Telangana March (Sagara Haram)

As tension gripped Hyderabad on Sunday during Telangana march, a day ahead of an international summit in the city, the statehood issue threatened to go out of hand for the ruling Congress, with its ministers, including deputy chief minister, and MPs threatening to quit.

Condemning the arrests of Telangana supporters coming to Hyderabad for the march, deputy chief minister warned if people were harmed, he would not hesitate to resign. Ministers K Jana Reddy and B Saraiah met the deputy chief minister to discuss the latest situation arising out of the arrests of Telangana protesters in various districts.

They alleged the government had gone back on its word to allow peaceful march.

Jana Reddy, who played a key role in obtaining permission for the march, said the time had come for them to make a choice between the ministerial posts and the cause of Telangana.

Even Congress MPs, who were arrested twice in the day as they sat on a dharna outside chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy's residence, threatened to quit.

The Telangana Joint Action Committee which was to complete their protest march at 7 pm on Sunday decided to stay put on Necklace Road in Hyderabad until there was a decision on separate statehood. 

The crowd numbering around 1.5 lakh decided not budge unless a positive decision on Telangana was announced by the central government. The protests later turned ugly as vehicles were burned in Hyderabad and police resorted to baton charges

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders Vayalar Ravi and Ghulam Nabi Azad apprised Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde of the situation.

Shinde, who is talking to the two leaders in charge of Andhra Pradesh, in turn will brief the Congress high command following which a decision will be taken. The protestors, on the other hand, have been demanding that an announcement be made on Sunday night itself, but that appears to be unlikely.

The JAC, which is leading the protest, said that the police have lobbed tear gas shells at them, used water canons and even lathi charged them. "Let them throw bombs on us, but we won't budge from here," a JAC member said.

The police found it extremely difficult to control the crowd. They also ordered the blacking out of all regional channels in the Telangana region.

They feared that the movement will get stronger in the districts and people may try to barge into Hyderabad in larger numbers.

However, this did not bar the protestors from carrying out marches and processions in the districts.

Meanwhile  a statement issued by the JAC stated that they would not move from Hyderabad.

"We had carried out a peaceful protest, but the police used force. Had you let us carry this protest without any interference, we would have lived up to our promise and moved out of here," the statement read.

Earlier, violence erupted along the Neckalce Road in Hyderabad -- the site of Telangana march -- as the protestors went on rampage. They attacked the vehicles of the police and the media and set fire to at least three vehicles.

The vehicles set on fire include those of Sakshi TV, Doordarshan and a police van. The protestors were infuriated over the lathicharge of police against the people coming for participating in the Telangana march.

TJAC convenor Prof Kodanda Ram told the march participants that they should not move from the place till central government makes an announcement on Telangana state.

Chaos was prevailing on Hyderabad roads as the police and para-military forces closed down several routes to stop the pro-Telangana protestors from occupying the area around the Hussain Sagar lake for a massive march.

Barricades and barbed wire were laid on all the roads leading towards the area, where the Andhra Pradesh secretariat and other government offices are located.

The state government permitted the Telangana march called "Sagara Haaram" only at Necklace Road and the police allowed the protestors to enter the road from the Secunderabad side.

The closure of all other roads and refusal to various organisations to take out smaller processions towards the venue of the march created a lot of anger among the people leading to clashes.

The protestors clashed with the police near Telugu Talli statue before Tank Bund and also in front of the Prasad I-Max theater as they were stopped by the police from moving forward. The police used tear gas shells after the protestors pelted stones.

Lakhs of people, coming from all over Telangana region, were pouring on to the Necklace Road. 

They were carrying banners and flags and shouting slogans in support of a separate state.

The Telangana Joint Action Committee, the main organiser of the program, alleged that after granting permission to the march, the government and the police were now trying to sabotage it by triggering violence.

They said that more than 15 trains have bee cancelled and hundreds of buses and other vehicles were stopped to prevent the people from reaching Hyderabad.

"The police is continuously arresting the people", said Prof Kodanda Ram, the convenor of TJAC.Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and CPI-Marxist Leninist New Democracy have taken out processions with thousands of people from different places to reach the venue of the march.

A part form the political parties, organisations of government employees, lawyers, doctors, women and minorities were also participating in the march program.

However, the Osmania University students were stopped by the police and the security forces from taking out a procession from the campus leading to a violent clash between them.

The police lobbed tear gas shells and made lathi charge to disperse the violent groups of students who were pelting stones.

Meanwhile, the police detained the Congress members of Parliament from Telangana after they tried to sit on a dharna outside the residence of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in protest against the arrests of the people in Telangana.

After they were released, they again went back and started protesting there.

Meanwhile, banners and posters have come at the venue of the march threatening that the protest will not end till the central government makes an announcement on the Telangana state.

Congress' former Rajya Sabha MP K Keshava Rao said, "It is time that Congress leadership took serious note of this demand and paved way for a separate state. Else, it will lose Andhra Pradesh. The issue was not even discussed in the Congress Working Committee. We were made to believe that there would be an announcement on statehood before September 30. But that has come to a naught. All MPs are here in the police lock up with me, and nobody would hesitate to quit for this cause."

The party MPs squarely blamed Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan for Congress dithering on statehood. 

Congress MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi said, "The Congress president had held a meeting over Telangana with the core group. It was decided that the chief minister would hold an allparty meeting. But the governor went to Delhi and played a spoilsport. He has told the party high command that Telangana movement will peter out if the demand is ignored." Keshava Rao added the governor's report that granting a separate state would fuel Maoist activity in newly carved Telangana has also hurt the cause.

Congress legislators and MPs fear that if the party leadership drags its feet on the demand, Congress could fritter away the entire state. Keshava Rao said, "It is Congress that has always been at the forefront with the promise of Telangana state. We included it in our manifesto. On December 9, 2009, then home minister P Chidambaram had announced that the process would be kickstarted soon. We even had all-party meetings. So, it is Congress' issue. The recent byelection results show that if the party does not take note of the situation, we will lose the entire state".