The Hindu : TDP repeating charges for poll gain: Congress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TDP repeating charges for poll gain: Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 20. Taking exception to the continued allegations by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, of the Congress-People's War nexus, the Congress on Saturday saw a clear game plan to it.

In a statement, the former Leader of the Opposition, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said that the violence could be a mischief engineered by none other than the Chief Minister himself to gain sympathy and thereby political mileage in the elections. "Knowing his mercurial nature and behaviour we cannot but doubt it," he added.

Dr. Reddy said the `reckless and highly irresponsible' accusation of the Chief Minister on collusion of the Congress with PW was a result of the latter's fears of the outcome of polls. The Chief Minister had realised that his party was heading for a disaster in the polls and hence, continuing his tirade against the Congress, he said.

Mr. Naidu was not just the Chief Minister but also the de facto Prime Minister of the country with all his clout at the Centre and yet, preferred to blame the Opposition for his failure in containing the problem of naxalism. Mr. Naidu had been in the office for the past nine years and entrusted with the responsibility of law and order. His `bullet-for-bullet' policy had only provoked extremists to mount their violence to the extent that senior TDP leaders like A. Madhava Reddy, Purushottam Rao and several lower level activists and leaders had been targeted.

When it came to losing lives, the Congress had more names to the victims' list, he recalled. Senior Congress leaders like Magunta Subbarami Reddy, Sripada Rao and Ragya Naik were killed during the tenure of Mr. Naidu, he pointed out further arguing whether the Congress could accuse the TDP of eliminating them. The party had lost many leaders at the national level too. Instead of controlling the extremist violence despite being in office, the Chief Minister was targeting the Opposition with his motivated campaign, he said. The PW violence could just be a sign of desperation and an attempt to bolster its sagging image.

All this was only giving room to suspicion that the Chief Minister himself was behind the developments with a view to garnering sympathy votes, he said.

Earlier, at a press conference, the chief spokesperson of the APCC, K. Rosaiah, said the TDP leadership could be suffering from serious physical disabilities because it was continuously harping on the Congress-PW nexus.

The ruling party's refusal to take note of the rational stand of the Congress that talks were the only solution was strange, he said.

Mr. Rosaiah said TDP leaders were losing their balance in their public life and making nonsensical allegations against the Congress.

Their complaint to the CEO in this regard established their confusion beyond doubt, he said wondering whether the CEO had powers to deal with a law and order situation (referring to the TDP complaint to the official on Congress links with extremists). The desperation of the TDP over the anti-incumbency factor was getting stronger leading to its irresponsible talk, he said.

Condemning the PW killings, he reiterated that the Congress had always stood for non-violence.

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