Volume 5, No. 6, June 2004

Chandrababu Naidu (CBN) had sought through this election a referendum for his fascist policies of crushing the naxalites, particularly the CPI(ML)(PW). He had made it the main election issue after the abortive attack by the PW on him at Tirupathi. But, the election turned into a referendum on CBN’s 9-yearWorld Bank-dictated despotic rule. This blue-eyed boy of big business, Bill Gates, Clintons, and their clan was kicked out by mass discontent against his horrifying rule. In these nine years not only have hundreds of revolutionaries and democrats been murdered by his henchmen in cold blood, but thousands and thousands more have been pushed to their death due to hunger starvation and curable disease.

In this Assembly election the TDP/BJP combine’s vote percentage dropped by a huge 8% compared to 1999. 31 of the 38 TDP cabinet ministers were defeated. The number of TDP seats in the Assembly fell from 180 to a mere 47now; while that of the BJP fell from 12 to 2. The Congress virtually doubled its tally to 185. This, together with the TRS’s (pro-Telegana party) 26 and the ‘Left’s’ 15 (in 1999 it was 2), gave it a two-thirds majority. The same trend was reflected in the Lok Sabha where the Congress won 29, the TRS 5, the ‘Left’ 2, and the TDP got a mere 5 seats (and the BJP zero). Even the much hyped female voter rejected the TDP where only 41% voted for it while 54% voted for the Congress.

But, if one gets deeper into the voting percentages things do not look that bright and it can be seen that the Congress landslide was basically due to its alliances with the TRS and the ‘Left’. In fact the Congress vote actually went down 2.4% compared to 1999, and the overall vote of the Congress was only 1% more than that of the TDP — the Congress got 38% of the vote to the TDP’s 37%.

So, in fact, what was seen in this election was a vote basically in rejection of the TDP’s policies, it was neither for the Congress nor the TRS (who won only about 50% of the seats contested). It was a clear-cut rejection of the World Bank sponsored economic policies and the policies of brutal repression. The TDP has borrowed a gigantic Rs.57,000 crores, most of it from the World Bank and other imperialist agencies, another Rs.3,500 crores from the Centre and has been granted 55 lakh tones of foodgrains for famine relief — yet poverty has been increasing at a rate probably more than that of any other State. Per capita growth rate is below that of the 1980s. The purchasing power of the average citizen has gone down, employment growth rates were low, health parameters worsened (even though Naidu called Hyderabad the "Health Capital of India") and successive droughts and unremunerative prices have devasted agriculture. Over 3,000 rural people have officially committed suicide (the actual figure will be far larger). The situation would be so desperate that in the 10 days after the election results were declared another 60 people committed suicide. In addition lakhs have been thrown into unemployment due to the imperialist dictated policies and these huge funds borrowed have generated barely any new employment. Last year it was the only State in the country where hundreds of gruel centres distributed lakhs of free meals to a devastated population. Not a single one of these centres was supported or run by the State government. On the contrary it declared on record in the Assembly the absence of hunger in the State.

Where then have all the funds gone? Basically as subsidies to big business and TNCs, to TDP cronies and for counter-insurgency purposes, and of course for CBN’s media campaigns!!! It is reported that CBN has himself amassed funds to the tune of about Rs.3,000 crores (See Box). Quite naturally the anger against the TDP was vehement amongst large sections of the population, and though large numbers of the vote could have been maneuvered by a pliable administration (to get him the 37% count), his didactic, arrogant and authoritarian approach created enemies even within the administrative structures. All this resulted in his rout.

But now, before coming to what the situation is likely to be under the Congress dispensation, let us see what exactly happened in AP during the elections.

Elections in the state of Andhra Pradesh assume special significance due to several specific features.

Firstly, it was one of the three states where elections to both the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha were held simultaneously.

Secondly, elections to the state Assembly were held after a five-and-a-half month interregnum between the dissolution of the Assembly and the final polls. Never before had the state witnessed such a long period of campaigning for the elections with only a caretaker government in power. The amount of money spent during the massive campaign is beyond anyone’s imagination.

