HYDERABAD: Contrary to the repeated assertion of chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was for united Andhra Pradesh , a new book on Telangana says Indira had favoured granting Telangana during the first phase of the statehood movement in 1969. She changed her mind due to a pending petition filed by Pakistan in the UN security council that forced her to defend united Andhra Pradesh. By the time the petition was dropped in 1979, she had won over all Telangana leaders with pelf and posts, the book claimed.

The book, 'State's Reorganization: A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh', written by former military official Lingala Panduranga Reddy, narrates how Indira Gandhi was rebuffed by the people of Telangana at a time her reputation had skyrocketed after the liberation of Bangladesh. According to Panduranga Reddy, Indira Gandhi was shocked by the intensity of Telangana sentiment. The Telangana people were least affected by her emergence as a tall leader in the subcontinent following the Indo-Pak war and Bangladesh liberation.

In the 1971 general elections, Telangana Praja Samiti (TPS), formed to lead the Telangana movement, won 10 Lok Sabha seats out of 14 in the region.

Convinced that she could not win over the people of Telangana without realizing their dream of separate state, Indira Gandhi decided to announce the Telangana state. The machinery was set in motion and she instructed her principal secretary, PN Haksar, to work out the details.

But, TN Kaul, the then foreign secretary, reminded her of the pending case of Hyderabad state in the United Nations Organization and dissuaded her not to touch upon the issue. "Kaul recorded this in his memoir," Panduranga Reddy said.

A former Army officer, Panduranga Reddy seeks to debunk many of the arguments put forth by integrationists in his 324-page book, which was released on Saturday in Bagh-e-Aam of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University. Union science & technology minister S Jaipal Reddy was supposed to release it, but he could not make it to the event and the function was presided over by former SC judge B Sudarshan Reddy.

Panduranga Reddy was commander of the Gorkha Rifles which was deployed to crush the Telangana movement in Warangal in 1969.

According to him, the then chief minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy was unhappy that there was no firing in Warangal. Reddy claims that having known the socio-economic background of the Telangana movement, he had educated his boss Lt. Col. Ajmer Singh on the agitation and desisted from opening fire. He brought the situation under control with mere show of military arsenal and threat in the initial days of the movement in February 1969. When the movement resurfaced in June 1969, Kasu preferred to call in ARPF from neighboring states which resulted in the killing of 369 agitators when the 'trigger-happy police' forces opened fire.

According to the author, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy and all other successive chief ministers used every trick in the book to suppress the movement. In a provocating way,

Reddy alleges that the revival of MIM , strict implementation of land ceiling act in Telangana and the Naxalite movement were used as a pretext to liquidate the Telangana movement and let the 'Andhra' people grab land. All these steps have resulted in the land grabbing by Andhras around Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana.

Reddy, in his book, states that the argument that the formation of the new state would encourage Maoism stems from the false propaganda by Andhra Naxal leaders in Chhattisgarh unleashed in unleashed after then Union home minister P Chidambaram's statement on December 9, 2009.

"The Andhra Naxalite leaders stepped up their violent acts in Chhatishgarh and (were) spreading false rumors that once Telangana state is given it would become Naxalite bastion."

