VIJAYAWADA: The political one-upmanship between the ruling TDP and YSR Congress has gone beyond special category status (SCS) as the Chandrababu Naidu government on Monday decided to implead itself in the petition filed by the Centre seeking review of the Supreme Court order ‘diluting’ the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The State government’s move came hours after YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy shot off a letter to President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging them to refer the matter to the Supreme Court for review. Speaking to mediapersons at the Interim Government Complex in Velagapudi, Social Welfare Minister Nakka Anand Babu said as the sense of insecurity among Dalits and tribals deepened following the Supreme Court’s recent order, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu took the decision to immediately file a petition to make the State government a party to the Centre’s plea. The Minister also took strong exception to the YSRC president’s comments against the TDP and alleged his family had encroached on 600 acres of land belonging to Dalits for over four decades at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district.
In the letters addressed to the President and the PM, the YSRC chief said his party strongly believed that the order of the Supreme Court would dilute the very spirit of the Act. “This restraint on the arrest of the accused may help the powerful accused more than the vulnerable victim and may also hamper the investigation,” he said in the letter.
“Given the fact that not a single day passes without atrocities being committed against SCs and STs in several parts of the country, dilution of this important Act will further demoralise the SCs and STs... they still suffer from inequality of opportunity, illiteracy, malnutrition and squalor,’’ Jagan explained in the letter.
Jagan further said TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been in public life for 40 years and Chief Minister of one of the most progressive states for 13 years, had the audacity to say if one was given a chance, why would one like to be born in the Schedule Caste community. The YSRC chief also accused Marketing and Warehousing Minister Ch Adinarayana Reddy of making caustic remarks against the SC community and describing them as unclean, ugly-looking and undignified.Citing their alleged remarks, the Leadr of the opposition alleged that this view of the minister “demonstrates the feudal mind-set of the ruling class in the State.”
CM flies to New Delhi
CM N Chandrababbu Naidu on Monday left for New Delhi even as AIADMK leaders disrupted Parliament and prevented the taking up of no-trust proceedings. Meanwhile, YSRC leader Vijay Sai Reddy claimed Naidu had accepted funds from Vijay Mallya and met him 10 days after he fled the country. The TDP rubbished the claim.