“Quest for Telangana Development”
A seminar on “Quest for Telangana Development”, probably
first of its kind in Houston, was successfully organized in Houston on July 14th,
as part of TDF-USA nationwide lecture circuit. It was attended by over 50 people despite being conducted on
a Friday evening on a short notice. Attendees included people from all corners
of the sprawling city of Houston and its suburbs, not to mention one from
Austin.
The seminar was kicked off with the screening of “Still
Seeking Justice”, an excellent documentary on Telangana’s past and present. Pratap
Erabelli, one of the organizers, delivered welcome note and invited speakers to
the podium. Mr Muralidhar Rao Janagama, a retired LIC officer living in Houston
for the past 6 years, introduced speakers Mr. R. Vidyasagar Rao, a retired
Chief Engineer who is well known for his book titled “Neellu-Nijaalu”, and Prof
Harinath Polasa, a retired Professor of Political Science who has long been associated
with the Telangana struggle.
Mr. Vidyasagar Rao took over the presentation from where
the documentary left off. His methodical treatment of various facts explaining
gross inequality in the distribution of water has left the audience wondering
how this was tolerated for so long. Prof. Polasa’s subsequent talk about other
issues and problems the people of Telangana have been subjected to, for 50 long
years, had set the tone for a very involved and thought provoking Q&A
session.
A program that was originally slated for 2 hours almost
ran into 4 hours with no one looking to retire to the dinner buffet that had
been waiting for them all along. While there were some intense moments when
discussing “the apathy of Telangana leaders all along”, “does separate
Telangana really help?”, “should Hyderabad remain with Telangana?” and so on,
one could easily see the mood changing from “Why Telangana!” to “Why not
Telangana!”.
Since the venue’s closing hours have already been
extended beyond normal hours, organizers Pratap Erabelli and Ashok Manikonda
didn’t have a choice but to call it a day. The meeting left a lot of the
attendees hungry for more such informative discussions.
Bhasker Rao, Vamshi Jangama, Niranjan, Sudheer Gandra,
Malla Mekala, Subra Kadiyala, Vijay Miryala, Rahul Reddy and several other
volunteers helped the evening go without a hitch. Without their constant
support and the tireless efforts of TDF teams/executive members support such a
special evening would not have been possible.