Hyderabad: Long before Telangana became a reality, before slogans echoed across university campuses and political parties, there was M Kamaluddin Ahmed, who raised his voice for the region’s forgotten villages and neglected people.
History is often unkind to people who speak early. Several prominent names have become synonymous with the decades-old ‘struggle’ for a separate Telangana, but it was Kamaluddin Ahmed who stood up first and raised the issue of neglected farmers.
A son of Telangana’s rural soil, Kamaluddin carried the cause to the Parliament, warning about the deep inequalities between Telangana and Andhra decades before statehood was achieved.
And now he is slowly fading away from the history books of Telangana Statehood Formation.
Hyderabad’s young men and women who completed their schooling in the late 1960s and early 1970s would recall the ‘Telangana Agitation’ that played havoc with many lives. That period of hunger strikes, violence, and police firing, and the then dynamic M Channa Reddy, would soon fade in the minds of the people of this region.
The simmering anger of the region’s original populace was, however, far from extinguished, as the justifiable demand for a separate ‘Telangana’ state remained a pipe dream. Though the movement for a separate state gained fresh momentum again in the 2000s, it was not until June 2014 that Telangana State finally became a reality.
He spoke for rural Telangana till his last breath
Right from the early 1960s to the 90s, Kamaluddin continued his work for the people of Telangana at the grassroots level.
He was MLA from Cheriyal and Jangaon in 1962 and 1967 respectively. He was MP from Warangal/Hanamkonda during 1980, 1989, and 1991-96, before becoming the Union Minister of State (civil supplies and public distribution) and Minister of State (commerce).
Between 1985 and 1989, in his capacity as Chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), he ensured fair representation of local issues at the central level. In 1994, he was made President of the then Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC).
Kamaluddin’s focus on irrigation projects brought great benefit to the highly arid farmland areas of Telangana. The greening of the hitherto arid belt of Karimnagar-Warangal, thanks to the Sriram Sagar Project (irrigation/hydroelectric power), was largely due to Kamaluddin’s untiring initiatives on the ground.
Most importantly, it is worth noting that, during the Lok Sabha Debates to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of India’s Independence (01-Sept-1997), it was M Kamaluddin Ahmed who highlighted the continued backwardness of the ‘real’ Telangana, especially in comparison with the far more advantaged and favoured Andhra region.
In 2001, Kamaluddin went on to become a Member of the Planning Commission.
In addition to his political acumen, Kamaluddin was a well-read scholar who was fluent in Telugu, Urdu, and English, an ideal combination for a Telangana statesman. His interest in sher-shayari made him special to many from across the political spectrum. One of them was former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, who handpicked Kamaluddin to be India’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during 2002-04.
Telangana’s rural son deserted
However, this exposition at the key parliamentary forum resulted in a backlash that was grossly unfair not only to the cause of Telangana, but also to the individual whose voice had never been acknowledged in the annals of the fight for Telangana statehood.
Post September 1997, Kamaluddin’s former allies and even close colleagues and friends — many of whom had shared his vision — not only deserted him but also sought to discredit him in every way possible.
Most of them had already switched to an anti-separate Telangana stance. The abrupt lack of support was reflected in Kamaluddin losing the 1998/99 Lok Sabha election, which came as a rude surprise even to the man himself. Deeply saddened by the behaviour of his close friends and senior leaders, Kamaluddin opted for early retirement from active politics.
For such a singular crusader for the cause of Telangana, the injustices heaped on M Kamaluddin Ahmed are beyond enumeration — injustices that defy all reason. To be denied credit where due is commonplace in every sphere of human endeavour, but the targeted ‘erasure’ of a senior leader with a remarkable track record can only be construed as vendetta.
Kamaluddin passed away without a proper farewell
The unkindest cut came in September 2018. When Kamaluddin passed away in Hyderabad, he was denied a state funeral, the minimum courtesy and standard practice for senior government personalities. The ‘new-born’ state saw no need to honour one of the foremost champions who had relentlessly argued for its very identity. Sadder still, the lapse raised no eyebrows.
With the Congress now back at the helm in Telangana, there is ample opportunity to set the record straight and accord M Kamaluddin Ahmed the recognition and credit he fully deserves. The annals of the Telangana movement would remain incomplete without the name of this selfless crusader for the region’s identity and economic development.
This was the voice of a true son of the soil, not that of an opportunistic politician. And this was a full decade before the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) gave its clarion call for a separate Telangana.
‘Telangana Shining’ is a label that we see everywhere in Hyderabad today. However, few in this bustling South Indian city of 7 million would remember, even if faintly, that statehood for this region did not come easy.
