People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

Anti-Repression Week Observed

M Venugopala Rao

PROTESTING the repressive measures of the Congress government on the poor people agitating for house sites and land in the Andhra Pradesh, anti-repression week was observed through out the state on the call given by the CPI(M) and CPI. In this connection, several public meetings and conventions were held in the districts and a human chain with about sixty thousand people was formed in Hyderabad. Leaders of the two parties warned the government that if it did not respond to the demands of the poor for houses sites and land, the struggle would continue.

B V Raghavulu, Polit Bureau member and state secretary of the CPI(M), participated in the public meetings held at Mahabubnagar, Tirupathi and Vijayawada. Addressing the public meeting at Mahabubnagar organised by the district committees of the CPI(M) and CPI on August 12, Raghavulu warned the government that notwithstanding its repressive measures the land struggle would continue till the poor got house sites and land or else the government would fall down. The second phase of the land struggle would spread all over the country, he said. P J Chandrasekhara Rao of the CPI addressed the meeting which was presided over by K Gopal and E Narsimha, district secretaries of the CPI(M) and CPI, respectively.

Addressing the anti-repression convention organised at Tirupathi by Chittoor district committees of both the parties on the August 14, Raghavulu asked the people to continue the struggle with redoubled vigour and with the spirit of the martyrs of Mudigonda police firing till their objective was achieved. CPI leader Obulesu, district secretaries of the CPI(M) and CPI, K Murali and P Harinadha Reddy, and others addressed the convention.

HUMAN CHAIN IN HYDERABAD

On the occasion of the 60th year of independence, Raghavulu inaugurated a programme intended to intensify the land struggle with the spirit of the struggle for independence. About 60,000 people formed into a human chain in Hyderabad from Secunderabad railway station to his historic Charminar in old city. It is significant that the poor and hut-dwellers, especially women, participated in the programme on a large scale. They wore badges displaying their demands and denouncing the unresponsive attitude of the government. Speaking on the occasion, Raghavulu announced that with the spirit of independence movement and the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose and other leaders who had fought for the country’s independence, the second phase of the land struggle in the state would be further intensified from the 22nd of this month.

Later, Raghavulu along with P Madhu, member of the central committee and MP, Y Venkateswara Rao, state secretariat member, M V S Sarma, MLC, and P S N Murthy, secretary of the Hyderabad district committee of the CPI(M), travelled in an open jeep along the length of the human chain, greeting the people. The people who formed into human chain in turn greeted the leaders with resounding slogans expressing their determination to continue the land struggle till their objective was achieved. Artistes of Praja Natya Mandali attired themselves as leaders of independence movement and exhibited the way the police lathicharged the agitators. Similarly, human chains at 20 centres in Ranga Reddy district, Kakinada and Rajahmundry were formed.

Addressing a public meeting organised at Lenin centre in Vijayawada on the 19th by the city committees of the CPI(M) and CPI, Raghavulu lashed out at the government for not responding to the demands of the poor, though the land issue was raised during the last three years and the land struggle was going on for the last 120 days. Member of the national council of the CPI, E Nageswara Rao, secretary of the Krishna district committee of the CPI(M), V Umamaheswara Rao, Sheiakh Nazar Vali, MLA, member of the state committee of the CPI(M), Ch Baburao, and others participated in the programme.

BRINDA KARAT DENOUNCES REPRESSION

Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), strongly denounced the repressive measures let loose by the Congress government on the poor people agitating in Andhra Pradesh for house sites and land and warned that the people would not pardon the chief minister, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, for killing the poor people in the police firing at Mudigonda and transforming the state into ‘Lathy Pradesh’.

Addressing a public meeting organised on August 19 at Pochamma grounds in Warangal – in connection with the anti-repression week being observed all over the state on the call given by the CPI(M) and CPI – Brinda Karat gave a call to the people to participate in large numbers in the second phase of the land struggle scheduled to commence from the 22nd of this month. She complimented the people for continuing the land struggle with the spirit of the heroic Telangana armed struggle and making the first-phase of the struggle a grand success and pointed out that the on-going land struggle had become a debatable point internationally. She paid homage to the martyrs of Mudigonda police firing. She richly complimented Parveen of Warangal for participating in the land struggle braving the inhuman beating up by the police although she was carrying eight-month-old baby in the womb. She asked the people to emulate Parveen’s spirit of fighting and participate in the land struggle.

Brinda Karat explained that the CPI(M) had conveyed to the high command of the Congress party to give pattas to the poor on the lands they had already occupied and pointed out that it was the responsibility of the government to do so. She promised that the land issue would be raised in the parliament. Explaining how successfully the programme of land distribution was implemented in the Left-led states, she made it clear that land distribution was imperative for development of the Telangana region. She pointed out that the people were asking the government to fulfil the promises of allocation of house sites and distribution of arable land to the poor as promised by the Congress during the elections three years back. Finding fault with the approach of the rulers at the centre and in the state, she accused them of hatching a conspiracy to make people homeless and serving the interests of the rich. Under the Rajasekhara Reddy regime in Andhra Pradesh, excise revenue doubled from Rs 4000 crore to Rs 8000 crore by encouraging sales of liquor, contrary to the promise made during the elections to reduce the sales, she criticised. While rice was being distributed at Rs 3 a kg in Kerala and at Rs 2 a kg in Tamil Nadu, the commodities that should be distributed through fair price shops in Andhra Pradesh were being diverted and misused, Brinda Karat criticised. M Srinivas, secretary of Warangal city committee of the CPI(M), presided over the meeting.