Its Father, Son, Grandson for 'Rajanna'

The film ‘Rajanna’ has been getting a lot of curiosity. The reason for that is the presence of Nagarjuna in the project and also the period backdrop during the Telangana agitation time. Now, another highlight is part of the film. This is about three generations working for the same film.

Apparently, Nag who is back into Twitter has given a tweet which goes -My favourite song in Rajanna is gijigadu/just can't stop humming it/Wish I could sing :(.

Now, this Gijjigadu…number was written by Siva Dutta, father of music director M M Keeravani. Incidentally, the music for ‘Rajanna’ is being composed by M M Keeravani. And finally, Keeravani’s son Kalabhairava has reportedly rendered the song. Not many know about this family link.

As such, Siva Datta is from Kovvur but he wrote with a strong Telangana feel keeping in view 1948 era. Siva Datta also happens to be a very well know poet of his time and even the great Vishwanadha Satyanarayana also appreciated him for his works. That way, three generations are making the most out of it.

Telangana Agitation Loses Sting

The agitation for separate Telangana state appears to have lost its sting and the agitators seem to be disgusted with the attitude of the leaders.
That is the opinion one would get going by the agitation programmes announced by the Telangana political joint action committee after its steering committee meeting on Thursday.
According to the programme announced by TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram, the Telangana people would observe “Telangana self-respect day” on December 9 to recall the announcement of Telangana state formation by home minister P Chidambaram on the same day two years ago.
A Telangana flag would be hoisted at Gun Park in front of the assembly in the morning and there would be candle light programme from evening to midnight.
The Osmania University students would sit on one-day fast on the same day. On December 23, the people would observe Telangana betrayal day to protest the withdrawal of Telangana statement by Chidambaram.
If one were to call these programmes as intensifying the Telangana agitation, then one can say the agitaton has lost its sting. One can easily understand what impact to they have on the Centre’s decision making on the Telangana.

The Telangana blame game

High on emotions, low on pragmatism

Two years have passed since the Union Home Minister had made that fateful announcement on Telangana on December 9, 2009. Since then political and social events have overtaken the Telugu society in such a profound manner that the state is still struggling with the intractable issue.
Separate state supporters understandably feel cheated that the Centre failed to keep up its commitment. They underline the fact that the statement was made in the floor of the Parliament. They see a conspiracy by vested interests of Andhra origin for the promise getting stuck in a bottomless pit.
But a dispassionate review of the events leading to the announcement and subsequent developments probably gives us an idea of what led the UPA government to renege on its assurance. The December 9 statement is of course crystal clear:
“The process of forming the state of Telangana will be initiated. An appropriate resolution will be moved In the state assembly.”
When Chidambaram made this rather straightforward statement, he was clearly under the impression that there was a general political consensus among all parties. The reason for this belief was the minutes of the all-party-meet sent to him earlier.
Technically speaking, however, there was no unanimity on the issue of division of state since ruling Congress, MIM and Lok Satta did not give their clear opinion on the issue, while CPM actually opposed the division. But what seems to have weighed in the mind of the Centre was TDP’s ready acceptance to the proposal.
But when TDP went back on its stand, and other parties, including Congress and PRP, coming together against the announcement in Andhra region, all hell broke loose. It was then that the Centre seems to have understood the complexity of the ground situation. The December 23 statement was self-explanatory on this count:
“However, after the statement, the situation in Andhra Pradesh has altered. A large number of political parties are divided on the issue.”
Since then, the T advocates have been blaming the Centre in general and Chidambaram in particular for the change in stand. They continue to refer to December 9 statement in isolation. However, the Home Minister himself clarified on the apparent contradiction:
“When you refer to my statement on December 9, 2009, you should kindly also refer to the December 23, 2009 statement.”
It might be true that Andhra and Rayalaseema politicians came in the way of division of the state immediately after 2009 statement. But since then, a whole lot of factors played a role in the Centre not going ahead with the formation of separate Telangana.
They include the difficulty in forging a consensus, finding a basis for further division of linguistic states, apprehensions over the political fall-out for the Congress in the state and the fear of opening of a Pandora’s Box with such a decision.
However, the hardcore Telangana activists continue to harp on the ‘betrayal’ of the Centre and the ‘conspiracy’ of Seemandhra capitalists’. Such caricaturing of the situation might help political mobilization for the cause and even help TRS keep the T-pot boiling till next elections, but such a construction of the developments is twice-removed from reality.
As Chidambaram repeatedly said on the issue, the agenda for now could only be to “deliberate on the mechanism and lay down a road map for the consultations.” That can take place only when charged atmosphere cools down and political parties play down emotional content and focus on pragmatic solutions to the issue.
Once bitten hard, the UPA government is twice shy.

