AICC national Spokesperson Dr Dasoju Sravan today demanded Telangana DGP M Mahender Reddy immediately file cases under the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against the police and TRS activists allegedly involved in the assault on Dalit leader and state Congress general secretary K Manavatha Roy.
"K Manavatha Roy was brutally attacked by TRS workers and the police in the wee hours of April 14, the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar. This brazen attack on a Dalit student leader is a shameful act. It is even worse that the police has colluded with the ruling party. They have anyway been working like slaves of the TRS in Nagarjuna Sagar to prop up the party's candidate for the upcoming by-election in an utterly illegal and undemocratic way. Manavatha Roy was beaten, insulted and abused using filthy language by the local police and the pink party’s goons while he was resting in his hotel after finishing a campaign in Nagarjuna Sagar. This undemocratic and unlawful act is utterly condemnable," he reiterated in his representation to the DGP.
He then demanded, "Till the completion of an enquiry, I demand that the police personnel and TRS workers involved in the attack be placed under suspension. The enquiry itself should be impartial and the punishment following its completion stringent. This must be done as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his party are also Indian citizens. Their actions must be judged according to the laws in the Constitution."
Flaying the police force for its alleged role in the attack, the AICC bigwig added, "You are supposed to be custodians of the Constitution. You are obliged to protect the common man. So, it is especially shameful that your own police officers have joined hands with the TRS goondas and have attacked a Dalit student leader. Roy is a student of Osmania University (OU), a Telangana activist and the General Secretary of the TPCC. He has been fighting to resolve the unemployment issue plaguing our state for the last 7 years. Further, he has the fundamental right to campaign for his own party and its candidate just like the CM, who is campaigning as the president of the TRS. Why then did the police and the pink party brutally attack him in the wee hours of today at a time the world is celebrating Dr BR Ambedkar's birth anniversary? How dare the police officers take Roy into illegal custody and torture him? Can’t Manavatha Roy exercise his fundamental right in this Telangana? This is hardly befitting of a state in a democratic nation. It is obvious they have targeted him as he is the leader of Joint Action Committee of the Unemployed Youth Association and has been pushing the TRS government to fill job vacancies in the state."
"This is however not the first time that the TRS regime has targeted a student leader. Mahendar Yadav, an OU student leader, was also discriminated against by the police. Why are the cadres of the Congress being attested indiscriminately and at the same time allowing the CM to organise a public meeting of over 1 lakh people in Halia amidst the ongoing pandemic? This is a sheer violation of the Covid-19 guidelines stipulated by the ICMR and the Centre as is the unlawful and uncalled for detention of Congress cadres in Nagarjuna Sagar hours ahead of the CM's meet in Halia. With just 36 hours of campaigning time left, this is debilitating to our party, and shows the ruling party's desperate attempt to keep us from winning the seat in the
April 17 by-election," he charged.
Sravan then launched a scathing attack on the KCR government's "apathy" towards the Dalit community, and claimed that it was blatantly betraying the community. He also claimed that the CM had "promised to give each Dalit family three acres of land" but had not kept his word, and had not implemented the SC/ST sub-plan either.
"Apart from keeping the community underdeveloped, KCR is now even bulldozing its youth for questioning his government’s failures by attacking them with the tacit support of the state police with the intention to denying them their legitimate rights," he charged.
Referring to a recent incident where Power Minister G Jagadish Reddy openly threatened a Lambada (ST) youth and said that he would kill the youth for asking about jobs and demanding justice for Sunil Nayak, during a campaign at Anumula village, the AICC spokesperson asked the DGP why no action was taken against the minister for making such a provocative and abrasive comment.
"KCR and his colleagues are using every trick in the book to win the Nagarjuna Sagar by-election at any cost by defeating K Jana Reddy, who contributed immensely to the Telangana agitation and convinced Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to grant us statehood. KCR should know that he cannot suppress revolutions with the help of police violence through illegal and unconstitutional means. The people will support the truth and will teach him a lesson in the election. I urge the Congress rank and file not to lose their confidence in the face of such unjust treatment. We must fight aggressively against the TRS party," he added.
National Congress General Secretary Anil Kumar Yadav, Dalit leader Narikela Naresh, and various senior leaders of the party also signed the letter to the DGP.