The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : PW now seeks to occupy democratic space

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

PW now seeks to occupy democratic space

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JULY 23. The People's War (PW) has termed the lifting of the ban on the outfit and its frontal organisations a "victory for the masses" and called on them to build a strong democratic movement.

In a press release issued on Friday, the secretary of the PW State committee, Ramakrishna, the secretary of the North Telangana Special Zonal committee, Jampanna, and the secretary of the Andhra Orissa Border Special Zonal committee, Sudhakar, said people would not care for bans till they built a democratic system and intensified the people's war.

Plea to lift rewards

The leaders demanded that the State Government lift the rewards on the heads of party cadre and recognise that people had a democratic right to engage in struggles to resolve their problems. Only then would the lifting of the ban have any meaning, they said. The PW hoped that the Government had lifted the ban in the spirit of creating an atmosphere for talks, they said, adding that they welcomed the move. However, they warned that the Government would have to incur the "wrath of the people" if the lifting of the ban was reduced to "mere formality."

Oppressed for long

The leaders said ruling parties had curbed the democratic aspirations of the people in the State since 1978, and had been implementing bans on the outfit directly or indirectly. The bans had never been a hindrance to the people in fulfilling their aspirations and protecting their rights, they said.

They said the Naidu Government had imposed a "fascist rule" on people from the time the ban on the PW was re-imposed in July 1996 till the party had lost the in recent elections. The State had been turned into a "police raj," they said. People had continued their struggles under "extremely oppressive" conditions, they said, finally getting the ban lifted by voting the TDP Government out and mounting pressure on the Congress.

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