KCR’S RIvaL maKES hIS pRESENCE fELt
TRS suspects Kodandaram is in league with the Congress to try and destabilise the TRS government.
Gloves are off between Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and his one-time ally and convener of Telangana political parties’ Joint Action Committee (T JAC) M. Kodandaram as the latter has vowed to fight against the “anti-people policies” of the TRS government in the state. Kodandaram was house arrested on Thursday when he tried to protest the new land Bill passed by the Telangana Assembly. Kodandaram was to participate in a dharna at Indra Park in Hyderabad to protest the passage of the Telangana Land Acquisition Bill-2016 in both the Assembly and the Council earlier in the day. But the Hyderabad police denied permission to the dharna and forcibly re- stricted Kodandaram to his home in Tarnaka.
Kodandaram claimed that the police had arrested 1,600 of his followers and the activists of T JAC in various parts of Telangana, while they were coming to join the protest. “This is a dark day in the history of Telangana.The TRS government has lost its moral authority to face the people and the JAC,” Kodandaram told The Sunday Guardian at his residence on Friday. T JAC, along with other opposition parties has been opposing the Telangana Land Bill, titled as the Fair Compensation and Transparency Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana Amendment) Bill 2016, on the ground that it takes away many safeguards extended to farmers by the Central law.
A few salient features of the new Bill are: it exempts the government from carrying a socio-economic survey of the land acquisition and also does away with the clause of holding public hearings with the affected people and measures the payment of compensation based on the registration value of the land and properties, instead of market value prevailing at the time of acquisition.
The TRS government is in a tearing hurry to acquire land for many of its flagship projects, including some large irrigation reservoirs and big ticket industrial investment parks in Hyderabad as well as in districts. A recent controversy over land acquisition for Mallanna Sagar reservior on a lift irrigation project in Medak district has become a bone of contention between TRS and T JAC. While the Kodandaram-led JAC has strongly opposed acquisition of land for the reservoir on the ground that it displaces people from 30 villages, the TRS ministers and top leaders lashed out at their one-time comrade for playing into the hands of the Congress and TDP and trying to stall the development of Telangana.
The differences between TRS and T JAC have reached a climax as the government has gone ahead and secured passage of the alternative Bill in the current winter session of the Assembly and the Council. As the Bill was to be passed on Thursday, Kodandaram planned a massive protest rally at Indira Park the same day. But the police foiled the protest demonstration. Though this development appears as a routine police action against a non-political group that tries to protest a government law, it has far-reaching political significance in view of the past affinity between CM KCR and Kodandaram since they jointly led the separate statehood stir since early 2000. At one stage, Kodandaram acted as KCR’s emissary to negotiate with other political parties.
Kodandaram , who retired as a political science professor from Osmania University in February this year was at the forefront of the civil liberties movement since 1980s and floated the “Telangana Vidyavantula Vedika” (Telangana educat- ed people’s front) to fight for statehood since early 2000s. In the early stages, Kodandaram worked with KCR in various agitations.
Their relations turned sour after the formation of Telangana on 2 June 2014. The TRS leadership suspects that Kodandaram along with a few key members of his JAC secretly planned for a Congress-led government in the state and worked for the defeat of TRS in the general elections. The charge was denied by Kodandaram and his other JAC colleagues. Though efforts were made by some well-meaning mediators to patch up their differences in the past two years, both CM KCR and Kodandaram stuck to their stances and the rift widened. KCR was of the opinion that there was no need of the T JAC as its major objective of Telangana formation was over, Kodandaram not only continued it, but also intensified agitations on various issues.
Thursday’s house arrest of Kodandaram has seen opposition parties rallying behind him on the issue of the land Bill. Leaders of Congress, TDP and BJP have gone to his residence and expressed their solidarity with him on his struggle against the land Bill 2016. Kodandaram has announced a joint stir against the Bill. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Opposition leader K. Jana Reddy, and senior MLAs D.K. Aruna and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and BJP leader in the Assembly G. Kishan Reddy and BJP MLC Ramachander Rao were among those who were with Kodandaram; TDP MLAs too extended their support to the T JAC leader. Senior TRS minister T. Harish Rao who moved the Bill in the Assembly accused Kodandaram and other JAC leaders of creating obstacles to irrigation projects and industrial development in Telangana. “We have the mandate to fulfil the aspirations of people of Telangana. Unless we acquire land for these projects, how can we keep our promise to the people?” he asked while taking to this newspaper.
TRS MP Balka Suman has alleged that Kodandaram was trying to destabilise the TRS government by creating unrest in the state. “We suspect he (Kodandaram) is in league with the Congress leaders in opposing our development projects,” said Suman. Whether or not this allegation is true, 2017 is sure to witness many battles between Kodandaram and the TRS government.