Protest is a birth right. I totally agree. And having understood the Telangana imbroglio I truly empathise with those who feel cheated. And I have done everything in my strength to support the cause.

After all, I AM a Hyderabadi by upbringing. And my wife is from Nalgonda. My children don’t even know what the other two parts of AP look like, except what they have seen in Konaseema Dance Sequences and Rayalaseema Faction Feuds.

So I echo the sentiments of Jai Telangana. Let there be no doubt about that.

But where I take umbrage and differ from the so called leaders of the Telangana Movement is in the method they have adopted to spark off madness.

The movement has degenerated to one of utterly disruptive protests. It has fostered violence and skulduggery all in the name of a noble cause. And it is being masterminded by people who have no ideals, no values, no real concern for the issue they have championed or seem to be championing. It is at the heart of it a race to see who can milk the issue driest and to whose advantage.

If one man has formed a party and built a palace with donations and has his family being ferried around in Audis and Bentleys, the senior members of the ruling party are posturing for all that they are worth hoping that in the new state, they will be recognised and rewarded.

Will the lot of the common man of Telangana improve after separate statehood is granted. I don’t think so. Will the so called leaders benefit. They already have.

Does the movement have anyone of the stature of Potti Sreeramulu? No. At most they have children of the erstwhile leaders of the cause who were shamelessly bought off over the years, and all these kids want is a chance at the jackpot.

So we have dramas being enacted. Biryani being cooked on the road. Bandhs being called for. Resignation dramas being enacted. All yielding a net result which is in the vicinity of zero.

If the kind of activities this bunch has indulged in is any indication, the management of Telangana State will first fall into the hands of cheap crooks and roadside daadaas. Only after the systematic draining of resources will any real management team be allowed to fall into place. And by then it maybe too little, too late.

My question is simple. Everyone seems to be reading the same writing on the wall. Everyone is in agreement about the quality (or lack of) manpower at the helm of the agitation. Everything from existing business to future prospects have suffered. But life goes on regardless.

Who is going to take the matter seriously and stop this nonsense of pushing idols into the hussain sagar? Who is going to say with confidence that Telangana deserves better, and have the gonads to prove that THEY have it.

I hope this realisation dawns soon. Jai Ho. Jai Telangana.