People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

MIM Attack Injures 15 CPI(M) Supporters

P Madhu on his padayatra throw the old city of Hyderabad.

M Venugopala Rao

THE Majlis Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) is a frustrated lot these days. Unable to bear the popular and enthusiastic response from the people of old Hyderabad city to the CPI(M)’s consistent endeavours to take up their problems and mobilise them for the land movement and other struggles, and also unable to reconcile to the exposure of the callousness of elected MIM representatives over the years in taking up the cause of development of the old city and improving the lot of the people, the MIM is now resorting to attacks on the cadres and leaders of the CPI(M) who are busy enlightening and mobilising the people. There is, however, nothing surprising in it as the MIM has always been bereft of democratic traditions.

P Madhu, a member of Rajya Sabha and of the CPI(M) Central Committee, has been in the forefront in spearheading the mass movement in the old city. He embarked on a nine-day padayatra in the old city on August 25, on development of the old city and various problems confronting the people. On September 3, when Madhu, the CPI(M)’s city and local level leaders and many of the local people was conducting the second round of padayatra at Falaknuma in the evening, MIM workers entered into a provocative argumentation with the CPI(M) workers. Then, after the padayatra had traversed a more than one kilometre distance while ignoring the MIM provocations, MIM workers started attacking them from behind with stones and bricks. In this attack, 15 workers of the CPI(M) sustained head injuries. Out of them, Osman, Maqsud and Vittal sustained serious injuries and were shifted to CARE hospital in Nampally. Trying to disperse the MIM goons, the police arrested some of them. Rejecting the police request to stop the padayatra, Madhu made it clear that such attacks by goons could not water down the resolve to continue the programme that was for meeting the people and knowing their problems.

Earlier on the day, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and state secretary B V Raghavulu also participated in the padayatra.

The MIM attack evoked all-round condemnation by political parties and mass organisations. Strongly condemning the attack, CPI(M) state secretariat member Y Venkateswara Rao said it was pre-planned and demanded strong punishment to the culprits. He said the MIM was afraid of the CPI(M)’s activities among the people. CPI state secretary K Narayana and leaders of the Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, CPI(ML) Liberation and of several mass organisations strongly condemned the attack and demanded stern action against the culprits.

Commencing the padayatra from the historic Golconda fort in the old city, Madhu said it had been neglected as a result of the negligence of the rulers and corrupt practices of the people’s elected representatives over the years. Explaining the woeful and deteriorating civic and other conditions in the old city in terms of literacy, housing, health, drinking water, employment and other problems, he said only 30 percent of the developmental funds were actually spent and the balance was swallowed by contractors, officers and people’s representatives. Explaining that the CPI(M) was conducting struggles for more than one year on the problems of the people, Madhu announced that the struggle for development of the old city and the land struggle would be intensified in cooperation with other political parties like the CPI, TDP, TRS and MBT. Zahid Ali Khan, editor of Siyasat Urdu daily, and Sayyed Vikaruddin, chief editor of Rehnuma-e-Deccan Urdu daily, said the people of the old city, neglected as they have been for the last 60 years, would no more tolerate the neglect of development of the old city and their problems by the rulers and that their consciousness has been growing for the last two years. The CPI(M)’s Hyderabad city committee secretary P S N Murthy, and local leaders of the CPI, MBT, TDP and TRS also addressed the people.

After the bomb blasts that took place in Hyderabad on August 25, the padayatra was postponed. It was recommenced from September 1 from Mehdipatnam crossing and continued even though it faced attacks, tense situations and highhanded obstructions from the MIM side. Everywhere hundreds of people gave representations to Madhu and detailed their problems.

Madhu talked to them, enquired about their problems and promised to try solve their problems through the people’s struggles to bring pressure on the government for the old city’s development. Covering several places in the old city everyday during the course of the padayatra, Madhu demanded that the government of India announce a special package of Rs 4000 crore for the old city’s development. In the course of the padayatra, Madhu came down heavily on the MIM, accusing its leaders of colluding with the ruling parties, encroaching upon government lands, making the municipal, revenue and police machinery their pocket borough and neglecting the problems of the people. He said there was no democracy or civil liberty in the old city. Regretting that terrorist activities in the city were increasing and innocent people were being killed, Madhu said terrorism should be obliterated collectively. He said arresting innocent people and making them sacrificial goats in the name of curbing terrorism would not be tolerated.