The CPI(M) district committee has strongly condemned the ‘house arrest’ of CPI(M) district secretary M. Jaggunaidu, and district secretariat member B. Jagan, in view of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s visit to Visakhapatnam, on February 21.
The CPI(M) leaders allege that the police cracked down at their homes in the early hours of Feb. 21 to prevent them from moving out of their houses. Mr. Jaggunaidu wondered whether CPI(M) leaders cannot move out of their homes, whenever the Chief Minister is in the city. In a statement, Mr. Jaggunaidu asked, “Are they not allowed to protest on the day-to-day issues of the common people? Can the arrest of leaders prevent the public from staging protests? At a time when the Chief Minister claims that 90% of the people’s problems have been solved, where was the need for him to fear about protests from the public?”
He said that there were innumerable problems in Visakhapatnam. A responsible Chief Minister should give an opportunity to the people and civil society organisations to ventilate their grievances. The rulers claim that India is the biggest democracy in the world but the democracy is limited to the rich and powerful while the common people are deprived of freedom, he said.
He also said that the BJP-led government at the Centre was doing grave injustice to Visakhapatnam by trying to sell the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and other public sector undertakings. It has failed to operationalise the Visakhapatnam-headquartered South Coast Railway (SCoR), so far, and also the assurances given to the State, in the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014.
He said that the Chief Minister should pull up the Centre on the issues pertaining Visakhapatnam and A.P. instead of trying to suppress people’s movements for justice.
