HYDERABAD: Thirty-five days after it began and just when it seemed to have the state government on the mat, the Telangana Sakala Janula Samme showed signs of coming unravelled Monday.One union after another succumbed to the second thoughts sown in their ranks by the government over the past week.Some like the teachers and the Singareni miners have called off their participation in the strike entirely.The union of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation vowed to stay the course, but the biggest component of the Samme, the government employees, seemed impaled on the horns of a dilemma.Out loud, its leaders said brave words, but the ranks were restive. The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), which had steered the strike for well over a month, met at Marx Bhavan at Vidyanagar Monday evening, and vowed the agitation would continue and get intensified in fact. However, the citizens of Hyderabad saw little of that intensity in Monday’s bandh, a course correction that TJAC had announced after calling off its rail roko on the second of its three days.With the buses exempted anyway, the autos not really participating, and shops cocking a snook, the band had little impact.This led many to ask why the TJAC itself seemed to want to take the sting out of its samme. Late in the evening, TJAC leaders M/s Kodandaram and K Chandrasekhar Rao erected Telangana Congress leaders as the hate figures.Although they denied that the Samme was slackening and affirmed that the government staff strike would continue, second-rung leaders unwittingly contradicted them by blaming Congress leaders of Telangana for holding talks with Seemandhra regulars K V P Ramachandra Rao and Lagadapati Rajagopal to break the strike.“There cannot be anything more shameful than this,” said Nayani Narasimha Reddy. Kodandaram said the objective of the Samme will now be to “bury for the Congress for good.“Our slogan will be Congress ko khatam karo, Telangana ko hasil karo,” the Prof said. Be that as it may, the reality is that the government employees are having second thoughts.With the RTC staff, miners and teachers buckling under, there is less heart in the Telangana Employees JAC (TEJAC). Sources said employees are utterly disappointed with the way TJAC has handled the movement, particularly its coordination of the various groups within.“What’s the point in participating in the strike if various organisations start backing out one after another at a time when the movement was going strong.TJAC should have kept them together,” said a TEJAC leader. Employees were angry with the TJAC for suspending the rail roko and calling a bandh which was enforced without any conviction.Another factor that’s working on their minds is the government’s warnings of sacking contract employees and action against staff leaders.
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