KTR recounts bizarre feeling when he faced cutthroat situation, literally

HYDERABAD:“Which place you hail from, brother?” asked KTR.

“Pulivendula,” pat came the reply.

A stunned KTR’s heart missed a beat or two. He surmised that he was caught in an irksome circumstance. It was indeed a cutthroat situation he was ensnared in, literally. Or, he had, at least, thought so. How? Read on.

It was November 29, 2009 when KTR was arrested for the first time in his life.

Eschewing his comfortable life with his cozy job in the United States of America, KTR took the plunge into politics to match the step with his dad, K Chandrashekhar Rao aka KCR, in 2006. He had wound up his happy and secured lifestyle in the land of opportunities, where he did his MBA from New York City University and secured a job purely on the basis of his merit, and enjoying the fruits of his studious life before.

Narrating the gripping story of how November 29, the day when KCR began his hunger strike -- in support of his demand for a separate Telangana which is now observed as “Deeksha Diwas” (Determination Day) -- in a media interaction, KTR recounted the sequence of events that led to the December 9 announcement of the Congress-led UPA Government at Delhi about the formation of a separate Telangana.

Brimming with confidence on the eve of the polling for the high-stakes battle royale in Telangana on Thursday (November 30, 2023), a seemingly relaxed working president of the Bharat Rahstra Samithi Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao interacted with media persons who gathered at Telangana Bhavan, the party’s headquarters.

Marking the “Deeksha Diwas”, KTR recalled the turn of events on the day, 14 years ago.

The police in the undivided Andhra Pradesh rounded up KCR, who was spearheading the Telangana agitation. The police let the car of KCR pass and stopped the vehicles those were following it at Manair Dam near Alaganur on the outskirts of Karimnagar.

Though, apart from KCR, five others were arrested by the police, they left out Prof Jayashankar on the other end of the bridge for want of space in the car.

KTR, along with those present, ran across the bridge as their vehicles were prevented. However, by the time they reached the other end of the bridge, he saw Prof Jayashankar, and by then the other vehicles also were let off. KTR got the Telangana ideologue into his car.

The TRS leaders were clueless on where the police were taking KCR and others. Initially, they were told he was being taken to Warangal. As the others were reaching Hanamkonda, students of Kakatiya University squatted on the road protesting ferociously. The students began their agitation as they received the news that Srikanthachary immolated himself in support of the demand for a separate Telangana, the same day.

As KTR joined the students of the university in their protest at Hanamkonda crossroads, he was arrested by the police and he was lodged in the Central Prison of Warangal.

That’s a strange experience for a man who has grown up as the son of an MLA, minister and then a revolutionary. KTR had the first brush with the police as an accused person. He found it bizarre to be in the jail amid prisoners who comprised undertrials and also convicts. Even as he was grappling with a weird feeling, an assistant jailor walked up to him and proposed that he could go to the clinic on the prison premises and rest there. Obliging the officer, KTR went to the clinic where just one inmate was present. So, KTR used a bed there and rested for the night. He was woken up as per the prison schedule and a constable asked him if he needed a brush and paste which the TRS leader readily agreed to. As soon as he finished that, another cop came and asked if he would want to shave. When KTR replied in the affirmative and was expecting the cop to provide him with a shaving kit, the constable escorted another person and informed him (KTR) that the person he had brought was a barber and he would do the shaving.

As he took KTR underneath a tree and began shaving, KTR, as if to trike a conversation with the barber, asked him: “Which place do you hail from, brother.” Pat came the reply: “Pulivendula”. KTR was stunned and gripped by a sense of fear. He felt he had asked the question at a wrong time, especially when the barber's knife (razor) was exactly at his throat. He knew that many people from Andhra Pradesh were opoosed to the separation of Telangana. However, the barber eased the situation by telling him: “Sir, we are grief-stricken following the death of Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. Your agitation is genuine and you would achieve Telangana. KTR thanked the barber who was a convict and serving a punishment in the prison.