On February 17, 1969, the Supreme Court issued a stay order on all the
removing of non-Mulki employees, putting the entire Mulki issue in limbo.
It was an open secret that politicians were coordinating the ongoing
agitation from behind the scenes. This group of politicians was a coterie
formed against CM Brahmananda Reddy’s rule. For the first time, these
leaders started to emerge into the open.
On February 20, 1969, the octogenarian politician K. V. Ranga Reddy,
father-in-law of Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy, after whom Ranga Reddy district
was later named, stated that if the central government failed to implement
the recent agreements, he would be forced to start the satyagraham. While
referring to the reduced levels of violence in the last week, he made a veiled
threat and said there was a peaceful environment in the state now; this
could be a temporary state unless the CM took actions ensuring peace in
the state. Through that statement, Ranga Reddy was not only hinting at his
group’s ability to ratchet up violence in the state, but was also establishing his
complicity in the violence that had happened in the past few weeks. It was
widely known that Marri Chenna Reddy was using his senile father-in-law K.
V. Ranga Reddy as his proxy.
Ranga Reddy announced that he would be making himself available
to all the political leaders and students for discussions on the 26th and 27th
of February 1969 between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. He said that a plan would be
charted out after these discussions.
It is unknown what plan was schemed at these meetings, but the color
of the Telangana movement changed from that point on. Politicians singing
the integration tune changed their positions overnight to become separatists.
Not only that, but if the violence across the region was bad so far, it became
worse. Leaders operating from behind the scenes openly emerged on the
public stage. These leaders, without an iota of shame, used students, including
young children, to achieve their selfish goals.
On March 6, 1969, the Supreme Court confirmed its stay on the
transfer of non-Mulki employees. It went a step further and blocked the
creation of super-numerary positions. This effectively tied down the hands
of the CM Brahmananda Reddy, who was under pressure to implement the
Telangana protections.
Now a full three months into the movement, 52 MLAs from
Telangana served an ultimatum to the CM that unless he took actions toward
implementing protections to the Telangana region by March 16, the MLAs
would not participate in the Assembly sessions, and the ministers from the
region would resign from the cabinet. These MLAs knew very well that there
was a Supreme Court stay on non-Mulki transfers and that the CM could not
fulfill their demands.
|
|
