On April 22, the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) in Hyderabad, usually a chaos of milling crowds and groaning engines, fell silent. Buses stood in long lines, bay after bay, their engines cold. For nearly 65 lakh daily commuters across Telangana, their most dependable lifeline had simply stopped.

This has happened before. Six years after a crippling strike brought public transport to a standstill for over 50 days, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) is once again caught in a loop. Its workers are back on the streets, pressing for the fulfilment of 32 demands. The most contentious one is the absorption of 40,000 employees into government service, still hanging in the air like an unpaid debt. Only the party in power has changed; the crisis has not. The sense of déjà vu is unmistakable.