Congress MP from Vijayawada Lagadapati Rajagopal has forwarded a dozen books written by Telangana authors and a few CDs of films portraying the Telangana history to Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, to make his point that the movement has been ‘instigated' by dominant castes and classes to further their own vested interests.
He said in an accompanying letter to Mr. Rao, a copy of which was released to the press, the Telangana movement was the creation of ‘feudal' forces which had to forego their privileges after integration of the State. He said the 12 books and the CDs he was sending to Mr. Rao proved exploitation of the Telangana masses by the ‘doras', ‘patels' and ‘patwaris' as portrayal of those incidents were clear. The unbridled feudal exploitation of the masses was the basic feature that dominated the socio-economic life of Telangana people, he said, adding that the poor and underprivileged sections were deprived of freedom and dignity.
Political freedom
The formation of Visalandhra brought them freedom and dignity. He said in 1948, people of Telangana achieved political freedom from the Nizam while implementation of the Land Ceiling Act in the 70s was ‘second freedom' for them and went on to add that abolition of ‘Patel-Patwari' system in the 80s ushered in third freedom.
The MP said prior to the formation of Andhra Pradesh, the working class in Telangana led a pathetic life that was all about oppression, agony, suffering and misery. “There is no parallel in the history of India to the Telangana Armed Struggle – the peasants' struggle against feudal oppression and slavery which claimed over 5,000 lives,” he said.
He said Mr. Rao must read the books and get the facts straight instead of misleading people.
