Telangana Intellectuals Honor Prof. Jayashankar's Legacy

Intellectuals recall Prof Jayashankar's contributions - Hyderabad: Glowing tributes were paid to Prof. Kothapalli Jayashankar and his invaluable contributions to the Telangana movement were recollected at the Telangana self-respect meeting organised by the Telangana Intellectuals Forum here on Sunday. Addressing on the occasion, Prof. Anand Kumar, Dept of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that the Telangana movement was a result of deficit in six main factors development, good governance, legitimacy, democracy, citizenship and nation building.

He said that the Telangana movement was by all means a true fight for self-respect and self-governance, which has been suppressed for a long time on the false pretext of unity, through the use of brute force of police. He explained how the movement, despite being alive even after many decades, remained vulnerable to politicisation and exploitation by certain political leaders who only cared about power and not the interests of the people of Telangana.

Citing the example of Mallikarjun, a student leader of the 1969 Telangana movement, who later became quiet after being elected as an MP in the Indira Gandhi government, he cautioned the people of Telangana that from time to time there have been 'Shakunis' like the ones in Mahabharata, the most recent one being the 'Sri Krishna Committee,' which had been distorting facts to suppress the movement for a long time. He said that there were plenty of reasons for the Centre not conceding the demand for separate Telangana. The reasons included the likely emergence of Dalits and Muslims as potential sections to be reckoned with in politics.

The decision is often being put on hold just to safeguard the interests of the people who had encroached upon others property in the peripheries of Hyderabad. Once Telangana was granted, those sections that had been exploiting the rich natural resources of Telangana would lose their patronage. He said that Prof. Jayashankar was one person who was fully aware of such a prospect.

He felt that internal colonialism had to be dealt with all over the country. He praised the Telangana movement for being tolerant and for not following the violent path witnessed during the conflict between Punjab and Haryana, Orissa and West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala (Kaveri water dispute). He said that he was happy to see three generations of people who have been fighting for Telangana being present at the occasion. Prof. Kodandaram, in his address, remarked that Prof. Jayashankar always said that it was only through education that people would know the roots of our problems and that Telangana movement didn't come out of hatred and was not against the people of Andhra.

He recollected how Prof. Jayashankar declined positions like Vice-chancellor of Osmania University and chairmanship of Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), which were offered to him, just because he was committed to achieving the Statehood for Telangana and didn't want to be distracted. Prof. Anand Kumar was the guest speaker for the event.

Chairman of TJAC Prof Kodandaram, president of TIF Mallepalli Lakshmaiah, Pithala Ravinder, Sridhar Rao Deshpande, Janardhan Reddy, Ex-MLA, friends and followers of Late Prof. Jayashankar attended the event. Prof. Anand Kumar, who delivered the memorial lecture, also happens to be the convenor of Lok Shakti Abhiyaan and national executive member of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He is also an eminent author and a follower of Ram Manohar Lohia. Pittala Ravindar said that Prof. Kodandaram advocated three-schools for achieving Telangana, which are powerful people with strong conviction, intellectuals who can motivate these powerful people and a strong political leadership, which supports the other two schools.