Why Telangana civil platforms issued call for the defeat of BRS and BJP?

• Is there any impact of these organisations’ call on the election?
• Why these organisations are taking active part in the election?
• Are Democracy and civil rights in Telangana in danger?
• Oppose the undemocratic, corrupt rule of BRS that betrayed Telangana aspirations
• Stop BJP which is undermining India’s Constitution and spreading hatred
• Call upon voters to use  vote to teach a lesson to undemocratic rulers

Civil society platforms, in general, used to distance from the elections and politics and they would prefer to act as whistle-blowers when the malpractices, corruption and violence touched its peak levels in the society. One can see the pro-active role of these platforms during Telangana movement when they stood in the front line insisting for the formation of Telangana. After Telangana formation, they have gone back to their regular activities and did not intervene much in the governance of BRS in Telangana.

Surprisingly, they met and gave a joint-call to vote against BRS and BJP in the Telangana assembly elections. It may be recalled that thousands of professionals including advocates, teachers, scribes and youth jumped into the T-movement during 2004-2014 and succeeded in achieving separate Telangana. The joint call by them is expected to have much impact on the elections.

On the occasion of the upcoming Telangana assembly elections, all the leaders of the prominent civil society platforms of Telangana held a press meet in Hyderabad and gave a joint call to the citizens of Telangana. Leaders of platforms like Telangana People’s JAC, Jago Telangana, Muslim Organizations JAC, Telangana Samakhya, Bharat Bachao, Bharat Jodo Abhiyan and other leaders of popular movements participated, including some of the most eminent persons highly respected across society and who played a key role in Telangana movement. Nearly 100 organizations are part of the group, and they are doing various campaigns and public outreach programs before the Assembly elections.

“Citizens of the state should strongly oppose the BRS party, which has betrayed the aspirations of the separate Telangana achieved by the democratic struggle of lakhs of people. The BRS government exploited the people’s resources with autocratic rule and corruption, and betrayed the students and unemployed youth. For the government to be accountable to the people, the people should use their vote in this election in such a way as to teach a lesson to the rulers,” said the civil society leaders.

The platforms like Bharath Bachao led by Dr. M F Gopinath, Telangana Prajala Joint Action Committee led by Prof. K Haragopal, Jago Telangana of Akunuri Murali, Prajaswamyam of Desai Karunakar, Palamuru Adyana Vedika convenor  Raghavachari, P JAC- Kiran and veteran journalist Pasam Yadagiri were among those who gave the joint call.

“The fiasco of the Kaleshwaram project whose pillars collapsed due to faulty design after spending more than 1 lakh crores, the stubborn attitude of not recognizing the 22 lakh tenant farmers, the TSPSC scam, failure to fill vacant posts in all departments including teachers, closure of thousands of schools, failure of many schemes like two bedroom houses, Dalit Bandhu, three-acre land for Dalits, encouraging consumption of alcohol destroying families – all these are the epitome of governance failure of this government besides the unilateralism of the Chief Minister. The dictatorial style of administration is continuing with a repressive atmosphere in the state, attempts to silence people’s organizations and opposition who criticize the government, and refusal to listen even to the officials and experts”, they said in the joint call.

“At the same time, under the BJP rule at the Centre, the prices of essential commodities such as cooking gas, petrol and diesel have gone up and unemployment has increased in the country. With policies like anti-farmer laws, demonetization, privatization of public sector units, and handing over all the country’s resources to big corporates like Adani, the BJP government has proved itself to be against the common people and pro-corporate. Moreover, CBI, ED, and Income Tax are being unleashed on civil society organizations, individuals and even media organizations criticizing the policies of the government. Not only is there an attack on constitutional rights, there is a plan to change the Constitution of India itself. People should understand the nature of the BJP party which is inciting inter-religious hatred, attacking Muslims, Christians and Dalits and perpetuating violence in Manipur. It is our duty to oppose BJP party in Telangana state,” the leaders of the platforms called upon the people of Telangana. BRS and BJP parties are coordinating their actions behind the scenes, so there is a need to oppose both parties together.

The civil society leaders said that whichever party comes to power in Telangana, they will continue to fight for the people’s problems and hold the government accountable. They appealed that in Telangana, which is the land of movements, all the people should develop the quality of questioning and the courage to protest, only then they can protect democracy and the interests of the people.

Following are the key participants:

Prof. Haragopal, Convener, Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee (TPJAC)

Akunuri Murali, Convener, Jago Telangana

Adv. Nirup Reddy, President, Telangana Samakhya

Dr. M.F.Gopinath, Bharat Bachao

Salim Pasha, Muslim Organizations JAC

Prof. Padmaja Shaw, Co-Convenor, Jago Telangana

Kirankumar Vissa, Bharat Jodo Abhiyan

Kanneganti Ravi, Co-Convenor, TPJAC

Ambati Nagaiah, Co-Convenor, TPJAC

Ravi Chander, Co-convenor, TPJAC

Pasham Yadagiri, Senior Journalist, Telangana Samakhya leader

Karunakar Desai, Telangana Samakhya leader

Adv. Mohd. Sadiq Ali, senior High Court advocate

N. Raghava Chari, Convener, Palamuru Adhyayana Kendram

Chandra Shekhar, leader of the movement against the Chittanur Ethanol Company(eom)