People's Democracy

VETERAN freedom fighter and candidate of the Left parties for presidential elections, Dr (Capt) Lakshmi Sahgal, was given a rousing reception at the airport in Hyderabad when she arrived here on July 11. Andhra Pradesh is the ninth state visited by Dr. Sahgal during her election campaign.

Accompanied by Sitaram Yechury, member of the polit bureau of the CPI(M) and her daughter Subhashini Ali, member of the central committee of the CPI(M), Dr Lakshmi Sahgal was warmly received at the airport by leaders of the CPI(M) Koratala Satyanarayana, B V Raghavulu, Mallu Swarajayam, S Punyavathy and N Narasimhaiah and leaders of the CPI Dasari Nagabhushana Rao, Suravaram Sudhakara Reddy, Dr K Narayana, Aziz Pasha and hundreds of well wishers. Heroin of the Telangana armed struggle, Swarajyam, honoured the heroin of the Indian National Army with a shawl amidst reverberating slogans by emotionally charged workers of both communist parties. Later she was taken to the state headquarters of the CPI, Makdhum Bhavan, in a procession covered with red flags. Slogans of "Lakshmi Sahgal Sangharsh Karo, Ham Tumhara Saath Hain", rent the air as the procession from airport passed through the busy thoroughfares of Hyderabad city. People on both sides of the road watched with enthusiasm.

In the evening, a public meeting was conducted at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram. The auditoreum was overcrowded and scores of people had to stand outside to hear Dr Lakshmi Sahgal and other leaders. Addressing the meeting, Dr Lakshmi Sahgal said she was "most overwhelmed with the reception at the airport and the overcrowded meeting." Though her first impulse was to refuse to contest the presidential election, thinking of "my brave sisters of the Telangana movement like Swarajyam and of the Jhansi regiment during the independence movement and to uphold the valour of the brave women" Dr Sahgal revealed that she agreed to contest the elections as the first woman presidential candidate.

Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal stated that the future of the country, under the BJP-led NDA government, which has been promoting communal hatred, was bleak. She commented that the Congress and the BJP-led NDA were two sides of the same coin and accused the Congress of failing to prevent demolition of the Babri masjid and not making any attempts to restore communal harmony in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The BJP-led government is handing over "business" to British and American companies again, while we had driven away the British empire from the country through the blood and sacrifice of our people. The economic slavery is much worse than political slavery and the foreign forces would squeeze us out, Dr Lakshmi Sahgal cautioned. We must get rid of all these forces of hatred and build a new India with social and economic justice and employment to all, Dr Lakshmi Sahgal exhorted. Referring to the overwhelming response to her campaign and support expressed for her candidature by the people, especially women and the youth, Dr Sahgal said, "If it is people’s popular vote, I would win hands down. As far as women are concerned, I have already won. So also with the youth".

Dr. (Capt) Lakshmi Sahgal stated that having read in the newspapers that the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had said that he never heard of her, she got Hyderabad included in her itinerary. It is a shame on him that the Chief Minister saying that he did not hear of the INA struggles and narrated how Col. D S Raju, Maj. Abid Hasan and several others from Andhra closely worked with Netaji in the INA.

D Nagabhushana Rao, secretary of national council of the CPI, who presided over the meeting, said the nation was proud of Dr Lakshmi Sahgal, who was a gift of Subhashchandra Bose in the independence movement. She was put up as a candidate representing crores of people who wanted to preserve secular democracy, uplift the poor and defeat the communal forces, he said. Koratala Satyanarayana, member of the polit bureau of the CPI(M), said the presidential election turned into an ideological and political struggle against the attempts of the communal forces who want to reduce secular India into a sectarian theocratic country. He made it clear that extending support to the candidate of such divisive forces in the presidential election, is nothing but treason against the people and amounts to giving up moral values.

Sitaram Yechury said the presidential election became a contest between true nationalism of Lakshmi Sahgal and pseudo-nationalism of the RSS-BJP. The Left parties are now the real "opposition" to the communal forces who are dubbing the "communalism" as "nationalism", Sitaram explained. If the Telugu Desam Party still had any values of NTR left with it, their MLAs and MPs should vote against the forces of exploitation, Sitaram said. If the members of the electoral college in the presidential election vote according to their conscience, the victory of Dr Lakshmi Sahgal was certain, Sitaram asserted. S Sudhakara Reddy, secretary of state council of the CPI, Mallu Swarajyam, member of the central committee of the CPI(M), N Narasimhaiah, leader of the CPI(M) legislature party, and K Sridhar, a leader of SUCI, also addressed the meeting in support of the candidature of Dr Lakshmi Sahgal. Subhashini Ali was also on the dais. Y Venkateswara Rao, member of the secretariat of state committee of the CPI(M) welcomed the leaders.