Press Releases Archive

Don’t glorify suicides, Appeals Lok Satta

Offers condolences to Eshaan Reddy family

The Lok Satta Party today appealed to political parties and civil society organizations not to glorify suicides committed in a weak moment in the name of one cause or the other as instances of martyrdom, and instigate others to emulate them.

Expressing profound grief over the suicide of Osmania University student P. Eshaan Reddy in reported fulfillment of a vow over the Telangana by-election results, Lok Satta Party leaders Katari Srinivasa Rao, V. Laxman Balaji and Eeda Chennaiah regretted that superstition had claimed a precious life, causing agony to the family and loss to the nation.

The Lok Satta leaders cautioned students and youth to beware of forces, which have been glorifying suicides as cases of martyrdom. Far from enlisting people’s support with a constructive and imaginative agenda, the forces are whipping up their emotions and driving them to end their lives in desperation. Their conduct borders on crime against society.

Referring to suicides in the wake of Chief Minister Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s death in an air crash, and the arrest of TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu by the Maharashtra police, the Lok Satta leaders underlined that the sons and daughters of leaders who instigated them are doing well while innocent students and youth paid the price.

The Lok Satta suggested that counseling centers be opened in colleges and universities to prevent suicides.

Saturday, July 31, 2010 - 18:18

Dr. JP visiting Sompet

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan is visiting the controversial thermal power project site at Sompet in Srikakulam district tomorrow (July 31, 2010).

He will be arriving at Sompet around noon from Visakhapatnam and call on families of victims of police firing. He will visit the ‘bela’ area and surrounding villages, take part in a public meeting being organized by the Sompet Environment Protection Committee, and meet leaders of the movement against the thermal plant.

After an overnight stay in Srikakulam, he will return to Hyderabad on August 1.

Friday, July 30, 2010 - 22:15

A new era in politics is unfolding with traditional Parties fading away: Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party today congratulated all the candidates who won in the by-elections to the Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly. It also congratulated the people on exercising their franchise calmly and peacefully without succumbing to inducements and the Election Commission on conducting free and fair elections, although the atmosphere was emotionally surcharged.

Talking to the media, Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said the by-election results have demonstrated that the era of traditional parties, which believe in deploying money and liquor to influence voters and pursuing power at any cost is ending. The results constitute an unequivocal indictment of traditional parties which believed they could get away by manipulating voters through traditional inducements. Both the traditional parties – the Congress and the TDP –in Andhra Pradesh today are in total disarray.

“We are on the verge of a new era in which there will be two types of political parties. One type of parties will be rooted in personality or family, caste, region or religion. Bereft of any ideology worth the name, they seek to promote narrow, sectarian interests. The other type will be parties which stand for rational and ethical politics, are national and secular in outlook, and seek to promote general public good through empowerment of citizens and ensuring quality education and health care,” Dr. JP said.

Dr. JP said that if parties based on pursuing narrow and sectional interests are allowed to gain the upper hand, the country faces the threat of disintegration and anarchy. “Every thinking individual should therefore strive to empower parties that pursue rational and ethical politics.

“There are sane elements in all political parties and outside them, civil society organizations and idealistic youth who are all fed up with the way the country is governed. It is time they stopped grumbling in silence and shouldered the responsibility of ushering in a new era of rational and ethical politics” Dr. JP said.

Dr. JP announced that the Lok Satta Party would take the initiative to bring about a realignment of political forces and prevent the country from sinking into a morass. In reply to a question, he said that Left parties can be counted among parties that pursue ethical, rational, national, democratic, and secular politics.

In reply to another query, Dr. JP said the Lok Satta respected the verdict and had no reservations in conceding that the sentiment in favor of a separate Telangana State is strong in the constituencies which went to the polls. The Lok Satta, however, stuck to its firm belief that the formation of a separate State would neither be a panacea nor a disaster.

Dr. JP was flanked by party leaders Katari Srinivasa Rao and Bandaru Rammohana Rao.

Friday, July 30, 2010 - 22:10

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