Condemning the police for taking TDP workers into preventive custody and confining some others to their houses during the protest condemning the attack on the party ofices, TDP Parliamentary district president Palla Srinivasa Rao on Wednesday alleged that the police were behaving like the workers of the YSRCP.
“The police, instead of arresting those involved in the attack on the TDP offices, are taking our leaders into custody for staging peaceful protests. The police are getting their salaries from the tax payers’ money and they are accountable to the people, not the ruling party. The DGP must follow the rule of law at least now and arrest those who attacked the TDP offices,” Mr. Srinivasa Rao told the media on Wednesday evening.
He said the YSRCP leaders were claiming that the TDP leaders were the first to level allegations against the ruling party and the Chief Minister. He said the ruling party leaders had made many allegations against the TDP leaders in the past and that the police were ‘unable to see it’.
Saying that the role of the Opposition was to question the government on its failures, on behalf of the people, Mr. Srinivasa Rao opined that ‘stifling’ the voice of the Opposition was nothing but ‘dictatorship’.
“It is normal for the Opposition to criticise the government, but the latter should not show intolerance it and indulge in attacks on the leaders of opposition parties and their offices. The ruling party must realise it at least now and uphold democratic values,” he said.
TDP leader M. Sri Bharat also alleged that the police were making selective arrests of TDP leaders.
‘Media not allowed’
“I was not allowed to go out of my house by the police on the plea that it may lead to law and order problems. I was not allowed to speak to the media at my house and no justification was given for this,” he said.
Expressing his reservations against criticism and mudslinging, Mr. Sri Bharat said: “I am against criticising leaders of any political party, including mine, without a valid reason. But, today all parties are indulging in it. We can’t say one is wrong and the other is right. You (ruling party) can take action against us (Opposition) if we dilute the Constitutional values.”
