People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

CPI(M) State Secretariat Demands CM’s Resignation

M Venugopala Rao

THE state secretariat of the CPI(M) demaded resignation of the chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, holding him responsible for the police firing on the people agitating for land at Mudigonda. The secretariat met in Hyderabad on July 31. The meeting presided over by P Madhu passed a resolution criticising the Congress government for shedding the blood of the agitators and killing seven poor people in the police firing at Mudigonda, in the massive movement that has been going on for the last three months for house sites and land in the state, instead of distributing land. The secretariat warned the government that it would be responsible for all future developments, if it did not take immediate steps to resolve the land issue. The CPI(M) decided to continue the movement in a more intensified way till the poor get land. Pointing out that some Congress leaders were spreading false propaganda against the movement, the state secretariat of the Party made it clear that ascribing casteism to the people’s movement was reprehensible and that it was nothing but insulting the movement and the people. It criticised the PCC president, K Kesava Rao, for his mindless and degenerated criticism. The CPI(M) lashed out at the Congress leaders that they did not entertain higher ideas, immersed as they were in corruption, and that they were trying to isolate the movement by putting the stamp of Maoists on the agitators. The secretariat asked the Congress leaders not to throw stones, sitting as they were in glass houses, and to introspect as to how many former Maoists were there in their party. It demanded the government to atone for its sins. The CPI(M) requested other political parties and mass organisations to extend support to the movement and decided to announce its future course of action after discussing with the CPI and other Left parties.

Meanwhile Jangam Balaswamy, who sustained serious injuries in the Mudigonda police firing, died in Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad on the July 31. With this the death toll has gone up to seven. From CPI(M) V Srinivasa Rao, central secretariat member, Paturu Ramayya, Thammineni Veerabhadram, central committee members, and Y Venkateswara Rao, state secretariat member, garlanded the body of Balaswamy and paid homage to the martyr. N Chandrababu Naidu and some other leaders of the Telugu Desam Party participated in a one-day hunger strike at Indira Park in Hyderabad, as a protest against the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who was in Hyderabad on July 31, not visiting Mudigonda.

The police obstructed a rally of the Left parties taken out from old MLA quarters to Jubilee Hall in Hyderabad on July 31 to bring the issue of police firing at Mudigonda to the notice of the prime minister, who was holding a review meeting with the state government, and arrested leaders of the CPI(M), CPI, other Left parties and mass organisations at Basheerbagh.