|
That Naxalites are
the hurdle for development has been the refrain of the TDP ever since the World
Bank stooge Chandrababu Naidu, had come to power nine years ago. It reached a
crescendo after the dissolution of the state Assembly in mid-November, 2003, ten
months before its term had expired, and advanced the elections. However, Naidu’s
plan of using the attack on him by the PGA’s Special Action Team on October 1st
into votes failed miserably.
Ever since the
Alipiri attack, Naidu’s TDP tried desperately to whip up a wave of sympathy with
the connivance of a section of the media. Posters bearing the photos of a
shell-shocked, blood-stained Naidu who emerged after the Alipiri attack, were
distributed throughout the state in lakhs; huge out-outs of the same were
erected; and booklets and handbills were published. The stunned face of Naidu
became a trump card in the elections. This, however, did not cut much ice with
the people who had been groaning under the TDP’s anti-people regime.
In fact, a
significant chunk of the population was inspired by the daring attack by the PGA.
Another sizeable section considered other burning issues more important and was
the least bothered about the attack on Naidu, and, it was only a small section,
which was already under the fold of the TDP, that showed any sympathy. The
entire strategy of the TDP to place the onus of responsibility for its
government’s failures on the Naxalites and the opposition parties clearly
back-fired.
The so-called
sympathy wave for Naidu was the creation of the media that had lost touch with
ground realities. A section of the media had deliberately fabricated the lie and
tried to create a favorable atmosphere through an endless repetition of the lie.
Just as his imperialist masters like George Bush Jr had unleashed a campaign to
make the so-called terrorists the scapegoats for all the violence that they
themselves had begun in the first place, Naidu too sought to cover up his
government’s failures on all fronts and the state terror it had unleashed on the
revolutionary movement and people’s struggles by making the Naxalites the
scapegoats. It sought to create a feeling of mass insecurity among the people
through sheer rhetoric and lies about so-called Naxalite violence by spending
huge amounts for this malicious propaganda. For the first time in India’s
electoral history, Naxalism became the principal agenda for seeking votes. Naidu
sought the people’s mandate to arm himself with even more draconian, repressive
laws and to gain legitimacy for his suppression campaign against the Naxalites.
As if the numerous armed gangs-formed, trained and funded by the TDP government
– were not enough, Naidu tried to arm his goons in the name of "arming the
people for self-defense" but failed due to stiff resistance by the various
democratic organizations and opposition parties.
The declaration of
Naxalism as the principal agenda in the Assembly elections was resented by many
in Naidu’s own party who saw it as a provocation that would bring reprisals from
the Naxalites. The PW had already resolved in mid-2003 to isolate the TDP-BJP
and to concentrate the focus of its attack on the high-level functionaries of
these parties. And a more concerted campaign was taken up from November with the
call by its politburo and its state committees of the three zones in AP to smash
the TDP-BJP alliance. It was resolved not to allow the TDP-BJP to campaign in
the areas of armed struggle led by CPI (ML) [PW)] that are spread across 95-100
Assembly constituencies all over the state, to physically target the leaders and
the notorious elements of these parties, to force the activists of these parties
to tender their resignations, and to mobilize the masses into struggles against
the pro-imperialist, Hindutva Chauvinst, fascist policies of these parties.
The PW had also
called on the opposition parties to make their stand on the various people’s
issues, including their stand on the Naxalite issue, explicit. It called on the
people to force these parties to spell out their stand publicly. Immediately,
almost all the opposition parties openly declared that they opposed the policies
pursued by the TDP towards the Naxalites, that they considered Naxalism as a
socio-economic issue and not merely a law & order issue, and that encounters
should be stopped forthwith and peace talks should be initiated. They also
promised that a judicial enquiry would be instituted to go into all the fake
encounters that took place during the nine-year rule of the TDP.
In accordance with
the party directive, the PW cadre concentrated their attacks on the TDP-BJP. The
feudal – comprador class character of the opposition parties, the anti-people
policies they have been pursuing in various states where they are in power and
during their earlier stint in the Center and in AP, were thoroughly exposed but
desisted from carrying out physical attacks. The attacks by the PW on TDP-BJP
functionaries were not confined to any one region but were spread across the
entire state. No place seemed safe for their leaders as PW action teams had
carried out attacks even outside the areas of armed struggle, in places where
the enemy had least expected them. Senior leaders of the TDP like Venkat Raju
(husband of the then Minister for Tribal Welfare from North Andhra), Ravindar
Reddy from Rayalaseema, Kishnaji from Telangana were among those annihilated in
the three regions. Jayapal Yadav, an MLA from MahboobNagar in Telangana, Erram
Naidu – the sitting MP and the chief spokesman of the TDP from Srikakulam in
North Andhra, and Kaluva Srinivasulu, an MP from Anantapur in Rayalaseema and
several district-level leaders of the TDP had survived the attacks after
suffering severe injuries. All these incidents shook the morale of the party
functionaries.
In the year 2003
alone, about 55 leaders of the TDP-BJP were annihilated throughout the state of
which 42 belonged to the TDP and 13 to the BJP. Another 18 leaders of the TDP
were eliminated from January to April 2004 in addition to over 50 informers
belonging to the TDP.
