Why Pawan Kalyan told Telangana politicians state 'not their jagir'
The Jana Sena Party's re-entry attempt in Telangana is raising the political heat even as it was denied a mass event in Hyderabad on the state's formation day
The 12th anniversary of Telangana statehood became the occasion for reappearance of regional sentiment and flare-up of political animosity again as Jana Sena Party (JSP) supremo Pawan Kalyan asserted his right to operate in the state.
Kalyan, Andhra Pradesh’s deputy chief minister and a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner, reaffirmed that the JSP would remain active in Telangana and contest the Hyderabad civic body polls this year as well as the assembly elections due in two and half years, “with or without alliances”.
Kalyan’s announcement came amidst some Telangana activists and leaders of the ruling Congress questioning his political purpose here. Kalyan, a massively popular star of the Telugu film industry based out of Hyderabad, hails from Andhra.
In a media address at his Jubilee Hills residence on June 2, the Telangana formation day, Kalyan stated that “regionalism, when taken to extremes, becomes [more] dangerous than terrorism”. He expressed anguish over his party’s planned peaceful meeting at Gachibowli in Hyderabad being denied permission by Telangana authorities.
The Cyberabad police had denied permission for Kalyan’s ‘Telangana Nava Nirmana Sankalpa Sabha’, planned on June 2, citing a ‘substantial threat’ to law and order and public peace. The police communicated to the JSP that tensions and animosities had escalated across Telangana following the recent remarks by former Telangana MLC and noted political commentator Prof. K. Nageshwar on Kalyan’s alleged meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah, and the subsequent registration of criminal cases against Nageshwar in Andhra Pradesh (on the basis of JSP leaders’ complaints).
Thus, citing a high possibility of protests and demonstrations if the JSP meeting was held coinciding with Telangana formation day, the state police rejected permission.
In a TV news debate, Nageshwar had reportedly claimed that Pawan met Shah seeking action against/arrest of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, but the latter refused to intervene terming Jagan Reddy as a “a long-term friend”.
The JSP, including Kalyan, had condemned Nageshwar’s comments as baseless. With his public meeting not allowed, Kalyan chose to address people through the media from his residence to convey his point and chart out his Telangana plans. Responding to the ‘censure’ faced in Telangana, he asserted that the state was very much part of India and belonged to every citizen.
“Telangana is not anyone’s ayya jagir (father’s private fief),” Kalyan remarked as he accused some politicians of exploiting the sensitive situation. He pointed out that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi could contest elections from Kerala, Indira Gandhi from Medak in south India and P.V. Narasimha Rao from Andhra Pradesh with grand support, and the Telangana-based Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) could form party units in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, with its chief touring there.
“What then is this argument barring me from Telangana?” Kalyan demanded to know. “What hypocrisy is this? Do Indians need passports to move from one state to another now?”
Kalyan declared that political opposition would only make him more resolute to be active in Telangana—not for power but to question the ‘injustices’ meted out to its people. He reminded politicians how he had supported Telangana statehood aspirations back in 2008-09 and toured the remote and Maoist-affected regions.
JSP leaders, in conversations with INDIA TODAY, said their meeting was planned in Hyderabad for Kalyan to assure the huge bloc of party activists and supporters that their aspirations would be take care of. According to them, Telangana formation day was thought to be apt to announce the JSP’s big political re-entry into the state.
The JSP was in Telangana electoral fray before—the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2023 state polls when it contested eight assembly seats in alliance with the BJP. One of them in Hyderabad—Kukatpally—is an area with a high concentration of settlers from Andhra Pradesh, mostly employed in the IT sector.
In the 2020 polls to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the JSP, withdrawing plans to contest, had supported the BJP, thus aiding the latter’s surge in the Hyderabad civic body.
Unsurprisingly then, Telangana BJP leaders, including president Ramchander Rao, have criticised the Congress government and the police for denial of permission to the JSP to hold its June 2 meeting. “It reflects the Emergency mindset of the Congress. Pawan Kalyan is barred even as permissions are accorded for communal hatemongering by the Owaisis (Asaduddin Owaisi’s party) and Urban Naxals,” Rao alleged.
Meanwhile, Kalyan’s “is Telangana your jagir?” remarks drew a sharp censure from Congress leaders. “Mr Pawan Kalyan, yes, Telangana is the jagir of the 40 million people here, not your father’s,” retorted transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar.
Mahesh Goud, who heads the Congress unit in Telangana, suspected ‘invisible political forces’ as behind Kalyan’s attempts at a political re-entry in Telangana.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao joined the heated discourse, asserting that Telangana belonged to its people and warning against attempts to undermine the spirit and sacrifices behind the Telangana statehood movement.
Responding to Kalyan’s comments on regionalism, KTR questioned why the Telangana movement was being portrayed negatively while similar movements elsewhere were celebrated. “If regionalism is dangerous, was Potti Sriramulu’s 58-day-long fast demanding a separate Andhra state regionalism too?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu too joined the debate, strongly in support of his ally and deputy. "The two states have been separated for 12 years now. What is the need for unnecessary, irresponsible statements [against Pawan Kalyan] that could fuel regional sentiments again, aggravating hostilities?" Naidu asked, indirectly chiding Telangana leaders, while calling for a constructive political culture and healthy competition between the two states.
Analysts are watching with interest Kalyan’s attempts to be active in Telangana again, given the JSP leader’s self-admittance that his party’s power and influence have been limited in Andhra Pradesh even if he is the deputy chief minister of the state.
