CM asks Opposition to show restraint

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, JULY 10. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was visibly disturbed by yesterday's demonstrations and the subsequent lathicharge on the eve of his official visit to Tirupati, today made a fervent appeal to Opposition parties -- CPI(M), CPI and the Congress -- spearheading the ongoing State- wide stir against the power tariff hike, to shun violence and stop inciting people in the name of championing their cause.

``If people feel that they are really affected by the increase in the electricity charges and that my Government is pinching their pockets, they will certainly vote us out in the next elections. After all the elections are too far away and there are no elections round the corner (to try to politicise the issue). Why should anyone try to take the matter to the streets? You have already told whatever you wanted to tell them against the tariff hike and I have explained to the public my point of view. That is the democratic way but there is no point in your trying to disrupt by meetings or the meetings of Ministers and officials eternally by indulging in activities such as black-flag demonstrations, slogan-shouting, stopping convoys, etc. This cannot be continued indefinitely as the social, political and economic unrest it would trigger in its wake would completely derail the ongoing developmental process of the State,'' Mr. Naidu told a press conference. Mr. Naidu fielded a volley of questions on the police lathicharge.

The Chief Minister alleged that the CPI, CPI(M) and the Congress seemed to have lost faith in democracy and were hence indulging in such "irresponsible acts". He cited in this context the Congress' ``hand ''behind the recent incidents of violence at Guntur and regretted that despite the severe drubbing the party had received in the last elections, it was yet to learn any lessons and was trying to commit the ``same mistakes.''

Claiming that people had now become ``peace-loving'' and development-oriented, Mr. Naidu criticised the Opposition parties for having failed to note the change in the popular mood and sentiments but trying to inflame communal feelings among the public.

He regretted that the Opposition should be so ``irresponsible '' as to create unrest in the State when it was on the one hand poised for a quantum leap in the developmental sector and on the other caught in the mire of extremist/faction violence, drought, pest and so on. He also directed his ire at a section of the media for what he called giving more space to disruptive and political activities than developmental works. He also expressed his disgust at some dailies and magazines publishing photographs of mutilated bodies forgetting the amount of revulsion they would cause, especially in the minds of children and women. He however, agreed that the private media was not the Government's mouth- piece to project only its developmental works.

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