Thirdly, the elections were held with the most amusing and peculiar of reasons-that of Naxalism having becoming a hurdle to the development of the state. It is the first time that such an issue had become the principal agenda in the election anywhere in the country let alone AP.

Fourthly, they were held when the issue of a separate state of Telengana had come to the fore as a line of demarcation among the contesting political parties. Never before had the electorate been divided so sharply on the question of a separate state. While the TRS openly advocated for a separate state and the Congress pretended to take a sympathetic stand, the TDP was vehemently against separation and had campaigned on the plank of fighting the separatist forces and for a united Andhra Pradesh. The BJP, while allying with the TDP, was ambiguous, at times speaking in favour and at times opposing the demand. It maintained that peace should first prevail before considering the issue of a separate state.

Fifthly, it was an election in which an incumbent Party was desperately trying to come back for the third time by showing its progress card, showering false promises, attacking the opposition parties in a manner never before heard of in the state’s politics, and using the Naxalite attack on the Chief Minister to gain personal sympathy. The photographs of the blood-stained Chief Minister after the attack in Alipiri were distributed in lakhs all over the state in a bid to gain sympathy.

In a way, the election scene in AP can be likened to a dog-fight in the streets. The biggest of the dogs, with a fleshy bone of meat between its teeth, was reluctant to give it up or share it with the other dogs. While those that had been denied the meat for nine long years, were itching to pull it out of the incumbent’s mouth. Hence the dog-fight got sharper, barking shriller by the day, pulling each other’s tail, biting each other all for a bone of meat. For it is no ordinary bone of meat. It is the wealth of a state that is one of the richest in the country, a state that attracts thousands of crores of rupees from across the seas. No matter if it has a huge loan of 57,000 crores at present. The imperialist lapdog had already promised that he would bring another one lakh crores to the state from the masters abroad if voted back to power. A mind-boggling figure that can feed several dogs while doling out part of it to the hapless people in whose name the money flows into the state.

Hence the big fight. Every Party was itching for power in order to gobble up as much of the state’s wealth as it could in the next five years. And there were too many aspirants for the seats in every Party while the seats too few! This gives rise to dog-fight within each Party. The barking and biting within each political party had never been so acute, so open, so vulgar, and so noisy. Party offices of each and every Party were burnt by the members of the same Party. Killings, stabbings, free play of force and the most indecent abuse against their own respective Party leaders, allegations of malpractices such as taking money for allotting seats, favouritism and caste-communal prejudices in the allotment of seats, etc., etc., rent the air in every Party office and openly. While those who got the seats exploded crackers and set off fireworks in joy, those who didn’t exploded bombs on the opponents and set fire to Party offices in fury. The drama reached its crescendo on the day of filing the nominations. Several hundreds turned rebellious overnight and filed their nominations brushing aside the warnings from the top brass.

After the date of withdrawal of the nominations the axe had free play. The leaders of every political Party had to crush the rebellion within as it was spreading like cancer. "TDP wields the axe to crush the rebels-expels 14 members for life." ran a newspaper headline. "16 Rebel candidates expelled from Congress" was the headline one day. "12 TRS rebels contest the election", "BJP’s feel-good only for the lucky, expelled candidates feel bad"…there is no end to the news of bickerings, the dog-fights and expulsions in each Party. Everyone wants a share of the large cake that state power offers. Whatever the colour of the Party, whatever its manifesto, whatever the promises, the aim is the same — to get a bite at the bone of meat.

"It is unpatriotic and anti-national to boycott the polls" screamed the pet-dogs of the imperialists and the ruling classes. "Vote for anyone you like. If you don’t like this Party vote for others but by not casting the vote you would only be playing into the hands of anti-socials and weakening our democracy" sermonised the high priests of democracy like DGP Sukumar on one day. In present-day Andhra Pradesh under Chandrababu’s TDP, khaki and yellow had become indistinguishable from each other. The police do what the politicians are supposed to be doing-right from distributing funds in the villages, implementing the so-called development works such as construction of roads, schools, digging wells, holding medical camps and so on to election campaigning.

