PRAGOTI

Hyderabad, September 4: Unable to bear the popular and enthusiastic response
from the people of Hyderabad old city to the consistent efforts being made
by the CPI(M) to take up their problems and mobilising them for land
movement and other struggles, and exposure of their failure as elected
representatives over the years in taking up the cause of development of the
old city and improving the lot of the people, Majlis e Ittehad ul
Muslimeen (MIM), bereft as it has been of democratic traditions, is
resorting to attacks on the leaders of the CPI(M) and their activities for
enlightening and mobilising the people.

Comrade Madhu

P Madhu, member of Rajya Sabha and of the central committee of the CPI(M),
has been in the forefront in spearheading the mass movement in the old city.
He had taken up nine-day padayatra in the old city on the 25th August, 2007
on development of the old city and various problems confronting the people.
On the 3rd September, 2007, when Madhu, accompanied by the city and local
leaders of the CPI(M) and local people, was conducting the second round of
padayatra that day in the evening at Falaknuma, MIM workers entered into
arguments with the workers of the CPI(M) and after the padayatra continued
for more than one kilometer, the MIM workers started attacking them from
behind with stones and bricks. In this attack 15 workers of the CPI(M)
sustained head injuries out of them Osman, Maqsud and Vittal sustained
serious injuries and were shifted to CARE hospital in Nampally. Earlier in
the day, B V Raghavulu, Polit Bureau member and state secretary of the
CPI(M), also participated in the padayatra. Trying to disperse the MIM
goondas, the police arrested some of them. Rejecting the request of the
police to stop the padayatra, Madhu made it clear that such attacks by
goondas could not water down the resolve to continue the programme intended
to meet the people and know their problems.

The attack by MIM received all-round condemnation by political parties and
mass organisations. Strongly condemning the attacks, Y Venkateswara Rao,
state secretariat member of the CPI(M), termed them pre-planned and demanded
strong punishment to the culprits. He said that the MIM was afraid of the
activities of the CPI(M) among the people. CPI state secretary K Narayana
and leaders of the Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi
and CPI(ML) Liberation and of several mass organisations strongly condemned
the attack and demanded stern action against the culprits.

Commencing the padayatra from the historical Golconda fort in the old city,
Madhu said that it had been neglected as a result of the negligence of the
rulers and corrupt practices of the local representatives of the people
over the years. Explaining the woeful and deteriorating civic and other
conditions in the old city in terms of literacy, housing, health, drinking
water, employment and other problems, he said that only thirty per cent of
the developmental funds were actually spent and the balance was swallowed by
contractors, officers and people's representatives. Explaining that for
more than one year the CPI(M) was conducting struggles for solving the
problems of the people, Madhu announced that the struggle for development of
the old city and the land struggle would be intensified together with other
political parties like the CPI, TDP, TRS, MBT and Muslim League. Jahed Ali
Khan, editor of Siyasat Urdu daily, and Sayyed Vicaruddin, chief editor of
Rehnuma e Deccan Urdu daily, said that the people of the old city,
neglected as they have been for the last sixty years, no more would tolerate
negligence of development of the old city and their problems by the rulers
and that their consciousness was growing for the last two years. Secretary
of the Hyderabad city committee of the CPI(M), P S N Murthy, and local
leaders of the CPI, MBT, Muslim League, TDP and TRS also addressed the
people.

Zahed Ali Khan

With the incidents of bomb blasts taking place in Hyderabad on August 25,
the padayatra was postponed and recommenced from the 1st September from
Mehdipatnam cross roads and is continuing, facing minor attacks and
highhanded obstructions from the MIM and tense situations. Everywhere
hundreds of people are giving representations to Madhu and explaining their
problems. Madhu is talking to them, enquiring about their problems and
promising to try to solve their problems by continuing the struggles of the
people to bring pressure on the government for development of the old city.
Covering several places in the old city daily during the course of the
padayatra, Madhu had demanded the government of India to announce a special
package with Rs 4000 crore for development of the old city. Madhu came down
heavily on the MIM, accusing its leaders of colluding with the ruling
parties, encroaching government lands, making the municipal, revenue and
police machinery as their pocket borough and neglecting the problems of the
people. He said there were no democracy and civil liberties in the old
city. Regretting that terrorist activities in the city were increasing and
innocent people were being killed, Madhu said that terrorism should be
obliterated collectively. Madhu said that arresting innocent people and
making them sacrificial goats in the name of terrorists should not be
tolerated.

From M Venugopala Rao/INN