Press Releases Archive

Dandi March II against Corruption begins

The Lok Satta Party today expressed its solidarity with NRIs in the U. S. who have launched Dandi March II, as part of their campaign against corruption in India.

Starting at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, San Diego, California, on March 12, Dandi March II goes through Los Angeles and ends on March 26 at Gandhi Statue, San Francisco.

Mahatma Gandhi led the historic Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad to the coastal village of Dandi against foreign rule. As he continued the 240-mile march, thousands of Indians joined him along the way. The march sparked a mass civil disobedience movement and changed the course of Indian history.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s example, NRIs in the U. S. have now undertaken the 240-mile Dandi March 11 in their fight against corruption in India.

On March 26, Indians in 11 other states in U.S including New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Seattle are conducting similar marches in their cities. Indians living in Dubai, the U. K., Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore,and Malaysia are also planning marches.

In India, marches are planned in _12 cities including Chennai, Hyderabad, Kakinada, Mumbai, Banglore and Ahmedabad on March 26.

Giving this information in a media statement, Lok Satta Party spokesman Katari Srinivasa Rao said the NRIs’ quest to rid India of corruption is commendable. He hoped that the Government would institute a strong and independent Lok Pal mechanism to curb monumental corruption in India.

Saturday, March 12, 2011 - 18:20

Let demolishers re-install statues: Lok Satta

Severely condemning the demolition of statues, and attacks on media and Members of Parliament on the occasion of ‘Million March’ on Tank Bund in Hyderabad on March 10, the Lok Satta Party said today there is no place for anarchy, destruction and violence in democracy and that people should pursue their legitimate causes peacefully and constitutionally. Those leading agitations should realize that violence and destruction would ultimately be counterproductive.

In a media statement, Lok Satta Party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma said that destruction of 16 of the 33 statues of Telugu legendary figures on Tank Bund could not be wished away as coincidental or collateral since the demolishers had come prepared with the requisite tools to carry out their diabolical mission. Some people had earlier kicked up a row over the statues describing them as symbols of cultural imperialism. Taking pledges at the statue of Pothana, author of the Bhagavatam in Telugu, and demolishing the statue of Yerrapragada, the author of the Mahabharatam in Telugu, merely exposed the cultural bankruptcy of the participants. Neither Mahabharatam nor Bhagavatam can be de-linked from Telugu culture.

Mr. Varma said that it was not proper for a Government, which could not protect the statues to assert it would re-install them. “We will be doing great disservice to the Telugu legendary figures as long as there are iconoclasts on the one side and installers on the other and as long police have to be deployed to safeguard their statues. Only when the demolishers deemed the statutes as forming part of our cultural legacy, their reinstallation will be appropriate.”

Whoever might have physically demolished the statues, the organizers of Million March would have to take responsibility for the March 10 incidents. It would be in the fitness of things if they take the initiative for re-installation of the demolished statues, Mr. Varma added.

Mr. Varma asked people to maintain restraint and not display passion in the wake of such unfortunate incidents.

Friday, March 11, 2011 - 17:06

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