Telangana NGO leader K. R. Amos, who mere weeks before had been
concerned about politicians dragging employees into the controversy, was now
in bed with the Telangana separatists. He raged that unless India’s government
announced the formation of the Telangana state before June 15, 1969, there
would be “bloodshed and destruction.”
Chenna Reddy’s TPS called for a region wide bandh on June 3. The
events following the bandh seemed as if the leaders of the movement wanted
to prove it to the state and central government that they were not making
empty threats of violence. As its leaders promised, the Nizam Telangana
region erupted like a volcano on June 3, 1969.
Telangana separatists attacked public and private properties with
vengeance. Capital city Hyderabad looked like a war zone. There was collateral
damage to many businesses and stores. The fire department attended at least 85
incidents of arson. Thirty-eight people were injured in police firing, including
six dead that included a young girl. Stray bullets fired by the police as they
were clashing with the separatists hit four members of a family sitting in the
living room of their home. TPS activists set the Durga Vilas Hotel in Abids
on fire after the hotel employees lynched an 18-year-old protestor who tried
to force the hotel’s closure.
Skirmishes between the protestors and the police went on until 10 p.m.
in the capital city. As things got out of control, the state government called
the Indian Army in and clamped curfew on the city for 33 hours. After four
days of non-stop violence, 30 people were dead, and life in the capital city of
Hyderabad came to a standstill.
TPS President Chenna Reddy, now openly using students for his
political means, demanded that the government postpone the final exams.
If the government proceeded to conduct the exams, he threatened that he
would call for another bandh, which by now everyone knew was synonymous
to large-scale violence.
India’s Home Minster Chavan abruptly ended his trip to Maharashtra
and headed back to Delhi to assess the situation in Andhra Pradesh. CM
Brahmananda Reddy also headed to Delhi for consultations with PM
Gandhi. At the end of their huddle, PM Gandhi released a statement that the
government would not yield to violence.
Chenna Reddy, for the first time, hinted the real motivation behind
his support to the Telangana movement. He announced that he was willing
to pause the Telangana movement if the president’s rule was imposed in the
state—in other words, if CM Brahmananda Reddy was removed from power.
He also set that as a precondition for any talks with the Center.
The state government got tough with the leaders of the movement
and started arresting them. "Those arrested included the Mayor of Hyderabad
Smt. Kumud Nayak, the wife of Dr. Chenna Reddy, Smt. Saavitri Devi, and
the wife of the Vice Chancellor of Osmania University Smt. J. Eshwaribhai.
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