Left parties to put video on AP police firing on the Net

A meeting of representatives of the Left parties yesterday resolved to continue the agitation against the tariff hike “till the government concedes the people’s demand.” A “protest week” would be observed from tomorrow to mobilise public opinion against the “State-sponsored violence.”

Briefing mediapersons here today, CPI state secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, CPM state secretary B.V. Raghavulu and CPI(ML) leader Vemulapalli Venkatramaiah lashed out at Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for “spreading utter lies” on the rally.

“Naidu has even surpassed Gobbles in spreading misinformation. He is trying to defame the Left parties by holding us responsible for the violence on August 28. We want to set the record straight by circulating the video cassettes for viewing by the masses,” Sudhakar Reddy said. They said that copies of the cassettes would also be sumbitted to Governor C. Rangarajan tomorrow.

Their other demands include payment of Rs five lakh to the kin of the deceased in the police firing, dropping of police cases against their leaders and construction of a memorial at Basheerbagh for Vishnu Vardhan Reddy and Balaswamy who died in the firing.

Replying to questions, the Left leaders sought to distance themselves from the Congress MLAs decision to call off the fast-unto-death after the police firing. “It is their decision. Our three MLAs sat with them to express our solidarity,” Raghavulu explained.

Asked whether Congress too would participate in the proposed “protest week”, he said, “We are appealing to them to join us as we have synchronised our agitation so far. We are also happy that some Congress have agreed to continue their agitation.”