Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee working president N. Tulasi Reddy on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for the “inhuman” treatment meted out to the protesting farmers in the Amaravati region.
Speaking to reporters here, he alleged that 28 farmers in the capital villages had died due to an onslaught of humiliations, harassment and false cases filed against them.
He said of the 28 farmer deaths during the 66-day-long protest, 26 had died due to cardiac arrest and two committed suicide. Terming them “State-abetted murders”, he said none from the government thought it necessary to console the bereaved families.
The Congress leader said the protesting farmers were stressed out and were under tremendous duress. In this situation, they were being further subjected to harassment and unable to bear it, many of them died of heart attacks. He said people in the State responded favourably to Mr. Jagan’s plea to give him one chance and gave his party a huge majority in the elections. But, after assuming power, he ditched the same people, he alleged.
Mr. Tulasi Reddy said a State where farmer was unhappy would never prosper. The Chief Minister had taken farmers for a ride by announcing his decision to shift the capital out of Amaravati and this was contrary to his stand on location of the capital when he was in the Opposition.
Tributes to Maulana
Earlier, Mr. Tulasi Reddy, along with other Congress leaders, paid glowing tributes to freedom fighter, Gandhian and the first Union Education Minister of the country Maulana Abul Kalam Azad by garlanding his portrait on the occasion of his 62nd death anniversary.
Mr. Tulasi Reddy said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) brought in by the BJP government at the Centre was against the spirit of secularism and Hindu-Muslim unity zealously promoted by Mr. Azad.