One might wonder how and why these men in khaki were doing all these things, which a politician is supposed to do. The question of HOW is irrelevant in the police state of AP. None would dare ask the question. Chandrababu Naidu had given them all-pervasive power to arrest, torture, kill, raise armed vigilante gangs, organize covert agents and informants, attack civil liberties activists and others who dare to speak against the State, to make huge illegal earnings through coercion in the name of containing the Naxalite threat and numerous underhand deals in real estate and other businesses. The police thus had a strong vested interest in seeing the TDP come back to power.

Not that the Congress or any other Party would act differently and curtail the powers of the police in the long run. The problem lies in the promises made by the opposition parties that they would institute a judicial enquiry into the fake encounters that took place in the nine-year rule of the TDP, that they would create a conducive atmosphere and initiate Talks with the Naxalites-a prospect dreaded by the police for the simple reason that it would cut into their power and profits through extortion from people in Naxal areas, and such others. Though all this is an eye-wash and is aimed at garnering more votes in the Telangana areas, nevertheless, it would be difficult for the opposition parties to outrightly go back on these promises on the very morrow of coming to power as the people would not take it lying down after so much expectation had been raised. It is only matter of time before the new government too would embark upon the same set of policies as its predecessor. But the police state bosses in AP are not prepared to let down the brutal offensive against the Naxalites, and the masses at large, a wee bit, even if that be temporary. Such was the rationale behind their campaign for the TDP in all possible ways, both overt and covert.

Never before had an election in the state witnessed such a degree of state terror on the people and held amidst threats and intimidation. The curtain for this gory drama was up from the very day Naidu’s TDP decided to dissolve the state Assembly on November 15, 2003 and go for elections ten months ahead of schedule. The very act was based on the prospect of utilizing the State machinery to create an orgy of violence and bloodshed in the name of containing the Naxal threat for the "smooth conduct" of election.

The state cabinet declared its intentions clear when it passed the resolution against the Naxalites on the very day of the Assembly dissolution. It declared that Naxalites are a threat to peace and progress and impeded all the development plans of the government; hence there was only one option before the government and that is to suppress the Naxalites. It made Naxalism as the principal agenda for the election citing it as the main reason in going for early election. Thus the basis for the massive terror campaign by the State was laid and the abortive attack on the life of the Chief Minister by the naxalites on October 1 came in handy for this well-laid-out conspiracy.

Within two weeks some 14 comrades belonging to the CPI(ML)[People’s War] were killed in cold blood all over the state. Thousands of police and central forces such as the CRPF, BSF and RAF were deployed in the Naxal areas. Arrests and killings increased all over Telangana, Nallamala forest region and the tribal tracts of Vishakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam. Aerial surveys were taken up in all the interior rural areas where the armed struggle was strong. In the forest region of Vishakhapatnam-Vizianagaram districts alone, three helicopters were used for a fortnight prior to the election and the mercenary Grey Hounds forces were airdropped in the area from their recently-set up Headquarters in Vishakhapatnam city. The repressive forces carried out their terror campaign under several names—striking force, special striking force, mobile and special mobile parties, CATs, special watching parties, mobile check-posts, and so on. Hamlets were evacuated to make room for the brutal offensive of the state. In Nallamala area, several chenchu hamlets were vacated. The entire fishermen families residing along the banks of river Krishna were evicted on suspicion that they were helping the Naxalites. In the AOB region, particularly in the interior region in Vishakhapatnam district, massive forces of the elite anti-Naxal Greyhounds were airdropped to unleash a blood bath. In Vizianagaram district, five people were killed in February-March. On March 8th, three comrades—Vijaya, Sashi and Kumari-were picked up and shot near Kodika village in Salur mandal. Earlier, on February 28, Mandangi Rendayya of Chinadodiga village was taken to a cashew plantation, and shot dead. Another militant, Neelakantha, was also murdered by the police. All these were done at the behest of the TDP-BJP reactionaries who goaded on the police to clear up the armed squads of the PGA.

