July 30, 2007

Press Release

We are herewith releasing a letter addressed to AICC General Secretary, Shri Digvijay Singh, by Shri Srinivasa Rao, Member of the Central Secretariat of the CPI(M), in response to Shri Digvijay’s statement on the police firing in Mudigonda in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh which killed six people.

July 30, 2007

Dear Shri Digvijay Singhji,

What you have stated about the brutal police firing in Mudigonda in Khammam district in the media amounts to nothing but misinformation. Maybe you have been misled by your party’s state leadership. We hope that you will ascertain the real facts about the incident and verify them.

Here are a few facts and issues we wish to bring to your notice:

The agitators were peacefully conducting rasta roko in Mudigonda on July 28. There was no attack on the police station. No police vehicle was torched as being alleged. If any such thing has happened why don’t you ask the authorities to exhibit the vehicle.

It is being alleged that Maoists have sneaked into the land movement and are responsible for the violence. Bandi Ramesh is not a Maoist as your state leaders are alleging him to be. He had earlier worked in the CPI(ML) New Democracy party openly. He had differences with his party and joined the CPI(M). His wife Bandi Padma has been the elected sarpanch of Cherumari village for the last 10 years. Even today she is the sarpanch of that village. So, they are neither extremists nor were they underground at any point of time. Verify this aspect.

The police lathicharged the peaceful protestors who were holding a rasta roko. They targeted Bandi Ramesh specifically, dragging him out of the camp and brutally beating him up. The people, aghast at such behaviour by the police, tried to extricate their leader from the police. Meanwhile the Additional SP, in an unusual move, reached the area with the anti-naxalite squad who were armed with AK-47s and LMGs. Even as the lathicharge was going on, the police began firing on the protestors without any warning, killing 6 people.

While these are the facts of the incident, your state leadership has embarked on a disinformation campaign. When the CPI(M) had conducted a siege of Khammam collectorate office last January, it passed off absolutely peacefully. The police were also quite restrained then. Later the Chief Minister pulled up the police saying they were not firm enough. This was reported in the media. Since then the police violence on agitators increased. Bhadrachalam, in the same district, witnessed police firing on tribals. The police badly misbehaved with the local MP, Dr M. Babu Rao, and MLA S. Rajaiah. It is now clear that the latest firing in Mudigonda is also a result of the Chief Minister’s instigation of the police.

I am writing this letter to you with the hope that you will examine these facts and take necessary action.

Yours sincerely

Sd/-

 (V. Srinivasa Rao)

Member, Central Secretariat

Shri Digvijay Singh

AICC General Secretary

In charge AP affairs