NBWs Will Not Deter My Fights: Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu asserted that notices and arrest warrants would not deter his determination to take up and fight for the peoples' causes.

Speaking at the Jalasri program at the Srisailam dam site in Kurnool district today, Naidu, reacting to a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) being issued against him and others by a Maharashtra court in connection with a case in an eight-year-old agitation against the construction of a dam at Babli, said that he had not committed any crime, and was only protesting against a project that would hurt the interests of the Telugu people as the project would have turned the north Telangana districts into a desert by adversely affecting the Sriramsagar project.

Naidu said that while he had planned a dharna against the move, before his party leaders and he could even reach the project site they were arrested at the Maharashtra border and subjected to innumerable difficulties. Later they were forcibly airlifted and dropped at Hyderabad, he claimed.

He also said that he was hearing about the issue only now after eight years of silence in the case.

The NBW has triggered off a war of words between the TDP and the BJP leaders. Taking umbrage against the TDP leaders accusing the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the BJP of indulging in political vendetta, the state BJP leaders including Kanna Lakshminarayana, Purandeshwari and others refuted the charges as false and baseless. They asserted that the Maharashtra police had acted based on the fact that despite being issued 22 notices in connection with the case, the TDP leaders had not responded till now.

Interestingly, even APCC President N Raghuveera Reddy demanded an immediate withdrawal of the NBW, and an unconditional apology to those against whom the warrants were issued. Also, TDP leaders belonging to both the Telugu states wanted the immediate intervention of Telangana caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to work for the withdrawal of the NBW since Naidu had fought for the interests of the people of the north Telangana districts.