What the JSP gains electorally in Telangana is a moot question, but it appears that the regional sentiments and bitterness between politicians of the two Telugu states is only going to get stronger.
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The 12th anniversary of Telangana statehood became the occasion for reappearance of regional sentiment and flare-up of political animosity again as Jana Sena Party (JSP) supremo Pawan Kalyan asserted his right to operate in the state.
Kalyan, Andhra Pradesh’s deputy chief minister and a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner, reaffirmed that the JSP would remain active in Telangana and contest the Hyderabad civic body polls this year as well as the assembly elections due in two and half years, “with or without alliances”.
Kalyan’s announcement came amidst some Telangana activists and leaders of the ruling Congress questioning his political purpose here. Kalyan, a massively popular star of the Telugu film industry based out of Hyderabad, hails from Andhra.
In a media address at his Jubilee Hills residence on June 2, the Telangana formation day, Kalyan stated that “regionalism, when taken to extremes, becomes [more] dangerous than terrorism”. He expressed anguish over his party’s planned peaceful meeting at Gachibowli in Hyderabad being denied permission by Telangana authorities.
The Cyberabad police had denied permission for Kalyan’s ‘Telangana Nava Nirmana Sankalpa Sabha’, planned on June 2, citing a ‘substantial threat’ to law and order and public peace. The police communicated to the JSP that tensions and animosities had escalated across Telangana following the recent remarks by former Telangana MLC and noted political commentator Prof. K. Nageshwar on Kalyan’s alleged meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah, and the subsequent registration of criminal cases against Nageshwar in Andhra Pradesh (on the basis of JSP leaders’ complaints).
Thus, citing a high possibility of protests and demonstrations if the JSP meeting was held coinciding with Telangana formation day, the state police rejected permission.
In a TV news debate, Nageshwar had reportedly claimed that Pawan met Shah seeking action against/arrest of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, but the latter refused to intervene terming Jagan Reddy as a “a long-term friend”.
The JSP, including Kalyan, had condemned Nageshwar’s comments as baseless. With his public meeting not allowed, Kalyan chose to address people through the media from his residence to convey his point and chart out his Telangana plans. Responding to the ‘censure’ faced in Telangana, he asserted that the state was very much part of India and belonged to every citizen.
“Telangana is not anyone’s ayya jagir (father’s private fief),” Kalyan remarked as he accused some politicians of exploiting the sensitive situation. He pointed out that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi could contest elections from Kerala, Indira Gandhi from Medak in south India and P.V. Narasimha Rao from Andhra Pradesh with grand support, and the Telangana-based Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) could form party units in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, with its chief touring there.
“What then is this argument barring me from Telangana?” Kalyan demanded to know. “What hypocrisy is this? Do Indians need passports to move from one state to another now?”
Kalyan declared that political opposition would only make him more resolute to be active in Telangana—not for power but to question the ‘injustices’ meted out to its people. He reminded politicians how he had supported Telangana statehood aspirations back in 2008-09 and toured the remote and Maoist-affected regions.
JSP leaders, in conversations with INDIA TODAY, said their meeting was planned in Hyderabad for Kalyan to assure the huge bloc of party activists and supporters that their aspirations would be take care of. According to them, Telangana formation day was thought to be apt to announce the JSP’s big political re-entry into the state.
The JSP was in Telangana electoral fray before—the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2023 state polls when it contested eight assembly seats in alliance with the BJP. One of them in Hyderabad—Kukatpally—is an area with a high concentration of settlers from Andhra Pradesh, mostly employed in the IT sector.
In the 2020 polls to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the JSP, withdrawing plans to contest, had supported the BJP, thus aiding the latter’s surge in the Hyderabad civic body.
Unsurprisingly then, Telangana BJP leaders, including president Ramchander Rao, have criticised the Congress government and the police for denial of permission to the JSP to hold its June 2 meeting. “It reflects the Emergency mindset of the Congress. Pawan Kalyan is barred even as permissions are accorded for communal hatemongering by the Owaisis (Asaduddin Owaisi’s party) and Urban Naxals,” Rao alleged.
Meanwhile, Kalyan’s “is Telangana your jagir?” remarks drew a sharp censure from Congress leaders. “Mr Pawan Kalyan, yes, Telangana is the jagir of the 40 million people here, not your father’s,” retorted transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar.
Mahesh Goud, who heads the Congress unit in Telangana, suspected ‘invisible political forces’ as behind Kalyan’s attempts at a political re-entry in Telangana.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao joined the heated discourse, asserting that Telangana belonged to its people and warning against attempts to undermine the spirit and sacrifices behind the Telangana statehood movement.
Responding to Kalyan’s comments on regionalism, KTR questioned why the Telangana movement was being portrayed negatively while similar movements elsewhere were celebrated. “If regionalism is dangerous, was Potti Sriramulu’s 58-day-long fast demanding a separate Andhra state regionalism too?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu too joined the debate, strongly in support of his ally and deputy. "The two states have been separated for 12 years now. What is the need for unnecessary, irresponsible statements [against Pawan Kalyan] that could fuel regional sentiments again, aggravating hostilities?" Naidu asked, indirectly chiding Telangana leaders, while calling for a constructive political culture and healthy competition between the two states.
Analysts are watching with interest Kalyan’s attempts to be active in Telangana again, given the JSP leader’s self-admittance that his party’s power and influence have been limited in Andhra Pradesh even if he is the deputy chief minister of the state.
What the JSP gains electorally in Telangana is a moot question, but it appears that the regional sentiments and bitterness between politicians of the two Telugu states is only going to get stronger.
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