Do not take BVR's fast lightly: Nagam to govt

Senior Telugu Desam Party leader and party’s Telangana Forum convenor Nagam Janardhan Reddy on Saturday cautioned the state government against taking the indefinite hunger strike launched by Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary BV Raghavulu lightly.

Addressing the gathering at the hunger fast site at the Indira Park, Mr Janardhan Reddy told the state government that some protests which can be solved amicably if the people in power are willing to listen, may become huge issues if the ruling party is not willing to solve them.

Mr Janardhan Reddy reminded the government that the TDP had ordered the police to disperse a protest at Basheer Bagh in August 2000 which ultimately led to the party being voted out of power. He said that the TDP, which was in power then, had explicitly told the police not to act in a highhanded manner but the police had resorted to opening fire on the 25,000 odd protestors.

The police firing, the indiscriminate lathicharge and charging at 25,000-odd protestors as part of the police efforts to disperse the protestors then had been transmitted live by a Telugu television channel. The police firing opening fire resulted in the death of two persons, one of them belonging to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the other to the Congress. Following the crackdown, spontaneous protests in several parts of the state erupted, steamrolling into a wave of anger against the TDP.

“We have been sitting in the opposition as a result of that incident since the past seven years, and if the state government is not careful, it will also have to face the wrath of the people,” Mr Janardhan Reddy stated.

Calling on the government to take Mr Raghavulu’s fast seriously and get down to solving the demands raised by the veteran Communist leader, Mr Janardhan Reddy said that the points raised by the CPM state secretary are just.

Incidentally, Mr Raghavulu’s fast entered the third day on Saturday.

The CPM leader has launched the hunger fast to press the government to appoint chairpersons and members to SC/ST and Women's Commission, identity cards for tenant farmers, enhancement of wages of over five lakh workers employed on contract and contingency basis and review of lands allotments to multinational companies.