In the month preceding the election, the police violence knew no limits. Atrocities were perpetrated virtually on every section in the name of ensuring smooth conduct of the election. 63,000 people were arrested and released on condition that they report to the police station every day until the polling was over. In the week preceding the first phase of polling it grew worse. On April 11, two comrades—Ankeswar Ramesh alias Vinod and Kothapalli Sambayya alias Uppalayya were picked up and shot near Kondaparthi village. On April 16, two Naxals were killed near Yachavaram in Veagapadu loya in Ardhaveedu mandal in Prakasham district. On 18th, the commander of Kalwakurthy Local Guerilla Squad, Narasimha Reddy alias Prasad was killed by the Grey Hounds mercenaries. They also shot dead a peasant woman who was washing clothes outside her house. While the politicians dare not enter these areas for almost four months and in some areas, even to this day, it has been the police who had taken up the election campaign on behalf of the political parties, especially the ruling TDP. Counteraction Teams (CATs) have been set up in hundreds all over the Naxal-dominated areas by the police. In Nizamabad alone, where the Naxal influence is relatively less today, it is reported that around 20 teams were set up. In other districts like Karimnagar and Warangal these run to several scores. The chief task of these CATs is to unleash terror on a continuous basis on the acivists and sympathisers of PW.

The police arrived at this tactic following the failure of their chief, Naidu, in March this year, to get through his plan to arm the TDP gangs in the name of arming the people to counter the Naxal attacks. When the proposal brought forth wide condemnation by all parties which saw this as a ploy to rig the election through the armed gangs set up by the ruling party, shrewd and cunning Naidu hit upon the idea of counteraction teams that prowl the streets of the villages and small towns and aid the ruling party’s bid for power.

The gun thus hung over the heads of the vast majority of the rural masses. Those who contemplated boycott had to prepare themselves to be shot. The gun ensures that people do not stay at home during election time. It drove them to the polling booths. The gun presided over the "democratic process" of electing the bandits even if one hated to. The gun was the only guarantee for democracy to blossom and bear fruit. It was the gun and not the people that decided the election outcome. And it was only with the gun that the ruling parties could feel good.

Around 90,000 police personnel were deployed for the "smooth conduct" of the elections in the first phase on April 20 and around 50,000 in the second phase on 26th. They have fanned out into the countryside beating up people and threatening them with fatal consequences if they did not exercise their vote. The ex-militants of the People’s War party were picked up in hundreds from the villages and were asked to be in the forefront on the polling day. They were to accompany the police personnel during their combing operations and movements in Naxal territory, and later, the polling officials and the police when transporting the ballot boxes. The ordinary villagers and ex-activists in the revolutionary movement are made to bear the brunt by forcing them to accompany the police wherever they move. This was to ensure that the Naxals do not trigger off landmines or claymour mines. In Guntur, the police could escape from a landmine blast on April 10th by travelling with over a score of civilians in a road transport corporation bus as the Naxals only wanted to scare them off by triggering the blast a few seconds before the bus reached the spot. Later two policemen, including a CRPF constable, were killed in the exchange of fire with the Naxalites. On April 11, armed gangs of police in mufti attacked the houses of the APCLC leaders, Mr. Raja Rao in Guntur town and Chilaka Chandrasekhar in Sathenapalli with soap bombs.

The campaign in the Naxal areas of North Telangana, North Andhra and the Nallamala-Rayalaseema regions was on a low key. While big meetings were organized by the various parties in towns that are addressed by the top leaders, the candidates, particularly those from TDP and BJP, hardly stepped into the interior villages. And even when they did, they were accompanied by a huge contingent of policemen and only after meticulous checking of the routes for possible landmines. Some of the candidates and leaders, fearing an attack despite all precautions taken, prefer to travel in road transport corporation buses along with their gunmen. They were certain that the Naxalites would not blow off buses when civilians were inside. However, despite all the precautions and elaborate security arrangements, the TDP spokesman and the Lok Sabha candidate, Errannaidu, was attacked by the guerillas of the PGA in Vishakhapatnam. Though he had survived the attack, he was hospitalised and is till bed-ridden.

