CM instigated cops accuses CPM

Putting heat on Andhra Chief Minister Y Rajashekhar Reddy, CPIM on Monday said the firing in Mudigonda was the 8220;result of the Chief Minister8217;s instigating the police8221;.

Putting heat on Andhra Chief Minister Y Rajashekhar Reddy, CPIM on Monday said the firing in Mudigonda was the 8220;result of the Chief Minister8217;s instigating the police8221;.

In a letter addressed to Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Srinivasa Rao, CPM Central Secretariat member, also countered what he calls the 8220;misinformation8221; about the incident.

Rao says the agitators were peacefully conducting rasta roko in Mudigonda on July 28.

8220;There was no attack on the police station. No police vehicle was torched as being alleged. If any such thing has happened why don8217;t you Singh ask the authorities to exhibit the vehicle,8221; he wrote.

He said it was a wrong allegation that Maoists have sneaked into the land movement and are responsible for the violence.

Rao alleged that the Andhra Pradesh Congress had embarked on a disinformation campaign. 8220;When the CPIM 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. 8220;Bhadrachalam, in the same district, witnessed police firing on tribals. The police badly misbehaved with local MP M Babu Rao and MLA S Rajaiah. It is now clear that the latest firing in Mudigonda is also a result of the chief minister8217;s instigation of the police,8221; the party said.

Meanwhile, Left-leaning intellectuals have issued a statement condemning the police firing. Signatories to the statement, which expressed 8220;total solidarity with the mass upsurge of the poor for land8221;, included Irfan Habib, Ashok Mitra, Prabhat Patnaik and Utsa Patnaik among others.