Attempt are being made to keep the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) remain relevant in the post-Telangana politics.
While TJAC chairman Kodandaram is planning to broaden the scope of the organization that took birth in the fight for the Telangana state, the associations of government employees, the principal constituency of the JAC, sees this is outside the purview of the activities of government employees and TJAC is redundant now. Once the employees associations quit the body, it automatically leads to the death of the organization, which coordinated various sections of the Telangana society in the movement for separate state.
JAC was formed at a time when the movement for the separate state intended to be intensified . As TRS could not become the forum for all political forces to work together, TRS president floated this organization under the leadership of Prof Kodandram, who sailed with him till then for the separate state. The leadership of Kodandram electrified the movement. It lent credence to the activities of TRS. In fact it had become extension of TRS. But, KCR deftly projected himself as the constituent of TJAC and got the program of TRS implemented as the TJAC’s program. Soon Kodandram aquired larger than life image which reportedly put him at odds with KCR. There began a gap between Kodandram and KCR and It got widened in the course of time. Finally, by the time Telangana was created in June 2014, TRS recaptured the centre stage, relegating TJAC to backburner. And Kodanram had got totally sidelined after separate Telangana state came into existence. Though many of the activists had been appointed to various offices in the government, the former president of Telangana Intellectual forum, and a noted teacher from Osmania University, Kodandram had been discarded by chief minister KCR. In the past 22 months, Kodandram has been struggling to prove that he is still relevant in Telangana state. For some time he took up the cause of farmers in the company of another noted political scientist Prof Yodendra Yadav. He attended national rally of farmers organized by Yadav in New Delhi. The move, however, failed to launch him into the post-Telangana politics, which are fully under control of TRS and chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao. The relationship of the two was so strained now that there has been no meeting between the two leaders of T-movement since the inauguration of T-state.
Against this backdrop came the shocking statement from MLA and former leader of municipal officers’ association Srinivas Goud. A founder member of TJAC, Goud said as the objective had been achieved , there was no need for the JAC. “When Telangana state is formed, and KCR is the chief minister, there is no need for government employees to continue in the JAC. All the employees’s associations in the state are unanimous to dissociate themselves with the JAC,” he said. Meanwhile, Kodandram clarified that the objective of formation TJAC was not achieved fully. ” In the post-Telangana period, the TJAC responsibility much more bigger and it has to ensure that what promised to the people during T-movement are fulfilled,” he said and added that TJAC would remain active and thrive.