The abuse and violence within and between the various political parties in AP had never been as intense as in the present elections. The so-called violence (which is only counter-violence and a legitimate response to the state violence) of the Naxalites pales into insignificance when compared to that unleashed by the ruling class parties in their lust for power.

As April 20, the day of the first phase of polling for half the Assembly constituencies in the state, drew closer, there was tension in virtually every constituency as each side feared that the other would indulge in rigging and other malpractices to come to power. Both sides were prepared fully and were armed to the teeth to outwit the opponent. Gulam Nabi Azad, a secretary of the AICC, had warned two days before the date of polling that there would be blood-bath if the ruling TDP tried to rig the election by using force and manipulating with the ballot boxes. And the situation was summed up by the state secretary of the Congress on the day after the last phase of election when he described that it was not an election but a war between the TDP and the Congress.

The violent clashes between the TDP-BJP on the one hand and the Congress-TRS on the other have occurred in almost all the constituencies. For instance, in Pandithapuram village in Khammam district the clashes led to the opening of fire by the gunmen of the Congress candidate on the henchmen of the TDP candidate seriously injuring one. In Narsarao Pet in Guntur district, clashes between the supporters of the two parties on April 18 left several injured. Being the constituency of Kodela Shivaprasad Rao, a minister in the state cabinet, infamous for spreading bomb culture and for maintaining a stock of bombs in his own house, Narsarao Pet continued to be the hotbed of such clashes not only on the election day but for several days after the poll.

The second phase of polling was marked by the greatest violence unleashed by the TDP and the Congress that made the much-publicised Naxal violence a negligible thing. The police were deliberately not deployed in places where the TDP had planned to carry out rigging on a massive scale using guns and bombs against its adversaries. The media reported that most of the police force was deployed in the areas under the influence of the Naxalites only to leave the field free for the TDP goondas.

In Nagasamudram village in Anantapur, the henchmen of the TDP candidate and the district don, Paritala Ravindra, kidnapped a Congress polling agent on April 26 from a polling booth and the don himself shot at him. The police took no steps to arrest the candidate despite massive protests by various opposition parties and organisations. Ironically, it was the same gang leader who had distributed propaganda booklets of the TDP issued in his name calling upon people to decide whether they wanted development or anarchism! A reporter was also attacked by the same hoodlums.

On April 26, there were 124 incidents of violence in the districts of Guntur, Prakasham, Cuddapah, Anantapur, Kurnool, and the two Godavari districts. Of these, less than a fifth was on account of the Naxalites while the rest was the violence unleashed by the ruling class parties. A congress activist, Gilani, died in clashes with the TDP on 26th in Kandukur in Prakasham district. The town observed a bandh.

On 27th, the Congress goons attacked the Municipal Chairman of Kakinada who had recently joined the TDP. His hospital was damaged and several shops were destroyed. The TDP burnt down the cinema theatre of the Congress candidate and both sides fought pitched battles with soda bottles, bombs and other weapons. Several vehicles and shops were destroyed. In Amaravati in Guntur district, the violent clashes flared up on 27th destroying property worth crores of rupees. In Pipparla village in Guntur, bombs rained for an hour. In Shankarapuram in Prakasham district, 13 people were injured in clashes and several vehicles were damaged. In Podaralla in Bukkaraya mandal in Anantapur district, the TDP goons attacked the entire village for supporting the Congress party killing a Congress supporter and injuring a woman and child. The violence unleashed by the TDP and Congress thus ruined the lives of innocent people destroying homes, shops, vehicles and other property.

Within each party itself the violent dog-fights have made a mockery of them as political entities. No politics are involved in any manner whatsoever. It is only the insatiable greed for power that brings revolts within these parties. Getting the ticket for a seat means securing ticket to access unlimited wealth and none would think of losing the opportunity. The total rebel candidates of all parties stood at 81 contesting in 70 constituencies. Of these, 27 were from the TDP, 34 from the Congress, 18 from TRS and one each from BJP and CPI.

