Date:27/11/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/27/stories/2003112705700400.htm

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

TDP levelling wild charges, says Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Nov. 26. Accusing Telugu Desam leaders of resorting to "cheap publicity stunts,'' the APCC president, D. Srinivas, has said that the TD leadership should know better who was behind the `Alipiri' attack on the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, instead of harping on the Congress-naxalite nexus.

"I don't call it a stage-managed one. I have maintained all through that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy behind it. Only, the script is unfolding now,'' he said.

Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Srinivas said the ruling party had become "panicky'' at the response to the Congress yatra and hence, was levelling "wild allegations.'' He accused the Chief Minister of trying to influence the ongoing enquiry into the Alipiri incident by such "insinuating statements.'' The Congress had been pleading for an "impartial'' judicial enquiry into the matter to establish not just the persons behind the conspiracy but also the reasons for hatching it, he said.

The enquiry of the former DGP, Prakash Singh, did indicate that the police had prior information of the "attack," he said quoting the depositions of police officers. He wondered whether the neglect of the routine security exercise by the police had more to it than mere "negligence factor.''

The Congress had always advocated peaceful negotiations as a solution to the vexed extremist problem and the outcome of the Assam accord, the Mizo Accord and the Punjab Accord was ample testimony to the party's political wisdom. If Mr. Naidu had a similar vision, he would know that "repression'' would not yield positive results. The "State violence'' had already claimed 1,400 lives in the guise of anti-extremist operations so far, but the problem continued to exist, he said urging the Chief Minister not to continue treating it as a law and order problem.

The TD Government had no achievement to tout and its "sagging image was getting no better, he said while renewing the challenge for a debate on development. He asked whether the TD was prepared to send its representative if a respectable organisation like the APUWJ (Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists) agreed to play moderator. But, Mr. Naidu should accept the outcome of the debate gracefully, he added.

The TD leaders should spell out the number of projects completed by them and the number of industries that had been established in the State, Mr. Srinivas said adding that AP was still depending on the infrastructure created by the erstwhile Congress regimes. The argument that free power could not be given to farmers was wrong, as it would cost less than what the TD was spending on publicity, he said. He reiterated that Andhra Pradesh would witness development once again only under the Congress rule.

The PCC president thanked people for thronging meetings during the party's four-day `Praja Hita Yatra' in Rayalaseema region and announced that the party would chalk out its election strategy in two different sessions on December 1 and 2 in Hyderabad.

The second meeting would be addressed by the AICC in charge of the party affairs, Ghulam Nabi Azad and attended by observers, R.P.N. Singh, Krishna Murthy and Narayana Swamy. All senior leaders and functionaries of the PCC would be attending it, he added.