HYDERABAD:State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who visited Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti founder Manda Krishna Madiga in the Chanchalguda central prison here on Tuesday, described Krishna’s detention as illegal and an attempt by the TRS government to suppress the rights of Dalits.
Speaking to mediapersons after meeting the MRPS leader in jail, Reddy slammed chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for suppressing the voice of Krishna Madiga who is agitating for categorisation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and recalled that the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the present Telangana Assembly passed resolutions recommending categorisation of SCs.
“When a Dalit woman Bharathi died during a protest at the Hyderabad district collectorate on November 6, Rao had assured in the Assembly that he would take an all-party delegation to Delhi to press for SC categorisation. When Rao did nothing even after two months, Krishna Madiga tried to organise a protest. But he was illegally arrested and sent to jail. After his release, he was denied permission to go on a hunger strike anywhere in Hyderabad. When he wanted to sit on hunger strike at his residence, he was arrested again. Do people have no rights in Bangaru Telangana?” the TPCC chief asked.
Krishna Madiga was arrested twice and still kept in jail just because he wanted to hold a protest over delay in categorising SCs. In Nerella, Dalits were brutally tortured and implicated in false cases. The Girijans of Khammam were handcuffed and chained for demanding remunerative prices for chilli crop. Do Dalits, tribals, BCs and minorities have no human rights in Telangana? They are being booked for serious offences like treachery even for intending to organise protests on legitimate issues, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged.
The TPCC chief also met TDP leader Vonteru Pratap Reddy in the jail. He said Pratap Reddy, who contested against KCR in Gajwel in 2014, went to Osmania University on hearing the suicide of Murali Mudiraj who hailed from the same Dowlapur village in Jagdevpur mandal. But Pratap Reddy was brutally beaten up by the police and implicated in a false case. “After his release on bail, he was re-arrested and charged with attempt to murder. Rao is resorting to political vendetta.”Accusing the TRS government of working against the spirit of democracy, he said the Congress would not remain silent on these human rights violations but make it a national issue.