Kodandaram insists on rally at Indira Park Dharna Chowk

The youth who were preparing to participate in the rally were those who had participated in the agitation for separate state. It is condemnable that they are now being projected as violent and rowdy elements. If the million march was a wrong step, then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao should also take the responsibility for that since he was part of that agitation. –Prof M Kodandaram, TJAC chairman

​Hyderabad: Defying prohibitory orders imposed by the police, the Telangana Joint Action Committee has decided to go ahead with its rally of the unemployed youth at Indira Park on Wednesday.

TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram said the rally to demand the state government to fulfill its promise of one lakh jobs will be held as planned in the heart of the city even as the police made it clear that there is no permission for the rally. Kodandaram said though the High Court had asked them to hold the meeting at Nagole Metro rail grounds, it was not feasible to do so at the eleventh hour.

Police forces have been drafted from across the state and the area around Indira Park has been taken under control by the police. Water cannons and barricades have been kept ready. The Rapid Action Force has also been kept ready.

In a day of twists and turns, the High Court permitted the meeting to be held in Nagole keeping in mind the inconvenience people may be subjected to if held in heart of city. Telangana Advocate-General K Ramakrishna Reddy informed the court about the violence in the past, the vandalisation of statues on Tank Bund.

Taking strong exception to the stand taken by the police and the government, Prof Kodandaram said that it would not be possible to hold the meeting at Nagole as they do not have time even to erect the dais. The government’s attitude, he said, was against democratic norms.

He said they had applied for permission for the rally and public meeting on February 1 but the police sat on it all these days. Despite repeated reminders, they neither accorded the permission nor did they reject it. He said the stand taken by the police and government that it could lead to violence and that the rallyists may indulge in vandalism was baseless and unfounded.

The youth who were preparing to participate in the rally were those who had participated in the agitation for separate state. It is condemnable that they were now being projected as violent and rowdy elements. If the million march was a wrong step, then Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao should also take the responsibility for that since he was part of that agitation.

He said that during the last two-and-a-half years the government had held several programmes in L B Stadium. It had also given permission for another big meeting on February 26 at Nizam College grounds. The government has become intolerant to criticism and had hence denied permission to TJAC, he said.

Kodandaram said Nizam College authorities were willing to permit them to hold the meeting in the college grounds but backed out under pressure from the police. Alternatively, the TJAC sought permission to hold the meeting in OU campus since it would not cause any inconvenience to any citizen.

The TJAC chairman said the police and the government seem to be determined to foil their attempts and muzzle the voice of democracy. But they too are equally determined to go ahead with their plans to hold the rally and meeting. He said even while the issue of permission was pending in the court, the police since Monday had arrested over 600 people and large-scale arrests could take place by Wednesday morning, he said.

He said if the rally was allowed to be held as planned earlier about 15,000 youth would have participated and some eminent speakers like Chukka Ramaiah, Prof Haragopal, Prof Purushottam Reddy, Zaheer Ali Khan and Rama Melkote would have expressed their views and the meeting would have concluded by passing a declaration demanding immediate announcement of schedule to fill the vacancies, come out with a calendar for holding competitive exams, demand for regularisation of contract and outsourcing employees. “I fail to understand why the government is so scared,” he said.

However, he called upon the youth to stage peaceful protests where ever they are arrested by police. The TRS which had condemned similar acts of the previous government in undivided Andhra Pradesh was doing the same thing, he said.