No Security For Women Under TDP

“We will create a safe and secure environment for women. People should be scared to touch a girl. We will enforce the law firmly and take stern action.” These are the words parroted regularly by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu. However, when it comes to ground reality, a number of cases in which TDP MLAs were involved in atrocities against women and cases of threats and intimidation, have come to light. These were put out by independent organisations and were listed in reports.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) pointed this out in its report released on April 19. It said that five TDP public representatives were involved in atrocities against women and had cases registered against them. ADR further stated that as many as 23 cases were registered against TDP MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar.

MLA Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao did not lag far behind with 13 cases registered against him. Another TDP legislator Kinjarapu Atchennaidu has a case under three sections pending against him. TDP MLA Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy has four cases against him while MLA Gonuguntla Suryanarayana (Varadapuram Suri) has as many as 10 such cases pending against him. ADR also revealed that there were cases of harassment of women registered against Dharmavaram MLA.

TDP minister Atchennaidu attracted widespread criticism for his misbehaviour with an lady IAS officer. The lady officer, who was deeply upset by the minister’s offensive talk on the phone and in person, complained to higher officials. Her complaint created sensation back then. The harassment faced by Guntur district parishad chairperson Johnny Moon and Guntur rural MPP Gowda Laxmi Kumari year ago, at the hands of TDP public representatives is still fresh in public memory.

Who can forget the passing away of Mallikarjun Rao, the spouse of Macherla municipal chairperson Gopavarapu Sri Devi, due to a heart attack? What was the trigger? Pressure exerted by the ruling party leaders on his wife to resign from her elected post. What happened later? She too, unfortunately, met the same fate as she was forced to resign from her elected post by TDP leaders.

Bapatla Manam Sujata suffered a heart attack and what caused it? Pressure on her, in addition to threats by an MLC from the ruling party to resign from her elected post. Her husband and relatives expressed their anguish at the fact that she was being pressurised to resign from her post and that this was the reason behind her heart ailment. TDP leader Sajja Bujji knocked down Gowtami who was going on a bike on the road leading to Narasapuram from Palakole in West Godavari district, killing her. Her family members lodged a police complaint two years ago, but to date no concrete action has been taken. In Anantapur district, followers of TDP MLC Payyavula Kesav, Jallipalli TDP Sarpanch Nagaraju, Janmabhoomi committee member Chandra and others mercilessly beat up a helpless woman Sudha, on the road for objecting to the construction of a tank in the lane in which she lived. The misbehaviour of TDP corporators from Vijayawada towards a woman at Pune railway station became controversial and was widely discussed. A TDP leader’s son used objectionable language against a lady EO at Sri Kalahasti temple and yet there is no record of the incident!

There is pervasive anger against the increasing number of atrocities and incidents of sexual assault against minors and children in Andhra Pradesh. As per the figures shown on the dashboard of the chief minister, on Thursday alone seven such cases were registered across the state! On Friday, a rape case was registered and in the past one month, while seven cases were registered, this month alone, 11 cases were registered in just four days. This reflects the situation at the ground level in the state and the sense of insecurity which grips women under TDP today. The failure of the government and the police force has emboldened criminals to commit such acts with impunity, say analysts. It is a matter of deep concern, say experts, that in this year over the past four months, 281 cases of sexual assault have been registered.

The latest incident in Dachepalli, which evoked countrywide outrage, is the culmination of a series of such atrocities against minors and women under TDP rule. The failure of the state government in reining in rowdy elements is evident. The fact that Guntur district alone witnessed eight cases of sexual assault from the end of March until now is alarming. As long as criminals enjoy the support of ruling party leaders, they will continue to behave like monsters and get increasingly brazen in their behaviour towards women. Andhra Pradesh is a clear illustration of this.