Strongly condemning the stone-pelting at Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, during his poll campaign on Saturday, the TDP on Sunday demanded the immediate shifting of the Incharge Director General of Police (DGP), KV Rajendrananth Reddy, along with the DGP (Intelligence), PSR Anjaneyulu and the Vijayawada Police Commissioner, Kranthi Rana Tata, as the incident took place due to their failure.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), the TDP senior leader and member of Rajya Sabha, Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar felt that the stone-pelting on the Chief Minister is due to the failure of the police. Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar also demanded that those responsible for the attack be brought to book immediately.
Giving reference of the representations made by the TDP supremo and former chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, earlier to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on August 28 last year, on March 16 this year to the ECI and the CEC and the representation submitted by Chandrababu Naidu along with Jana Sena chief, Pawan Kalyan, on January 9 this year, the Rajya Sabha member said that it is very sad that the security for a top leader like the Chief Minister, has miserably failed where the senior most IPS officers like the DGP, the DGP (Intelligence) and others are stationed.
Ravindra Kumar mentioned in the letter that the police department has lost its professionalism and conduct as established through a series of episodes of failure in the past five years. Attacks on TDP leaders at several places were handled with bias and the culprits were let off. Pointing out that the then DGP has justified the stone-pelting at the convoy of Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravathi as a democratic right of dissent, the TDP MP said that the attack on the TDP office at Mangalagiri was handled so irresponsibly that the police did not take into custody even a single person responsible for this.
This apart, in Angallu and Kuppam the police personnel had remained as mute spectators when stones were pelted at Chandrababu Naidu in the full glare of the media, he said. Also, in Yerragondapalem in Prakasam district Chandrababu Naidu was attacked by none other than a Minister in the State Cabinet, Kanakamedala pointed out. Besides, the police miserably failed in making proper security arrangements for Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s election rally at Chilakaluripet on March 17 and no action has been taken yet to probe these lapses and fix the responsibility on those concerned, the TDP MP stated.
Against this backdrop, Kanakamedala said that it is really shocking that much before any preliminary inquiry conducted into the attack on the Chief Minister, the advisor to the Government, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, has made attempts to directly malign the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu He felt that it is a travesty of self-cheating by the YSRCP.
Stating that the entire police setup is in the clutches of the Chief Minister, Kanakamedala said that the officers of the choice of the Chief Minister are given focal postings thus reducing the law-enforcing agencies into spineless creatures to act as party functionaries. Some of the Cabinet Ministers are interfering with the police investigation through their statements pointing towards the TDP, he said and suspected that given the past record of the State police some false cases may be foisted against the TDP activists to cover-up their failures.
Kanakamedala opined that as the police officials have already failed in maintenance of the law and order, investigation by the same officials in their own failure may not be impartial to bring the facts to light. Since the responsibility of law and order maintenance during the election period squarely lies with the ECI, Kanakamedala made an appeal to the poll panel to take control of the deteriorating law and order in the State to ensure the poll campaign goes on in a peaceful manner.
Since the DGP, the DGP (Intelligence) and the Vijayawada Police Commissioner have miserably failed in providing proper security arrangements for the Chief Minister and even the Prime Minister as mentioned above how the common man can expect maintenance of proper law and order by the same officials, particularly during the election period, he asked. Hence, Kanakamedala demanded that the Incharge DGP, the DGP (Intelligence) and the Vijayawada Police Commissioner be shifted immediately for protection of law and order.
Kanakamedala also demanded the poll panel to order for an inquiry into Saturday’s incident by an external agency like the CBI or the NIA so that the real culprits can be brought to book in the interest of fairplay and justice.