for the present situation prevailing in the State. He observed that only after TDP came to power in 1983 and when the government started taking loans from the World Bank, IT sector started coming to the city, which had brought along with it contractors, liquor mafia, corporatisation of education and all other evils, which started influencing the political system.

He said that the land mafia in collusion with these contractors had not spared even botanical gardens and graveyards from encroachments.

Prof Kodandaram said that the connection between the people and their administrators was broken and the only way for effective administration was to bring municipal reforms through de-centralisation.

Observing that Hyderabad belongs to everyone who had come here to work hard, revolutionary writer Varavara Rao, wondered whether all the literature and music would be preserved post demerger. He questioned if the movement would have a global outlook or would just be restricted to the region.

K Ramachandra Murthy, Editor-in-Chief, The Hans India and HMTV, said that Telangana was certain and even the Seemandhra leaders were well aware of this fact. But they were not conveying it to the people in Seemandhra so as to remain politically relevant in the region.

He said the people of Telangana must help bail out these ‘politicians in distress’ from this situation and make sure that the demerger would not take place in an environment of hatred.

Political analyst Ganta Chakrapani reminded everyone that it was Sir Salarjung I, who had brought several administrative, educational and healthcare reforms, which one shouldn’t ignore. N Venugopal raised the issue of occupation of lands of Sarf-e-khaas in the name of SEZs.

He said that the lands had become the bone of contention thus resulting in the fight for Hyderabad.