AP CPM Leaders Pay Tributes To Basheer Bagh Firing Victims

Andhra Pradesh CPM leaders paid tributes to those who died in Basheer Bagh agitation, conducted in protest against the reforms and hike in the power sector. A meeting was held at the GVMC Gandhi statue, Visakhapatnam.

CPM leader Narsinga Rao said that the then Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu ordered police firing on the farmers, opposition leaders, and protestors who had arrived at Basheer Bagh to protest against the power hike. 

Some of the leaders of the Left parties paid floral tributes to the memorial of S. Ramakrishna, one of the three martyrs of the Basheerbagh firing incident.

On August 28th, 2020, three protestors named Ramakrishna, Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Balaswamy have been killed in police firing near the Basheer Bagh area in Hyderabad. In the protest, CPI, CPM, and Congress party leaders had participated and they raised their voice against the power tariff hike by the then Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. Many people have been injured on that fateful day and three people also died which is now remembered as a black day on democracy. 

People who saw the events unfold on television, described the police firing as “completely undemocratic”, and against “genuine people’s protest”. Leaders from all quarters said that Chandrababu Naidu was making a mistake if he thinks of suppressing a people’s movement through gun power. S Sudhakara Reddy (CPI) said that the “police response was brutal, instead of indulging in a lathi charge, teargas, water cannons, they straightaway resorted to firing on peaceful demonstrators, aiming at their heads instead of below the knee as required”.