Though it might have started as part of the self-respect movement by some Dalit organisations, the beef festival in Osmania University and the following clashes between students’ groups are fast acquiring political overtones. TRS and BJP, the latest rivals on the political horizon of Telangana, after the latter’s dramatic victory in Mahbubnagar bypolls, suspect each other for the trouble and are busy drawing strategies to make electoral gains out of the incident.
“Whoever behind the trouble has a clear objective of nipping the realignment of political and social forces in the region that began with the Mahbubn-agar polls,” BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy told this newspaper. In its usual style, the BJP sought to distance itself from what the ABVP activists did to disrupt the beef festival on the campus.
The BJP, indeed, suspects a foul play, designed to trigger a feud between the party and strong sections of Dalits, including Madigas, who openly extended support to the BJP candidate in Mahbubnagar by dragging it into the OU clashes.
A section of students burnt Mr Kishan Reddy's effigy holding him responsible for the clashes.
The TRS, on the other hand, sees a potential threat from the BJP which has been attempting to emerge as an alternative Telangana political force, taking a cue from the Mahbubnagar result.
The TRS already earned the wrath of leaders of other political parties for not leaving any space for them in the Telangana agitation so that the former alone could reap political benefits out of the agitation.
Maintaining that the BJP got benefited out of polarisation of voters on communal lines in Mahbubnagar, a senior TRS leader said there was nothing wrong in adopting a political strategy that would further polarise the majority community on caste lines. He also held the aggressive posture of the Hindutva forces responsible for the series of recent clashes.
It may be a coincidence but Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and Telangana Jagruti chief K. Kavitha went on a two-day hunger strike demanding Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s statue be installed in the Assembly premises.
The apolitical Telangana supporters, however, see a setback for the agitation in the clashes. “Till yesterday, the strong sentiment of a separate state kept all the ideologically divergent gro-ups united. As the Telan-gana gets delayed these groups revived their issue-based fights,” social activist Prof Haragopal opined.