TJACs Differ Each Other on Bandhs

Telangana outfits have postponed the bandh scheduled for Monday to August 10. In the past week, three bandhs were called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee and student JACs only to be withdrawn. The declaration and withdrawal of bandhs by TJAC and other student JACs has lead to widespread confusion among dailywage labourers, employees, students, parents and commuters.

Sources say the reason for the postponing of the bandhs was infighting and one-upmanship among Tleaders and various students’ JACs. With no clarity on bandhs, anxious parents and others were calling up media offices to know the status of the bandhs. However, as the T-outfits did not clarify till the last minute, there was widespread confusion among the general public.
August clearly will be the month of bandhs and strikes. On Monday, TJAC chairman Prof. Kodandaram will teach "Telangana Paatam" (Lessons on Telangana) to students at the Government Junior College, Saroornagar in support of the "pen down" strike announced by T-employees. This will be followed by a 48-hour bandh on August 13 and 14 to stall the upcoming SI exams. However, Telangana parties say the bandh will be called off if the controversial Clause 14(f) is deleted from the Presidential Order by then.

There is also a separate "educational institutions bandh" that has been called on August 17 in support of the general strike announced by various Tstaff associations from August 17. Some T-outfits have also announced an indefinite bandh for educational institutions from August 17 onward as part of the general strike. While Telangana Students' JAC had given a bandh call on August 5, it had later postponed it to August 8. Meanwhile, the OUJAC announced that the bandh was further postponed to August 10. Differences cropped up among the student leaders in TSJAC and OUJAC over the postponement of the bandh to August 10 with the TSJAC leaders questioning how the OUJAC could reschedule a bandh announced by the TSJAC.