The smouldering fire of the ‘three capitals’ issue seems to be turning into a full-blown conflagration with scores of women from the capital Amaravati villages, along with their supporters, hitting the road declaring that its a do-or-die battle for them.
The simmering issue of the proposed shifting of the capital out of Amaravati to Visakhapatnam has evoked strong reactions from various quarters.
Responding to the situation, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW) Rekha Sharma tweeted on her Twitter handle that the Commission had taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged reports of women brutally beaten and throttled by the Andhra Pradesh police during their protest.
Ms. Sharma said the commission would deput a fact-finding team to Amaravati to probe the incident.
Remarks trigger row
Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission Vasireddy Padma, meanwhile, incurred the wrath of the women protesters when she said that they were being used as pawns by their men who were “hiding behind them”.
When asked to respond to the ongoing agitations by women in the capital region, Ms. Padma asked where had the men gone. Hinting at the TDP leaders, she said the people’s elected representatives who played a very active role in the insider trading were not to be seen now. “Are men there to only enjoy their posts? When it is time to protest, they have brought their women to the fore,” she said.
The women panel chief said the men (TDP leaders) should hang their heads in shame for reducing the women to mere vote bank and called it “politics of decadence”.
Strong reaction
Ms Padma’s statement evoked strong reactions from the protesting women who said that being at the helm of the Women’s Commission, she should extend her support to the cause of women but she was reduced to a pawn in the YSR Congress Party government.
Meanwhile, notwithstanding deployment of large police forces, the unrelenting women on Friday reached Vijayawada and made Benz Circle their focal point of agitation. The busy junction witnessed a ‘tussle’ between them and the police personnel trying to bundle them into vans and clear the venue.