Right from the time the alliance between the Congress-TRS and the revisionist CPI and CPI(M) came into existence in the month of March, pointed to a clear verdict against the ruling TDP. After the first phase of polls, it was the NDTV and Indian Express that came up with the prediction that the wave was against the TDP which would be washed away. By the end of the second phase, almost all the channels except SaharaTV, talked of a clear majority for the Opposition alliance. This had so infuriated Naidu and the yellow bandits that they came out attacking the NDTV and all Exit polls. Earlier Naidu was too pleased about the surveys when they showed his party had an edge over the Congress. But the moment his media-management gimmick had failed, he began talking of a ban on the Exit polls, that they had caused a loss of over 35,000 crores due to plunging of share values, that the channels were biased towards the Congress, and so on. The fact was that TDP-BJP had tried desperately to influence the news-channels, placed lots of Ads and incentives, but they could not make them write in their favour, so irrefutable was the anti-incumbency trend in the villages and bastis of AP. Even the pro-BJP Zee news gave only 137-143 to the TDP-BJP alliance even by mid-March. It was only one survey –that of a dubious organisation calling itself the Centre for Political Research and Analysis-which gave a clean sweep for the TDP predicting 208 seats in mid-April survey and scaling it down to 184 on April 28. It was clear that the TDP and the imperialists funded it.

The situation in AP, particularly the dissatisfaction and discontent of the various sections of the oppressed masses, is like a powder-keg that might explode any moment. The economy is in shambles with the debt running to a huge Rs. 57,000 crores for 2003-04 which is expected to rise to Rs. 63,000 crores by 2004-05. When TDP came to power in 1995, it was Rs. 15,164 crores. The percentage of debt in the state’s GDP was 18.99 in 195-96 and increased to 32.19 in the current year. The fiscal deficiet had increased from Rs. 2445 crores to 7338 crores over the same period.

The burden on the people at large during the nine year rule of TDP is unbearable. The total taxation on the people in the form of taxes and user charges had crossed one lakh crores of rupees. Property tax and water cess was hiked by 300%, State transport charges had increased by 100%, driving license charges by five times. Every year, an additional burden of Rs 830 crores was imposed due to rise in power tariff. With the directives from the World Bank to scrap all subsidies by 2007, the additional burden on power would increase to Rs. 3000 crores.

Education, health, transport, water and other utilities have become dearer due to drastic cuts in subsidies. For the first time, user charges were introduced in government hospitals under the benevolent Naidu. Intermediate education was further privatised giving the capitalists a huge profit of Rs. 1800 crores in return.

There are a total of 212 private engineering colleges in AP 160 of which do not have the standards specified by the council for technical education. Medical field is no less worse and the junior doctors strike had revealed the rot in the field of medical education. Fake hospitals and fake doctors were created on paper in order to give permission to new medical colleges.

The Tapan Majumdar Committee had stated that AP is one of the five states in the country where 51% of children have not seen a school. This, despite all the euphoria built up by the TDP over schemes such as total literacy, Chaduvula Panduga, mid-day meals, and so on.

Drinking water has become a scarce commodity in the vast rural areas of AP. 33,000 villages do not have access to safe drinking water. The problem is extremely acute in Telangana and Rayalaseema. 400 crores of rupees worth business is done annually in the sale of drinking water.

Agriculture was the most neglected sector and Naidu became infamous for his remarks that agriculture was useless and there was no need to spend money on that sector. Even the farmers in the coastal districts, that had been the traditional granary of the state, had become bankrupt. Lack of irrigation, cyclones, crop disease, steep increase in the costs of agricultural inputs, lack of remunerative prices for the agricultural produce, have become the bane of the peasants in the coastal districts too. Not a single irrigation project was constructed during the nine year rule of the TDP. The cost of Polavaram project which can provide irrigation for 7.2 lakh acres in East and West Godavari, Krishna, and Vishakhapatnam districts, and can produce 725 MW of power, has been lying in cold storage for over half-a-century. Its cost has gone up from a mere Rs. 70 crores when conceived to over Rs. 4000 crores at present.Veligodu project, which can irrigate land in Nellore, Prakasham and Cuddapah, has been kept aside.

