THE police firing on workers of the Left parties at Mudigonda in Khammam district marks a political watershed in the contemporary politics of Andhra Pradesh. The heady days of 2004, when Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy led the Congress, the Left and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to hand out the worst-ever electoral drubbing to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), seem a long way off. Three years down the line, the Chief Minister is labouring to fend off allegations of suppressing a struggle for free distribution of land to the poor.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) signalled that the friendship was over when it demanded his resignation; the TRS has already parted ways with the Congress. Although it did not demand the Chief Ministers resignation, the CPI wanted him to own moral responsibility for the Mudigonda attack. An unfazed Rajasekhara Reddy, who described the demand as a friendly one, does not foresee any threat to the alliance since the Congress, the Left parties and the TRS were natural allies.
Both these assumptions, however, did not amuse the CPI(M). The partys State secretary, B.V. Raghavulu, said the CPI(M) was not willing to abandon its ongoing land struggle in pursuit of future alliances. He was least concerned whether the Congress partys widening chasm with the Left would push it closer to the TRS, a party with which the CPI(M) had fundamental differences on the issue of creating a separate Telangana State.
The Mudigonda incident has thrown up strange friendships too. The TDP, which has been inching closer to the CPI(M) through seat adjustments in the municipal and panchayati raj elections, has extended full support to the land struggle. The CPI, which was not initially with the movement, has now wholeheartedly plunged into it.
The Congress has accused the CPI(M) of allowing the TDP to hijack its agenda of land distribution to reap political dividends. Truly, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu has not disclosed any substantial agenda that will form the plank of the next elections. His political attacks against Congress leaders for their alleged corruption and allegations against Rajasekhara Reddy and his family leave an impression that he would bank heavily upon the anti-incumbency factor and blunders such as the Mudigonda firing to regain lost ground.
The CPI(M) feels that the Congress leaders are trying to engage it in a political debate to deflect attention from land issues. We are not a weak political party to sit idle if the TDP chooses to ride piggyback on us. Anyone is welcome to support our struggle. Even the TRS and the BJP announced their solidarity, and we will welcome the Congress too, Raghavulu told Frontline.
The CPIs disagreement with the CPI(M) over the issue of the Chief Ministers resignation has become a non-issue. At least, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan did not press for it when they met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Yet, there was no softening in their approach to the core issue of land struggle which, they said, would be intensified if their demands were not met.
In almost every general election since the TDP emerged as a major player 25 years ago, the naxalites are accused of clandestinely supporting either the Congress or the TDP apparently to pursue their agenda of destabilisation. Even in Mudigonda, a naxalite, though a former one, is at the centre of the controversy. Bandi Ramesh, an ex-Maoist whose wife is the local sarpanch, is accused by Congressmen of provoking violence. His supporters, however, say he was the principal target of the police. Ramesh escaped unscathed in the violence.
Raghavulu said the presence of a former naxalite could not be reason enough to run down a movement. A Minister in the Rajasekhara Reddy Cabinet, T. Jeevan Reddy, earlier had strong connections with the Maoists and B. Karunakar Reddy, once an activist of the now banned Radical Students Union, is the chairman of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams.
S. Nagesh Kumar
COMMents
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