These actions created
a severe crisis within the TDP and BJP. Several activists and leaders of these
parties blamed their leadership’s short-sightedness and tactical blunder in
declaring war against the PW by making it as the principal agenda in the
election campaign. The insecurity for the party functionaries was seen as the
direct result of such a policy adopted by Chandrababu Naidu. The stark reality
that their party Supremo and the Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, himself was
not immune from Naxalite attack, despite massive security, deterred the party
leaders and functionaries at various levels from venturing into areas where
Naxalite influence was relatively strong. Thus hundreds of villages all over the
state did not witness the election campaign by the TDP-BJP. And those leaders,
who visited, did it stealthily without prior announcement and with heavy police
protection. Some traveled by public transport buses using the people as human
shield. The call by Naidu to undertake Janda Pandaga (Flag Festival) to mark the
commencement of the TDP’s election campaign evoked hardly any response as the
party workers did not dare enter the villages in the areas of armed struggle led
by PW.
The police officials
themselves expressed helplessness in providing adequate protection to the
thousands who sought protection and advised them to vacate the villages in Naxal-dominated
areas. They devised various ways and means like training the TDP-BJP
functionaries on how to defend themselves and escape when attacked by the Action
Teams of the PW, how to alert the police and the precautions to be followed
while moving. Several booklets, and handbills were published for this purpose.
The police sent SMS messages to the leaders regularly over the mobile phone.
Counter Action Teams were set up in hundreds all over the state to preempt the
strikes by Naxalites. All roads were continuously checked for landmines. But all
these moves did not fetch the desired results but had only spread further panic
among the leaders of these parties. For instance, when Erram Naidu, the TDP
leader from Srikakulam, was attacked, rumours spread that the Home Minister
Devendar Goud and some other top leaders were also attacked.
Chandrababu Naidu
became so enraged that he began to speak like a lunatic. He accused the
opposition parties of being hand in glove with the Naxalites citing as proof the
fact that the latter were attacking only the TDP and BJP while not obstructing
the election campaign by the Congress, TRS and other opposition parties. He even
questioned why Naxalites were not physically attacking the opposition parties.
Day in and day out, the TDP leaders, particularly Naidu, cried hoarse that "Naxal
raj would prevail", "Naxalites would roam the villages and towns of AP
even during day-time" if the Congress-TRS alliance came to power. Until the
eleventh hour, Naidu was begging the voters to give him the mandate for brutally
suppressing "Naxal menace". He harped on till the end that the elections
were a referendum on his policies against the Naxalites or, in short, a
referendum against the Naxalites. But all these were seen by the people as the
ravings of a madman. The people in the areas of armed struggle in particular,
were enraged by this vicious propaganda against the Naxalites whom they see as
their benefactors. For over two decades in most areas, the PW guerrillas had
been waging a relentless struggle against the state and the local reactionaries,
helped the people in occupying the land of the landlords and forest department,
and made numerous sacrifices for the people’s cause and hence the TDP propaganda
had only boomeranged.
As it turned out, the
people overwhelmingly rejected the TDP call and, on the contrary, ventilated
their anger and disapproval of the policies of the TDP-BJP. Though they had
little love for the Congress and other opposition parties, they let out their
fury through the immediate option available to them by routing the reactionary
fascist alliance of the TDP-BJP.
The TDP secured only
47 seats down from the 180 it had in the dissolved Assembly. Its ally, the BJP,
got just two seats from its earlier tally of 12 in the 1999 elections. The
people’s wrath was so deep that 28 of the 34 ministers who contested the
election were routed. Party stalwarts like Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who had won six
times successively from Vizianagaram; Pratibha Barathi who was the speaker of
the dissolved Assembly, Kadiam Srihari – the Education Minster and later
Irrigation Minister from Warangal, who tried to project himself as a champion of
dalits, Kodela Shiva Prasad Rao, notorious for using bombs and all means to rig
the elections, were swept away by the tide of popular resentment and discontent.
Five of the Ministers had even lost their deposits. Of the 118 seats the TDP had
contested in the 10 districts of Medak, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Khammam, Nalgonda,
Mahboob nagar (all the six fall in Telangana region), Kurnool, Prakasham, Guntur
and Nellore, it won just six seats. In four of these districts – Medak,
Nizamabad, Khammam and Nellore – is drew a blank. In the Telangana region as a
whole, comprising 10 districts, the TDP won only 11 out of the total 107 seats.
The percentage of votes polled by the TDP was 37.27% in the state as a whole but
only 31.81% in the Telangana region. In the districts of Karimnagar and Warangal,
it secured 28% and 29% respectively. Thus it suffered the biggest losses in
Telangana region, the stronghold of the CPI (ML) [PW] since long.
The same trend was
seen in the Lok Sabha results. The TDP, which had 29 of the 42 seats, lost 24
and got just five seats white its ally, the BJP, which had 7 seats, was
completely wiped out.
In a way, it was a
Referendum – a Referendum not against the Naxalites but the ruling TDP’s
policies towards the Naxalites and its stand towards the various people’s
issues.
|
