After the contents of the report were made public on Thursday, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Telangana leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), BJP and the Telangana Front led by balladeer Gaddar shared a same platform under the Joint Action Committee (JAC) at the Dharna Chowk near Indira Park in the city.
Describing the Srikrishna report as “indecisive and vague”, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao said: “The report is just like the Mumbai slang–chit bhi hamara and patt bhi hamara (whichever way the coin drops in a toss, we are the winners ).”
Addressing the dharna, Rao urged the people of Telangana to get ready for a long battle. “Our demand is to revert back to the pre-1956 status. For that, a separate bill for Telangana should be tabled in Parliament at the earliest,” he said. Blaming Congress leaders for the delay in the formation of the state, Rao urged the peoples representatives from the Congress to get ready to resign and join the movement.
Rao said he would prefer to sit on another round of fast-unto-death rather than accepting the unjust recommendations of the report. “I urge the prime minister to honour the promise the UPA has made to the people of Telangana on 9 December, 2009. Otherwise the Telangana MLAs and MPs will create a political tsunami by resigning en masse,” Rao said.
The TDP leaders from Telangana also rejected the report, saying nothing less than a separate Telangana was acceptable to the people of the region.
TDP Telangana Forum convener Nagam Janardhan Reddy said: “The report is an insult to the people of Telangana. I am warning the Congress not to play with the sentiments of the people of Telangana and table the bill in Parliament in the next session to carve out a separate state.”
Popular balladeer Gaddar too demanded that the Central government immediately table the bill in Parliament and urged every one to stick to a peaceful Gandhian mode of agitation.
However, the only sour note at the dharna came in the form of an attack on Yeravatri Anil Kumar, an MLA of Praja Rajyam Party from Balkonda. Pro-Telangana activists chased Anil out of the Dharna Chowk, even though he was shouting “Jai Telangana”. Finally, he was sent out in a police van amid tight security.