Tamil Nadu CM wins hearts of Telugus

Students to be allowed to study in mother tongue

S V Suryaprakasa Rao

It was literally a Good Friday for the Telugu community in Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who was heart throb of lakhs of film goers in Andhra Pradesh at one time, has once again won the hearts of Telugu people residing in Tamil Nadu by sanctioning all their long cherished demands in a one-time meeting with a delegation comprising various Telugu associations the previous day, Thursday, June 27.

Their main demand is to allow Telugu students to pursue their studies in their mother tongue. It was immediately okayed by Jayalalithaa who asked officials to initiate the process required for bringing a legislation in the next Assembly session. In fact, Jayalalithaa who successfully played her cards in Rajya Sabha elections and exposed both the opponents, Congress and DMK's opportunistic politics, has been showing soft corner towards minorities ahead of general elections in 2014.

While political observers and her opponents see an electoral strategy in her actions, many minority leaders refuse to subscribe to this argument. "She has a genuine concern for protecting the interests of minorities. She has been very kind enough to attend to the problems and issues of them ever since she took office as Chief Minister of the State." said Katragadda Prasad, noted Telugu film producer and secretary of South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and one of the prominent Telugu persons in Chennai.

Passing a legislation with regard to the contentious issue of allowing Telugu speaking students to study in their mother tongue means It would have to nullify earlier Government Order issued by the former regime led by DMK, making study of Tamil compulsory for students belonging to linguistic minorities.

Ealrier, under the two-language formula, students belonging to minority communities (Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Malayalam, etc) used to learn their mother tongue as their first language, and English as second language. In 2006, when the DMK Government brought an Act making study of Tamil compulsory as first language, minority languages were removed from the syllabus. This has also resulted in a sharp decline of students and unemployment of teachers who had been thriving on teaching of mother tongues of their respective linguistic community. Now what Jayalalithaa has initiated is a major policy shift keeping constitutional right and interest of linguistic minorities in view.

Telugu Academy, Andhra Bhavan in Chennai on the cards

Speaking in chaste Telugu during a long and friendly chat with Telugu delegates, she exhibited her sincere wish to meet other demands like formation of Telugu Academy, allotment of a site for housing Andhra Bhavan. When she read the memorandum and noted the demand for a site, she maintained that she is ready to offer gold, jewels and other wealth except land which is very limited in the ever growing City. However, when the leaders suggested a private land donated by the late Yarlagadda Venkanna Chowdary, a noted film producer and industrialist of yester year, to the government near Kottur Puram and remained unused can be legally returned to the donor whose heirs are prepared to spare enough site for Andhra Bhavan, she immediately asked the officials to begin legal process to hand it over to the owners. By hearing minorities' problems patiently and taking on-the-spot decisions have always been her forte which she has been using as powerful weapons to consolidate her position over her opponents in gaining minorities' support.

In fact, she began the process one and a half years back when she sanctioned Odisha Bhavan though the Odiya-speaking population is less than one percent of the population in Tamil Nadu and many of Odisha people's names cannot be found in census. Though an Urdu Academy was set up about 15 years ago in Tami Nadu, a similar demand from Telugus has been hanging fire despite the fact that the Telugu population in Tamil Nadu is more than 25 percent. This has prompted the Telugus in Chennai to pursue their demands. However, divergent views and lack of consensus among too many Telugu associations who indulge mostly in fight for supremacy, have made it difficult for them to approach the Chief Minister.

Interestingly, two of her secretaries are from the Telugu community. When they were pondering over a key question as to who would bell the cat, Governor K Rosaiah bailed them out by taking the problem to the Chief Minister. No doubt, it was Rosaiah's bold initiative which helped us to get our long time genuine and just demands fulfilled, " said Dr CMK Reddy who also played a key role in organizing Telugu associations to form a delegation to visit the Governor and later the Chief Minister.

Governor Rosaiah has reportedly brought the plight of Telugu people and that of their leaders who could not even get her appointment. On his first initiation, she offered 0.11 hectares of land at Pallikarni but Telugu leaders unanimously felt that it was not sufficient and convenient for Andhra Bhavan.

Again, they faced a problem of representing this to Jayalalithaa who never gave any appointment to Telugu representatives till then. Again, they turned to Raj Bhavan and Rosaiah took it seriously and true to his style, had reportedly had a frank talk with Jayalalithaa. On hearing the problem, she asked officials to arrange a meeting with the leaders of Telugu associations. "Jayalalitha always considers his advice and ideas as valuable and constructive to run the Government," said CMK Reddy who is also steering Linguistic Minorities Forum of Tamil Nadu. Apart from Katragadda Prasad, Narsa Reddy, Aneel Kumar Reddy, industrialist and philonthrapist Narayana Gupta, Isreal, Tanguturi Ramakrishna, D.Satyanarayna, Ghantasala Ratnakumar were among the delegates who represented their own outfits.

Since Andhra Pradesh Government is also keen on promoting Telugu in other States and making huge allocations for this purpose, Chennai Telugu associations have another big challenge to get required funds from their home State government to make use of what Jayalalithaa generously showered on them. But can these local satraps overcome their differences and achieve Andhra Bhavan and Telugu Academy for the ever increasing Telugu community in Tamil Nadu?