Hyderabad: Amid tensions between the Andhra Pradesh government and Kapus demanding backward classes status, a powerful community leader Mudragada Padmanabham has announced he will be going on indefinite fast.
Padmanabham, who has been named by police as accused No. 1 in the cases booked of violence last Sunday at Tuni, said he will begin on Friday indefinite fast in his native Kirlampudi, in East Godavari district.
His wife Padmavati will also join him in the fast, in a room at their house.
“Unless the government issues the orders including Kapus in the BCs list and allocates Rs2,000 crore [Rs20 billion, Dh1 billion] for the Kapus Welfrare Corporation, there will not be any change in my programme of launching indefinite fast from Friday”, he said.
Padmanabham’s announcement came within a week of large scale violence after the “Kapus Unity Rally” at Tuni in which a train, a police station and 25 vehicle were set ablaze and 19 people injured.
Padmanabham reacted strongly to booking of cases against 300 people including 27 prominent Kapu leaders belonging to Congress, YSR Congress and the BJP, who had gathered at the rally on Sunday.
“Instead of fulfilling the promises made to Kapus, the Telugu Desam government was harassing Kapus”, Padmanabahm said.
He announced that if he and other Kapu leaders were arrested they would remain in jail and would not seek bail. He denied that he had provoked the violence.
Police have strengthened the security in East Godavari district in view of the indefinite fast.
Superintendent of Police Ravi Prakash warned the people of other parts of the district and the state against travelling to Kirlampudi for Padmanabahm’s protest programme.
“There are 35 checkpoints in place to stop large numbers of people from gathering at Kirlampudi in view of last Sunday’s incidents,” he said.
For Padmanabham, who served as a minister in both Congress and TDP governments in the past, resorting to indefinite fasts is not a new thing.
He has gone on such protests many times in the past for various demands related to the Kapu community.
Kapus are a numerically powerful caste in coastal Andhra and have been fighting for BC status for decades on the basis of their economically weaker status.
In a bid to assuage the feelings of Kapus, the Chandrababu Naidu government has set up a six member cabinet sub committee to look into the demand and set up a Backward Classes commission.
Chief Minister Naidu, after discussing the matter in the cabinet, said that merely issuing a government order including the Kapus on the BC list will not solve the problem as it will be struck down by the court.
He said that the Kapus can be included in the list only through the recommendation of a commission.
On the other demand Naidu said that the government will allocate Rs10 billion to the Kapu welfare corporation from this year.
But the government’s move to extend BC status to the Kapus was facing a lot of resistance from the other backward communities. Backward Class Welfare Association President and a TDP MLA R Krishnaiah has warned Naidu government against any such steps. The OBCS held protest demonstrations all over Andhra Pradeh on Thursday warning they will further intensify their agitation if Kapus were included in the BCs list. “This will be injustice with the other backward classes”, Krishnaiah said. Meanwhile popular film star and founder of Jana Sena Pavan Kalyan, a Kapu by caste, was also facing the ire of his community and angry Kapus tore and burnt his posters and effigies at many places. They were angry with his statement that he does not represent any one caste or community. Kapus were feeling let down by his failure to stand up with the kinsmen on the issue of reservation.
Kapus had united in support of TDP-BJP alliance in the last elections on the appeal of Pavan Kalyan.
