A separate Telangana may soon be a reality but the people who are really adding muscle to the struggle may have to celebrate it on a sour note. The students of Osmania University have suddenly become unwanted for IT firms and the rest of the corporate sector.

This disturbing trend is evident from the fact that this year’s campus placements have been severely affected. Corporate firms take engineering students on board every year during the first semester of their final year. This time, only 150 students of the 300 OU engineering students managed to get jobs.

The IT firms have grown suspicious about recruiting OU students and especially those who have taken active participation in the agitation. A proposal to impose a five-year ban on those with police cases is also being actively considered by the corporate honchos.

Who should take the blame for this? Certainly not the firms, scared of stepping into the campus over the last two months seeing the ‘militant’ mood among the students. Then, are the politicians willing to bail out the students and their precariously-placed future?

Unfortunately, the students are only likely to get a shoulder to cry on once the Telangana issue is resolved. All the politicians who are using them now will be busy fighting for power and position. The day Telangana becomes a reality, the student community will stand out as the most powerful driving force behind the success.

Very sad, the students are pushing themselves to the brink, paying with their lives and precious careers, to push Telangana towards its logical conclusion