Congress rally thwarted by police

​Hyderabad: Congress party’s decision to take out a rally to Mallannasagar in support of farmers as part of the ‘Chalo Mallannasagar’ campaign was thwarted by police at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday. Hundreds of leaders and cadres were arrested at various places across Telangana.

TPCC working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, CLP leader K Jana Reddy, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, senior leaders Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Madhu Yashki and T Balram Naik, MLAs T Rammohan Reddy, C Vamshichand Reddy and Mahila Congress leader Nerella Sharada and several others were arrested near Gandhi Bhavan.

Former deputy CM Damodar Raja Narsimha, D K Aruna, Sunitha Laxma Reddy, Sabitha Indra Reddy, TPCC chief spokesperson Dasoju Sravan and others were arrested at Gajwel. Deputy CLP leader T Jeevan Reddy, former minister D Sridhar Babu, former MP Ponnam Prabhakar and others were arrested at Karimnagar.

Tense moments were witnessed since morning due to the presence of a large number of police personnel near Gandhi Bhavan, which was objected by Congress leaders. Some of them also had an argument with police officials. Later, after the preparations were afoot for ‘Chalo Mallannasagar’, the policemen went in to an alert mode.

The vehicles in which the leaders were about to leave the party office were not allowed to come outside the premises. This forced the leaders to get down and walk. They were detained by a strong contingent of police led by central zone DCP V B Kamalasan Reddy. While most of them were arrested right in front of the Gandhi Bhavan, some of them were rounded up at Nampally crossroads. They were later shifted to Goshamahal stadium.

Speaking to mediapersons, party senior leader and former Union minister S Jaipal Reddy condemned the arrests and demanded the Chief Minister to explain the act of detention of leaders and laying siege to Gandhi Bhavan when party leaders were on their way to Mallannasagar. “Since the TRS government has lost confidence, it is resorting to the arrest of anyone who is opposing it,” he said.

When the leaders were let off by the police during in the afternoon, they held a meeting and decided to extend their support to farmers of Mallannasagar.

Briefing media persons, Bhatti Vikramarka described the strong arm tactics of TRS as a challenge for democracy. “We will continue to back farmers, when ever and where ever they are being denied justice,” he said.

Bhatti informed that the future course of action would be announced shortly. Opposition leader Jana Reddy demanded the government to provide compensation to farmers in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. “The current government should know that people would shun it, if it continues this kind of tactics,” he said.

Shabbir Ali described this as ‘black day’ in democracy after Telangana was formed. He reminded the TRS government, about the Million March and OU protests. He said that the Congress would continue its fight for ‘save democracy’.

“During the peak of Telangana struggle the then Congress government never stopped people from protesting democratically. This could not have been a success, lest we gave permissions to them,” he said.