Charges against Dr. JP malicious: Lok Satta

Frustrated over the resounding rebuff it received in the 2009 elections and worried over the exodus of its cadre into the Lok Satta, the TDP is resorting to baseless and malicious allegations against the Lok Satta and its founder Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, charged the party today.

The Lok Satta rebutted TDP leader Revanth Reddy’s allegations against Dr. JP point-by-point and said that far from realizing that its opportunistic policies and alliances had led to its debacle, the TDP was insulting voters by faulting them. The voters did not constitute the vote bank of any party and all those who voted for the Lok Satta were opposed to all other parties including the TDP and the Congress.

Talking to the media, party General Secretary G. Malyadri and spokespersons K. Srinivasa Rao, V. Vijayendra Reddy said that the TDP seemed to be unaware of the saying in Telugu that a squint-eyed person is better than a blind person. In the Lok Satta’s opinion, there was little to choose between the Congress and the TDP because they belonged to the same genre and that the voters opted for the lesser evil.

Replying to the query on Lok Satta’s track record in fighting Congress corruption, the Lok Satta leaders recalled the party had demanded the constitution of special courts to try cases of corruption when Opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu and Chief Minister Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy traded allegations of massive corruption against each other in the Assembly. Significantly, both the traditional parties chose not to respond to the Lok Satta demand. A fight against corruption need not involve enforcing bandhs and rasta rokos with mobilized crowds.

The credit for exposing the inadequacy of ‘Arogyasri’ – welcomed by all parties and beneficiaries --in providing health for all goes to the Lok Satta. While the Lok Satta launched a large-scale agitation against belt shops, the TDP enacted the farce of an agitation since some of its leaders themselves operated belt shops. The Lok Satta is committed to providing education of corporate college standards to every child irrespective of its caste and religion but is not opposed to corporate education. The Lok Satta did indeed field a candidate in the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat, contrary to the TDP charge. The Lok Satta did not contest in 45 Assembly constituencies including Pulivendula because it could not attract competent candidates who were prepared to fight without inducing voters with money and liquor.

The Lok Satta believes that it should strive to benefit the people to the maximum extent, whichever party happened to be in power. By being a member of the National Advisory Council, Dr. JP had played a pivotal role in the formulation of the Right to Information Act, the Gram Nyayalay Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission and the National Rural Health Mission. He worked closely with BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley when the NDA was in power and offered his constructive suggestions on the Bill to amend the Cooperatives Act during Telugu Desam rule in Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Malyadri ,Mr. Srinivasa Rao and Mr. Vijayendra Reddy said that one of every three candidates fielded by the Lok Satta in the 2009 elections happened to be a BC and that the party chose SC candidates even for unreserved seats.

The Lok Satta suggested that the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly be elected unanimously and the Deputy Speaker’s position offered to the Opposition.