the only solution

those who study these things call suicide a permanent solution to a temporary problem. but, do those committing suicide see it as a temporary problem? yadagiri probably viewed it as his contribution to a cause that will bring in a permanent solution to all his and other telanganis' problems, temporary and permanent.

is telangana a permanent solution? ask prof.kodandaram, leader of the political joint action committee (constituted by all political parties and activists in telangana). ask the leaders of the various parties who are part of the jac. ask the hordes of professors, teachers, researchers, retired babus, lawyers etc who are part of the other jacs formed in the last two months. do they think it's a permanent solution to all the problems facing the people of telangana?

“Telangana now comes as a solution to all these problems. It says, okay, we can redistribute the existing water in Krishna and Godavari and with Telangana’s due share from canal waters and using that to fill up all the tanks, we can make agriculture profitable even in Telangana,” says Kodandaram.

from here. there are thousands and thousands of other occasions when prof.kodandaram, and scores of others like him, have presented telangana as 'a solution to all these problems'.

they've, over the years, emphatically made the point that a separate state is the only solution to a lot of problems that the people of telangana face. and over the years, in mostly rural, young, impressionable minds, the message of the activists that a separate state is the only solution to a lot of problems has slowly transformed itself into the conviction, through repeated dinning of the message into their heads, that a separate state is the only solution to all the problems that the people of the region face. and the leaders of the movement have done nothing to modify or change this perception. in fact, one suspects, they are proud of the job of indoctrination that they've performed. they seem too ready to quote, in front of any random camera or microphone, the rising numbers as proof of deep-rooted aspirations.

prof.kodandaram blames the government for the suicides. and also the politicians of the region for not doing enough to further the cause by resigning from their elected posts and creating a constitutional crisis in the region so that the centre would bend and create a new state without any committees or further delays.

does prof.kodandaram's argument in any way dilute the belief that a separate telangana is the only solution to all the problems that the people of the region face? no, it doesn't. it only reinforces the strong conviction i'd talked about earlier because it doesn't even talk about any other alternative solutions, anything beyond telangana. it only talks about the delays and difficulties in achieving the only solution. so, how can he blame the government or the opponents of separation for the suicides?

even if we believe in his logic, we can only conclude that the actions of the government or the opponents of separation only served as triggers for the suicides, not as the main cause. the main cause, of course, is the victims' shared belief that a separate state is the only solution to all the problems of the region. they've pushed the young, especially the most impressionable among them, to the edge of a cliff, in a manner of speaking, so how can they blame the cliff's edge for caving in and sending the victims to death?

the students committing suicide don't seem to stop to think: if a separate state is the only solution, then why aren't the leaders committing suicide? why aren't the activists, the professors committing suicide because the only solution doesn't seem achievable, the obstacles seem insurmountable? and the teachers don't seem to stop and think: if we repeatedly tell them, a separate state is the only solution, why would the students not believe it's the only solution? so, the students don't think suicide is irrational, because the professors don't seem to think panaceas are irrational.

shouldn't the professors/teachers be blamed for spreading the belief, the disease among the young? they're turning their victims into heroes, and this might push more young students towards suicide and martyrdom. i blame them for these suicides: prof.kodandaram for rationalizing the suicides as heroic protests, prof.haragopal for likening this movement to the 'french revolution' etc and driving up the hysteria among the young several notches higher, and scores of others like them.