Press Releases Archive

Don’t be swayed by day’s headlines, Dr. JP counsels party leaders

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today counseled party cadres not to set their agendas going by the day’s newspaper headlines or hourly news bulletins on 24-hour news channels.

Addressing a meeting of party candidates who contested the 2009 Assembly elections and party leaders from districts, Dr. JP said true leadership lies in leading people and not being swayed by momentary passions. A political party should behave like a compass and not as a weather-wane.

The Lok Satta Party, he made it clear, did not view the current agitations for and against Telangana as a fundamental issue. A threat to freedom or secularism could be a fundamental issue but the formation of Telangana or keeping the State united was just a political, administrative arrangement. It is true that people are swayed by sentiment on both sides. But a mature political party should not be swayed by agitations carried on by a vocal minority to whichever region it belonged to. It should reflect calmly on the repercussions of any stand it might take.

Dr. JP refuted criticism in certain quarters that he had undertaken the Delhi mission as part of a secret agenda. The Lok Satta does not have a private agenda that is different from its public agenda. All that he had suggested to Central leaders was that peace, order and sanity should be restored as a top priority. He had told Central leaders that Delhi, having taken a decision on Telangana, could not resile from its stand even as it could not ride roughshod over Andhra Pradesh by forcibly imposing its will. A just solution would emerge only when the interests and aspirations of people in all the regions were considered. Discussions would narrow down differences and open the way for a settlement acceptable to all.

The Lok Satta would endorse whatever settlement that emerges after such wide-ranging consultations, Dr. JP said.

Meanwhile, the party would send a team comprising representatives of the three regions and representing all districts would go round district headquarters and municipalities and municipal corporations in the State, organize discussion forums and try to ascertain what their problems were and how the division of the State or failure to divide it would help them. The team will also organize gram sabhas in select villages.

During the day-long meeting the participants divided themselves into groups and discussed the party’s stand on the current political crisis as well as the action program the party should undertake.

Monday, December 28, 2009 - 18:41

Lok Satta appeals for restoration of peace

The Lok Satta Party today appealed to people of all regions in the State to give up all forms of agitation like fasts, bandhs and rasta and rail rokos, restore peace and normalcy and create conditions for a healthy and negotiated settlement on the political crisis in the State.

Talking to the media in the wake of the Delhi decision on the demands for the formation of a separate State and for keeping the State intact, party spokesmen Mr.Katari Srinivasa Rao, Mr.Y.D. Rama Rao, Mr.P.Ravi Maruth, Mr.V.Vijayender Reddy appealed to the media to pay a positive and creative role and promote amity among people of different regions in the State. Political parties and their leaders should refrain from making provocative statements and resorting to abuse and invective against each other all of which would merely undermine the parties’ credibility and complicate the situation. The political parties and leaders should ensure their members did not indulge in any acts that would harm the larger interests of the State.

Pending a negotiated settlement, the Government of India should initiate interim measures that address the concerns and aspirations of people in different regions of the State and facilitate the process of dialogue among people and parties of different regions in the State.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 - 18:06

Lok Satta pities Chiranjeevi’s ignorance

The Lok Satta Party said today that PRP President Chiranjeevi has merely betrayed his colossal ignorance of the Constitution and democracy by questioning the rationale behind Lok Satta’s stand in favor of district governments. (Chiranjeevi has commented yesterday in Visakhapatnam that formation of district governments amounted to the State's vivisection).

Talking to the media, party spokesmen Mr. Katari Srinivasa Rao, Mr. V.Laxman Balaji, Mrs. K.Geeta Murthy said that what all the Lok Satta had been agitating for is in accordance with the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution which envisaged transfer of powers, responsibilities, resources and personnel to local governments. The Lok Satta stand is in tune with Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of gram swaraj.

The Lok Satta has all along fought for empowerment of panchayats, mandal parishads, zilla parishads, municipalities and municipal corporations so that they would be at the service of citizens who are sovereign in a democracy. Governments existed for people and not the other way round. The era of power vesting in the PM, CM and the DM (prime minister, chief minister and district magistrate) should give way for power in the hands of governments elected at the local level.

In response to Chiaranjeevi’s demand that the Lok Satta clarify where it stood on the demand for keeping the State intact, the spokesmen pointed out that unlike Chiaranjeevi, who changed his colors like a chameleon, the Lok Satta had taken a consistent stand right from the beginning. The traditional parties supported the division of the State one day and opposed it the next day unabashedly and cynically for short-term political gains.

“A mature political party would not function like a weathervane and be swept away when primordial loyalties to religion and region, caste and language take hold of people. After all, the State had been rocked by caste clashes in 1988 and communal riots for many years. Is it wise for any party to side this caste or that religion when tempers run high?”

“Neither heavens would fall nor an El Dorado unveiled with Telangana formation. The Lok Satta is not opposed to Telangana formation if such a consensus emerged in its favor after wide-ranging consultations with all the stakeholders. It has no objection to the State remaining united if that is the consensus.

“The traditional political parties should realize that the formation of a Telangana State is merely a means and not an end. There will not be any transformation in the lives of people unless they are empowered and corruption eliminated, and quality education, healthcare and livelihood opportunities provided to all without reference to the accident of their birth in a particular caste or religion or region.”

Political parties should stop playing to the galleries in a bid to manipulate gullible people for their partisan ends, added the Lok Satta leaders.

Sunday, December 20, 2009 - 19:59

Pages