Resignations galore in AP's ongoing political drama

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: From a gram panchayat ward member to a member of Parliament, elected representatives at different levels of the political pyramid cutting across party lines, have resigned to their posts in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions strongly protesting the “unilateral decision” of the Congress to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
Scores of panchayat ward members, sarpanches, mandal parishad territorial constituency members, mandal parishad presidents, zilla parishad territorial constituency members, municipal councillors, municipal chairpersons, municipal corporation corporators, mayors, zilla parishad chiefs, MLAs, MLCs and MPs belonging to Congress, Telugu Desam, Praja Rajyam parties have put in their papers.
Ministers, both Central and state, hailing from the region, however, haven’t yet decided on their resignations despite mounting pressure from their respective regions for them to follow in the footsteps of fellow legislators.
The ministers so far have remained silent on the issue.
While the number of MPs who resigned is five (two Congress and three TDP), the number of MLAs touched 130, including 76 Congress, 40 TDP and 14 PRP. As many as 34 members of the state Legislative Council have also tendered their resignation, strongly denouncing the Centre’s move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
The en masse resignation spree is seen as an unprecedented development in the political history anywhere in the country so far.
The first salvo was fired by Congress’ Lagadapati Rajagopal, Lok Sabha member from Vijayawada, the “political capital” of Andhra Pradesh. To follow him immediately were senior MLAs and former ministers J C Diwakar Reddy and D L Ravindra Reddy.
The resignation spree then spread like wildfire as many other MLAs and MLCs belonging to different parties from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions followed suit.
Taking a cue from the MPs and the MLAs, Vijayawada city Mayor M Ratnabindu quit her post even as more than 25 corporators of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation too joined the protest.
Mayors of Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Kadapa and Guntur cities, chairperson of Anantapur Zilla Parishad and heads of various other local bodies too tendered their resignations.
The spate of resignations is only increasing as more number of elected representatives are said to be putting in their papers individually, reports from different regions say.

"JAI ANDHRA"

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: The “Jai Andhra” slogan is back.
As the struggle for a separate Telangana state is gathering momentum, leaders who took part in the Jai Andhra movement way back in the early 1970s have once again raised the slogan seeking a separate Andhra state.
First to raise the call for a separate Andhra is the current chairman of Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Central Bank and former Home Minister Vasantha Nageswara Rao.
Former MP and senior leader of Praja Rajya Party Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah quit his party to join the Jai Andhra movement.
In Vijayawada, activists performed “ksheerabhishekam” (washing with milk) on the statue of late Kakani Venkata Ratnam, the spearhead of the Jai Andhra movement, and raised slogans demanding a separate Andhra state.
“When people of Telangana region want a separate state, let Andhra Pradesh be divided amicably. We shall get separated as good brothers without any misgivings or prejudices,” Vasantha Nageswara Rao said.
Jogaiah responded to Vasantha’s call and said he was ready to join the movement. He protested the PRP’s stand supporting the separate Telangana statehood demand.
“I can’t work in PRP when it is supporting Telangana state. Hence I have decided to quit and join the Jai Andhra movement,” Jogaiah said.
As of now, the leaders say no specific course of action has been chalked for taking the demand for separate Andhra state forward.
“We want to achieve Andhra state through peaceful means. And we are mustering support for that,” Vasantha Nageswara Rao said.
Many Congress MPs hailing from the coastal Andhra region have expressed support to the Jai Andhra cause while other leaders are expected to join them soon.
Interestingly, all the leaders who are now espousing the separate Andhra cause are in favour of a unified state.
But, with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti turning the separate Telangana demand into a violent agitation and attacking Andhra people and their properties, the coastal leaders too have decided to revive the Jai Andhra movement.
“Why should we bear the insults,” Vasantha questioned.