Friends in need??

Forced friendship?

What is the understanding between KCR and Jagan? The question has popped up once again following Chiranjeevi’s allegation over his MLAs being lured by YSR Congress Party during the no-confidence motion in the Assembly recently.
Chiranjeevi alleged that Jagan had tried to win over the support of some of his MLAs with the promise of giving his party tickets in case of disqualification. “Jagan even assured them that he could get TRS Party tickets if they preferred to contest from that party,” the PRP leader said at a press conference.
PRP has two MLAs from Telangana region; Maheshwar Reddy from Nirmal in Adilabad district and Anil from Balkonda in Nizamabad district. Chiru is obviously referring to both or one of them.”How they could give such assurances is something we don’t understand,” Chiru said in dismay.
While this is the latest alleged instance of a secret pact between Jagan and KCR, it has been public knowledge that the two parties never crossed paths nor targeted the other politically in the last many months.
While KCR and his party treat TDP as enemy number one, followed by selective criticism of Congress leadership, they never touched Jagan with a barge pole dispite the fact that YSR Congress Party’s position on the issue of division is no different from that of Chandrababu Naidu.
After the Manukota incident in which Jagan was not allowed to land in Telangana, lot of water seems to have flowed under the political bridge for these parties.
Observers say that clearly there is some kind of tacit understanding between KCR and Jagan for mutual political benefit. One will not step on to the other’s political turf, as both believe that they are ahead of others in their respective regions.
Politics does indeed make strange bed fellows, and the immediate political exigencies seem to have led to a truce – some allege a nexus – between the two parties. How long will this distance love affair continues is anybody’s guess.

A close look on Namaste Telangana

Lakshmi Rajam of Namaste Telangana

Namaste Telangana was launched by KCR six months back as part of his ambitious plans to dominate Telangana in all spheres of life. T News Channel was already owned by KCR, but the impact that a newspaper could make and the prestige associated with print media were the reasons for the TRS chief to take up the rather tough venture.
Initially, KCR had to face problems in mobilizing money for the capital-intensive industry. He sought the help of Telangana NRIs and several of them were said to have come forward to contribute to the venture. But when Lakshmi Rajam of Sew Infrastructure came forward to provide a lion’s share of the funding, KCR went ahead.
Namaste Telangana was launched with a lot of fanfare in July last. Expectations were high as the paper was riding on the popularity of TRS as well as the flourishing Telangana nationalism. The promoters were so confident that they declared Namaste Telangana would kick off with a record breaking 7 lakh circulation on launch.
However, the situation has changed considerably since then. The circulation figures dropped alarmingly. The costs of running the paper are so high that KCR could not cope up with the financial pressure. It was then – barely three months after the launch – that KCR had decided to hand over the management of the paper.
Lakshmi Rajam, an engineer who hails from Karimnagar – became the chairman and managing director and since then running the paper which – like all other upcoming papers – has been incurring losses. As is public knowledge by now, Rajam was a partner in the Sew Infrastructure which bagged the Polavaram contract for Rs 4,300 cr.
When Rajam took over, it was assumed that the paper might change its aggressive and one-sided editorial policy and adopt a more ‘balanced’ approach even while being pro-Telangana. However, it happened in some degree but not in kind. The reason is simple. The paper still owes its allegiance to KCR and TRS. It cannot appropriate the ‘Telangana heart-beat’ tag without the active support of the party and its cadres.
And remember, KCR still continues as a partner though he might not be involved in day-to-day affairs.
No wonder, the paper continues to be as shrill, as biased and as opinionated as the other dailies that it so routinely dubs as ‘Seemandhra’ papers. But it ca be safely surmised that over a period of time, Namaste Telangana will transform itself into another mainstream paper, given that Rajam cannot afford to make enemies in the government given his status as a businessman.
For the time being, however, Namaste Telangana, presently struggling at less than one third of its expected circulation at the launch, cannot ‘independent’ in the traditional sense.