Cong. decries 'tirade' against YSR

By Our Special CorrespondentHYDERABAD, AUG. 29. Thirteen Congress MLAs have resented the ``tirade'' launched by the Telugu Desam Party against the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, in connection with his call to party activists to form ``suicide squads'' (Aatmarpana Dalams) to counter violent attacks on them.

In a three-page press release, they defended Dr. Reddy's appeal to the partymen as a ``self-protection exercise'' and accused the TDP leaders of distorting the appeal in an ugly attempt to gain political mileage. They said the ``ill-motivated campaign'' against the CLP leader was launched by the TDP out of spite over the success of the Congress in the zilla parishad, mandal and panchayat polls.

The MLAs, who came in defence of Dr. Reddy are: Messrs G. Chinna Reddy, N. Raghuveera Reddy, Y. Sivaram Reddy, K. Suryapratap Reddy, B. Narayana Reddy, S. Udayabhanu, P. Sambasiva Raju, D. Sridharbabu, N. Varadarajul Reddy, Ponnala Laxmaiah M. Ramana Rao and Ms. Sunitha Reddy and Ms. Konda Surekha.

They said as many as 249 Congress activists had been killed at the hands of TDP functionaries since Mr. Chandrababu Naidu took over as Chief Minister in 1995. Penugonda in Anantapur district alone accounted for 45 deaths. During the panchayat raj election process lasting over a month, as many 17 persons, of whom five from Anantapur district, were done to death.

Against this backdrop, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy appealed to party workers to form into squads to protect themselves from these ``murderous attacks,'' the Congress MLAs pointed out. They recalled the exhortation of N.T. Rama Rao to his party workers to wield lathis. They alleged that at the instance of the Chief Minister, women functionaries of the TDP attacked the woman agitators of the anti-power tariff hike stir with blades.

They said the attacks on Congress workers were organised under the direction from the top and therefore Dr. Reddy's call to partymen was justified. The allegation that Dr. Reddy was inciting violence was baseless. In the past several false cases were foisted on Dr. Reddy and they did not stand scrutiny by the courts. They said any inquiry into the allegations made against Dr. Reddy was welcome. They were also prepared to participate in any public debate on the issue as challenged by Mr. Paritala Ravi, TDP legislator.

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Section  : Southern States
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