The Hindu : Hold unconditional talks with naxals, A.P. Govt. told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Hold unconditional talks with naxals, A.P. Govt. told

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD OCT. 11. B.V. Raghavulu, secretary of the State Committee of the CPI(M), on Saturday wanted the State Government to hold unconditional talks with People's War, and found fault with it for setting the pre-condition of laying down arms.

Briefing presspersons on the two-day State Committee meeting, he said laying down arms could be one of the items on the agenda of the talks. If the State Government was serious about restoring peace in the State, it should make all-out efforts to bring the PW to the negotiating table.

Extending support to such talks, Mr. Raghavulu wanted the Government to clarify on the kind of cooperation it required from the Opposition and on what it meant by launching a "people's movement" against the People's War. At an all-party meeting held on the issue earlier, the Opposition had pledged support for the talks.

He said the Government itself should take the blame for growing extremism, for it had failed to implement land reforms and neglected issues such as backwardness, poverty and atrocities on Dalits. Unless these problems were solved in a concerted manner, extremism cannot be wished away.

Referring to the way the Telugu Desam Party was mobilising supporters and schoolchildren to call on the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, he wondered whether the party was treating the unfortunate incident to generate sympathy and sustain it till the Assembly elections. It went on to show that the ruling party had no confidence on its performance and hence falling on extraneous factors like sympathy.

On Mr. Naidu's comment at the videoconference session that only he was working, Mr. Raghavulu said it only reflected his style of functioning and of vesting all powers in him. Ministers had no decision-making powers. At least now, Mr. Naidu should go in for a revamp, decentralise the powers and restore democracy within the party.

On the drought situation, he disputed the Government's estimation of 305 districts, and said it was close to 400. Describing the situation as grim, he appealed to the Chief Minister to again take up the issue of release of water with his counterparts in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The CPI(M) leader criticised the survey being conducted for "Velugu" scheme for identifying the poor as well as the one for issue of ration cards.The party had decided not to launch any major people's agitation for some days for giving Mr. Naidu time to recover. It would, however, keep sending memoranda to the Government highlighting people's grievances.

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