YSR govt perpetrating state terrorism against Oppn, says TDP chief

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday accused the Jagan Mohan Reddy government of perpetrating “state terrorism” against opposition party leaders and denying citizens their fundamental rights

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday accused the Jagan Mohan Reddy government of perpetrating “state terrorism” against opposition party leaders and denying citizens their fundamental rights.

HT Image

“The ruling YSR Congress party, with the support of the police and official machinery, has been stifling the voice of all sections of the people. The state government has become so intolerant that it is filing false cases and making house arrests of TDP leaders,” Naidu said during his inaugural address of the two-day Mahanadu, the party’s annual conclave which is being held virtually in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Naidu said the Jagan government was resorting to state terrorism to cover up its undemocratic, autocratic and authoritarian activities aimed at denying civil liberties and fundamental rights to the people.

“Not just the TDP leaders, any dissenting voice from the common people is also being suppressed,” he alleged.

“The unchecked suppression has caused a democratic backsliding in the past two years. This decline has reached such a point where the mandal and zilla parishad elections were held in violation of the Supreme Court order,” he added.

Under the YSRCP regime, the TDP chief alleged, attacks on opposition leaders were being launched even before the start of the elections. Nominations were not allowed to be filed and even if they were filed, they were declared invalid, he pointed out.

The former chief minister said it was a difficult time for the party considering how the party activists and leaders were being put to physical, psychological and financial pain. “But everybody should know how those violating all laws and norms would eventually face much greater punishment,” he said.

Naidu recalled how the Jagan government illegally arrested several TDP leaders like K Atchannaidu, Kollu Ravindra, Chintamaneni Prabhakar, J C Prabhakar Reddy, J C Asmith Reddy, Dhulipalla Narendra, Ramakrishna Reddy, B C Janardhan Reddy and even the YSRCP’s own rebel MP K Raghurama Raju.

“Serious sections were being filed to make the leaders go to jail without bail. Some sections being slapped could give one above seven years’ of imprisonment,” he said.

Naidu added that as a responsible opposition party, the TDP would continue to fight against these atrocities. “The police and the government, who were violating the laws, would eventually be answerable to the people,” he said.

Reacting to Naidu’s remarks, senior YSR Congress party leader and chief whip G Srikanth Reddy said there was no need for the Jagan government to target any individual or resort to witch-hunting.

“Chandrababu Naidu himself is a criminal and he is trying to protect those who indulged in criminal activities. The government is only enforcing the law which will take its own course,” Reddy said.

It is for the second consecutive year that the TDP is holding its prestigious Mahanadu in digital mode in view of the onset of the second wave of coronavirus pandemic.

On the first day of the event, the Mahanadu adopted a resolution criticising the inept handling of the Covid-19 situation in Andhra Pradesh by the state government.