People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

Jail Bharo In October

Halt Repression Demand Political Parties

CPI(M) Cuddapah district secretary and Party town secretary being paraded with handcuffs by the police for participating in the land struggle

M Venugopala Rao

A ROUND-TABLE meeting of different political parties on “Government’s repression on people’s movement” organised by CPI(M) state committee and CPI state council at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad on September 23, 2007, strongly condemned the dictatorial attitude of the Congress government towards the land movement of the poor that has been going on for more than four months and demanded it to stop the repression forthwith. Leaders of various political parties announced their complete support to the land struggle led by the Left parties. Leaders of the CPI(M), CPI, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Majlis Bachao Tehreek and Lok Satta participated in the meeting. The meeting decided to write letters to the chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, and the governor of the state, N D Tiwari, to this effect. B V Raghavulu, Polit Bureau member and CPI(M) state secretary and K Narayana, CPI state secretary said a delegation of leaders of political parties would meet the chief minister and the governor and future programme of action would be prepared based on their response.

Addressing the meeting, Raghavulu said the Congress government in the state was not only trying to suppress the land movement with an iron hand, but also continuing its repressive measures on other movements as well. The police beat up the people participating in different struggles in such a way that no signs of injuries were visible on their bodies. The police were tormenting the agitators by pushing needles into their skin and subjecting women to mental torture by abusing them, Raghavulu stated. He expressed anguish at the beating up of even old people by the police. He strongly condemned the incredibly atrocious propaganda that the CPI(M) and CPI leaders were molesting women and committing atrocities on people of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and made it clear that the Left parties were committed to certain values.

Lashing out at the government for handcuffing and parading the leaders of the CPI(M) in Cuddapah district, Raghavulu questioned whether the police were also handcuffing the leaders of the Congress party when they committed offences. He referred to the police beating up TDP workers when they were agitating on the issue of leasing of mines at Obulapuram in Anantapur district, the inhuman treatment of tribal women by the police at Vakapalli in Visakhapatnam district and harassing innocent people in old city of Hyderabad in the name of tackling terrorist activities. He found fault with the government for its dictatorial attitude towards the media, including newspapers, which had exposed its corruption. Raghavulu said though all these misdeeds appeared to be the acts of the police, they were resorting to such acts only because they were provoked by the government itself. He underlined the need for all political parties to conduct a movement collectively against all repressive measures of the government. Making it clear that they would not keep quiet if civil liberties were endangered, Raghavulu asked leaders of associations of civil liberties also to respond and launch a movement for protection of civil liberties.

Narayana found fault with the chief minister for directing the police to suppress the land movement with an iron hand. He appealed to all the political parties to extend their support to the people’s movements launched by the Left parties and intensify the land movement in a coordinated way. Kadiam Srihari, a member of TDP Polit Bureau announced his party’s full cooperation to the future decisions taken by the Left parties on the land movement. He criticised the government for trying to suppress the land movement by treating it as an anti-government movement. Nayani Narsimha Reddy, TRS MLA said that it was foolish on the part of the government to think of suppressing the land movement, instead of finding a solution to it. Amjadullah Khan, MBT leader and P Satyanarayana of Lok Satta announced their support to the land movement of the poor for house sites and arable land.

CPI(M) DECIDES TO INTENSIFY STRUGGLE

The CPI(M) state committee held on September 16 decided to further intensify the land movement and extend it to more number of centres. The state committee of the Party resolved to continue the struggle till all the eligible poor get house sites, houses and arable land and congratulated the people for participating in a big way without being afraid of the repression. Narrating the repressive measures being adopted by the police to suppress the movement and foisting a large number of cases on the leaders and the people under sections of law applicable to serious offences, the state committee members pointed out that the police were trying to keep them in jail for more number of days. The meeting cited the example of bringing the CPI(M) leaders with handcuffs to a court in Cuddapah and foisting a case of attempt to rape on them and strongly condemned such repression. G Nagayya presided over the meeting.

JAIL BHARO IN OCTOBER

A meeting of CPI(M) and CPI leaders held on September 22 at M B Bhavan in Hyderabad decided to organise jail bharo programme as a part of intensifying the land movement in October. It strongly condemned the announcement of the chief minister to suppress the land movement going on in the state with an iron hand. The CPI(M) and CPI felt it was reprehensible that the government was forcibly removing and burning the huts raised by the poor and foisting cases on them and sending them to jails. The meeting also demanded the government to reduce the prices of essential commodities which are increasing day by day. It decided to conduct protest programmes on October 8 on this demand. B V Raghavulu, Y Venkateswara Rao and G Ramulu of the CPI(M), K Narayana, K Ramakrishna and S Venkateswarlu of the CPI participated in the meeting.

Protesting the government’s repression on the land movement, CPI(M) and CPI held a massive dharna at Indira park in Hyderabad on the September 22. Addressing the dharna, B V Raghavulu warned the government that the people would not bother about the repression and that the land movement would be intensified if the government did not solve their demands. He challenged the chief minister to come to any village of his choice and asserted to prove corruption in the implementation of Indiramma housing programme. Raghavulu found fault with the government for not taking necessary action on the report of Ramachandra Samal, former vigilance commissioner, on corruption in the administrative machinery and for resorting to counter attack on the opposition. K Narayana announced that jail bharo programme would be organised on a large scale on October 20.

CPI(M) Central secretariat member Hannan Mollah and Central Commitee member Suneet Chopra, Vijayaraghavan, general secretary of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, K Raghavan, vice president and several other leaders of the union from different states participated in the land movement at various places in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Kurnool, Khammam, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, West Godavari, East Godavari, Vijayanagaram, Chittoor, Ranga Reddy, Warangal and Adilabad districts. They pitched Red flags on the land occupied by the poor and ploughed it. Suneet Chopra and several other leaders were arrested by the police at Markapuram and they were released after the people took out a procession and staged a sit-in at the police station. Addressing meetings organised on the occasion, CPI(M) and AIAWU leaders demanded the government to distribute land to the poor. They explained the struggles of the poor in different states and the kind of repression they were facing in the hands of the respective governments led by bourgeois-landlord parties. Suneet Chopra congratulated the movement saying that Andhra Pradesh also was moving in the way of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. Vijayaraghavan announced that the people of Kerala donated a sum of Rs 68 lakhs to the land movement in Andhra Pradesh.