Rosaiah government under pressure over Telangana

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: The K Rosaiah government in Andhra Pradesh finds itself under immense pressure from not only the opposition parties but also a section of the Congress leaders to find out an early solution to the Telangana crisis even as the Chief Minister discussed with his Cabinet colleagues from the region the strategies to be adopted to arrive at an amicable solution.
The state government is now looking towards the Centre for a bail out as the Congress MPs hailing from Telangana requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come up with a decision on the contentious issue.
With the winter session of the state Legislature set to begin on Monday, the state government was seriously engaged in deliberations to find a solution to the crisis in the wake of the stepped up agitation for a separate state.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao remained stubborn for the fifth day today as he refused to end his fast while two of his party legislators locked themselves up in their Legislature Party office in the Assembly here and announced that they were going on a fast. The two MLAs – N Odelu and Koppula Easwar threatened to commit suicide if anyone tried to evict them from their office.
Health Minister Danam Nagender called on Chandrasekhar Rao at the NIMS, where he is said to be continuing his fast, as an emissary of the Chief Minister and prevailed upon him to end the fast. “I shall end my fast only if a positive statement on Telangana is made,” KCR reportedly told Nagender.
The state government has sent M V Rao, working in a private hospital here, as the personal doctor to attend on KCR in NIMS on his request. NIMS doctors said the fasting leader was being administered saline and his health condition was stable.
The principal opposition Telugu Desam Party, meanwhile, said it would not directly take part in any agitation for Telangana but would support any legislative process to facilitate formation of a separate state.
“We shall extend our support if the government moves a resolution in the Assembly for creation of Telangana state,” TDP senior MLA Erraballi Dayakar Rao said.
The Praja Rajyam Party wanted the government to find an amicable solution to the issue and not to resort to oppressive measures. “Since the Congress is in power both in the state and at the Centre, it should take the initiative any facilitate the process of carving out Telangana state,” PRP Political Affairs Committee member C Ramachandraiah said.
The CPI announced that its affiliate wings like All India Students Federation would take direct part in the agitation for a separate Telangana state. “We have already passed a political resolution seeking statehood for Telangana. We shall raise the issue in the ensuing session of the state Legislature as well as the ongoing session of Parliament,” CPI state secretary K Narayana said.
Rajya Sabha member and senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao, a proponent of Telangana, said they had already informed their high command about the urgent need for taking a favourable decision on the statehood demand. “Our MPs have already spoke to Sonia Gandhi on this and also the Prime Minister. I have apprised the National Security Adviser M K Narayanan about the fresh round of agitation for Telangana and sought his intervention as well,” Hanumantha Rao told students who mobbed his residence.
Meanwhile, reports from various parts of Telangana said students as well as other sections continued to resort to violent acts demanding immediate grant of statehood for the region.
In Dilsukhnagar, agitated students blocked the convoy of Information Technology Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy while effigies of Higher Education Minister D Sridhar Babu and Home Minister P Sabita Indra Reddy were burnt elsewhere.
Two private buses were gutted at Kukatpally here while few other incidents of damage to public property were reported from Medak, Nizamabad and Warangal districts.

Attacks on media

Hyderabad: At least 88 journalists have been killed so far this year and hundreds of media employees have been arrested and jailed, most often following sham trials or without formal charges being brought against them, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) said in its half-year review of press freedom world-wide. More than 750 journalists have been murdered world-wide in the past decade, the report presented to the Board of WAN-IFRA at its meeting in Hyderabad said today. The horrific attack in the Philippines on November 23, in which more than 30 journalists were among the 57 murdered, was the deadliest single attack on media in memory. That brought the total of journalists killed in the Philippines to 35 this year, making it the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. The report said: Hundreds of media employees have been arrested for their work in the past year and at least 170 remain in jail today. “The hostility of many governments to any form of dissent continues to impede independent news reporting in Asia. Journalists reporting on corruption find themselves in the firing line of those directly or indirectly exposed by their reports. Continued imprisonment of journalists in China, Burma's mass censorship and repression of independent media, the consequences of decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka, and the violence against the press in Nepal are only some of the key challenges facing press freedom in the region,” the report noted. Governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa continue to demonstrate their intolerance for truth, dissent and satire. Journalists and freedom of expression advocates are continuously targeted by the authorities, while the severe crackdown on blogging region-wide reveals how much governments believe that the Internet can be a threat to their power, according to the half-yearly report. “Across Africa, Heads of State and their friends continue to abuse criminal defamation and sedition laws to punish journalists who expose policy failures and corruption, and who report on conflicts and opposition views,” the WAN-IFRA report pointed out. Crackdowns on the independent press and the use of force are intensifying, inducing both self- and government-imposed censorship. In Latin America, governments and criminals ruthlessly attack journalists investigating high-level corruption and organised crime. Reporters are murdered with impunity, while critical and opposition media are shut down arbitrarily. “Prosecution and violence continues to be aimed at journalists in various parts of Europe and Central Asia, as they question government policies, use information deemed classified or unveil human rights abuses. Police raids, abductions and imprisonments remain common,” the report observed.