Telangana JAC without Congress not weak: C Kodandaram

The Joint Action Committee (JAC), spearheading the separate Telangana agitation, today said the exit of the the ruling Congress has not weakened its movement.

"Non-party forums have been playing a leading role in the movement. Congress leaders were confined to lobbying in Delhi. It helped to some extent. But the absence of Congress would not make much of a difference as far as the movement is
concerned," JAC convener C Kodandaram told PTI here.

He said the Telangana agitation was initiated by non-party forums in 1996 and the movement got a push with the formation of TRS in 2001 and parties like BJP supporting it.

"The non-party forums were revived after 2004 and they are playing a creative and major role," he said. The exit of the Congress from the JAC, he said, would give a clear direction to the pro-Telangana agitation and actually help strengthen the movement with other parties and non-party forums playing an effective role, he said.

Kodandaram said the JAC decided to boycott the Srikrishna committee as it cannot rely on it, as a political decision has to be taken on the demand for Telangana.

"We cannot rely on the Srikrishna committee because a political decision has to be taken on the Telangana issue."

"The lobbying by the non-Telangana regions might succeed in stopping the formation of Telangana," he said commenting on a remark of VK Duggal, member-secretary of the Committee that
those boycotting the committee might rethink once they understood the intent of the panel.

The JAC stuck to its decision of public representatives submitting their resignations to mount pressure on the Centre, he said. The Telugu Desam should also clarify its position on the issue of resignations, the JAC convener said.

Rejecting the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Srikrishna Committee, the JAC directed that all public representatives from Telangana should quit their posts.

Accordingly ten TRS MLAs, two Congress MLAs and one legislator each from TDP, BJP and Praja Rajyam submitted their resignations. The Speaker has accepted the resignations of 10 TRS MLAs, one TDP MLA and one BJP MLA.

Disagreeing with the decision to quit, the ruling Congress walked out the JAC, while the Telugu Desam insists that its legislators would quit only if their Congress counterparts did so.