Externment of Kathi Mahesh, Swamy Paripoornanandha unconstitutional: Nunna Nageswar Rao

Khammam: T Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) district unit secretary Nunna Nageswar Rao here on Friday accused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of failing to protect the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

At a round-table conference organised to debate on “Externment- Constitutional rights,” Nageswar Rao condemned the police actions in banishing film critic Kathi Mahesh and Swamy Paripoornanandha from Hyderabad for a period of six months.

In a democratic country like India everyone has right to express their views. Banishment of Mahesh, who expressed his own opinion on Ramayana in a debate and Swamy Paripoornanandha for planning to take out a procession, was not justifiable and against the Constitution, he observed.

If anyone tried to disturb harmony among people, he or she may be arrested, and the courts would decide whether the person was guilty or not. It was not justified to allow a police officer to arbitrarily take a decision to extern someone for airing his or her views.

A retired Tahsildar, Kanthaiah, said punishments like banishment would be invoked against terrorists and Maoists. CPI-M Yerra Srikanth demanded that the government revoke externment orders against Mahesh and Swamy Paripoornanadha immediately.

T-MAS leader G Veerabhadram, Y Srinivas Rao, B Sharabandi, Hussain, B Ramesh, M Sathyanarayana, Veerababu, S K Qasim, S K Baba, B Srinivas Rao, Y Lakshmaiah, S K Himaam, S Paparao, P Upendra Chary, Premchand, V Nagulu, Muttaiah, T Krishna, N Nageswara Rao, and Bujji were present at the programme.