The cash crop growers of mirchi, turmeric, cotton and tobacco are facing the worst crisis. The mirchi rate which was around Rs. 4000 a quintal in January this year, had dropped to less than Rs. 2000 and even Rs. 1200 in the name of low quality. The trader-bureaucrat nexus is seen as the main culprit by the peasants who have come forth into militant agitations burning down government offices, market-yards and traders.

Such is the plight of the various sections of the people groaning under TDP’s anti-people rule. On the other hand, the TDP government had given away thousands of crores of rupees worth property to the imperialists and CBB in the name of development of IT, amusement parks, Formula 1 for car races, and so on all of which have nothing to do with the lives of the vast majority of the people.

The truck with the communal BJP had infuriated the Muslims and other secular forces.

Overall, the situation had clearly turned against the TDP.

It is the intensified contradictions within the ruling classes that give some space to the people’s organisations to grow and gain strength or even re-couperate lost ground, not the ‘progressive’ credentials of one or the other parliamentary party. And as the crisis in the economy grows such contradictions are bound to intensify and the proletarian forces could use is to the maximum to gain strength and equip themselves to hit stronger blows on the enemy forces.

Soon after coming to power the Congress CM immediately made statements on the two main issues of the elections — free electricity and its attitude towards the PW. He immediately announced free electricity to farmers and said he was ready for talks with the PW. It was also reported that he had told the police to stop combing operations.

Regarding the question of electricity charges it has been a World Bank stipulation throughout the country. Anyhow in AP, though with free electricity some relief will be gained by the farmers, it was not merely the high cost of electricity that affected them, but also the question of regularity. A farmer requires about 8 hours of electricity daily to pump the water. The erratic supply not only resulted in the destruction of thousands of motors but also standing crops. Unless this too is righted the relief to the farmers will be limited. Besides, no stand has been taken regarding following World Bank dictates or not. In fact the CMP says not a single world on the question of reducing electricity prices. Nor is it said as to how the mountain of debt will be tackled to release funds for the rural sector which was thoroughly devastated under Naidu’s rule.

On the question of the PW the key point is that of the reversal of Naidu’s policies of torture, murder, rape and butchery. The offer of talks is fine but it must be accompanied by a reversal of earlier policies and the PW must be recognized as a legitimate political body not some ‘terrorist’ outfit. The PW has a comprehensive programme, with economic, political, cultural and other policies more comprehensive that any of the parliamentary parties. The PW and the established government must be seen as two contending political forces. And in times of armed conflict between the two contending forces each should treat the other according to the Geneva Convention, and UN resolutions regarding prisoners of war, torture, etc. As per even these conventions set by the present order, an immediate stop must be put to fake encounters, arbitrary arrests, torture, etc.

In fact in a news item printed in the May 21 issue of The Hindu the AP State Secretary of the PW, Com. Ramakrishna, said that "Before launching the dialogue, the government should stop the encounters, lift the ban, announce a ceasefire, and order a judicial probe into all the fake encounters….. If the government meets those demands the PW will reciprocate by observing a ceasefire." He further warned "if the conditions were not met by the present government, it would face renewed violence". Casting doubts on the government’s sincerity to solve the "people’s problems", he termed the TDP and the Congress as parties of "repressive policies and pro-imperialist", which had never attempted to solve people’s problems. He further stated that they have "bitter experience of being cheated by the previous government when the negotiations were on, as the police continued to kill its members in the name of encounters".

While utilising the conflicts within the ruling classes the people’s forces should not expect much change in the policies of the Congress. There will be some temporary relief from the repressive policies of the TDP, some nominal welfare measures will be handed out to the poor, and the illusion will be maintained that through the power of the vote change is possible. An oppertunity will be gained to reduild the people’s movement, even if for a short period. Thereby the democratic and revolutionary forces can be consolidated with preparations to face an even more vicious onslaught in the future.

<Top>