Maoists shock to TRS

Telangana issue once again hit the headlines of all the Telugu dailies on Monday: this time, it is warning from Maoists to Telangana Rashtra Samithi not to go for an alliance with Maha Kootami.

The report was carried very prominently by all the three dailies Eenadu, Andhra Jyothi and Sakshi. It states that Maoist spokesman Sudershan wrote a letter to TRS legislator Harish Rao, stating that the party, under any circumstances, should not join Maha Kootami because Telugu Desam could not be relied upon for granting Telangana State. An alliance with Maha Kootami is nothing but burying the Telangana issue down in the earth. Eenadu presented the report in a diplomatic manner, saying Maoists advised TRS to maintain equal distance from both TD and the Congress, while Sakshi quoted Maoists as advising TRS not to fall in the trap of treacherous TD. All the dailies reported that Maoists' letter caused internal turmoil in the TRS.

The banner stories of the three dailies, however, are different. Eenadu's banner story – Maha Dopidi (Great Robbery) is an exclusive report on the State government's attempt to hand over 830 acres of prime land worth Rs 6,640 crore all along Musi river in the city to a private firm Sun City in the name of beautification of Musi area under public-private partnership. The report says farmers holding the land along the Musi river are being threatened by the land mafia to vacate for the project and the government, which initially promised to give the farmers a 20 per cent share in the project, is now trying to forcibly acquire the land by paying nominal compensation. The report went on to say that a political leader from Delhi and some State leaders are lobbying for commencing the project before the elections.

Sakshi's banner story is CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury's press conference, in which he said Telangana was not in the agenda of his party. The story, which is obviously meant to embarrass the TRS and TD leaderships and scuttle the chances of formation of Maha Kootami, has quoted Yechury as saying that his party was still committed to One-State-for-one-language speaking people policy and that if Telangana was given, there would be demand for 22 other States. The proposed alliance with TRS and TD was only meant for pulling down the Congress government in the State, Yechury said.