Andhra Pradesh
Convention Demands Withdrawal of
Proposed Draconian Law

Chandrababu Naidu’s government in Andhra Pradesh has embarked upon structural adjustment reforms of a harsh kind thanks to the liberal World Bank assistance. Draconian measures matching these right-wing policies are also on the anvil. To curb left-wing insurgency and people’s protests, he is determined to give unlimited powers to the AP police. In this he was fully encouraged by none other than Mr.Advani, Chandrababu’s newfound friend. A draft of the bill entitled Banned Organisations and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Bill was prepared, not by the Law Department of the state but by the police bosses. This remarkable piece of legal work by the greyhounds was difficult to digest, even for the AP cabinet. To spruce it up and give it a cloak of constitutional validity, it has been referred to the Law Department. In whatever shape the final draft emerges, the intention of the AP government is clear and the final draft, in its fundamentals, is not going to differ much from the original one. This calls for a broad-based resistance movement on the part of revolutionary organisations, civil liberty movements and other democratic forces.

On 18 August 5 parties — namely CPI (ML) Liberation, CPI (ML) New Democracy, COC-CPI (ML) Janashakti, CPI (ML) Janashakti and ML Committee held a convention in Hyderabad and Sundarayya Kala Nilayam. Nearly 800 activists, cadres and leaders of the parties from all over the state attended the convention. Prominent guests invited to the convention included K.G.Kannabiran, all-India President of PUCL, K.Balagopal, General Secretary of APCLC, A.B.K.Prasad, senior journalist. A five-member presidium comprising five parties conducted the meeting.

K.Balagopal in his speech said that the proposed law was a compendium of all the undemocratic statutes this country has seen before and after independence. He mentioned that it encompassed provisions of the TADA, the Suppression of Disturbances Act, preventive detention laws such as NSA and ESMA, pre-independence laws restricting democratic freedoms such as the Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act, and in addition has its own obnoxious provision in the name of ‘notified person’ who is going to be an outlaw forever, deprived of all democratic freedoms and liable to be killed at any time. He called upon the people to demand that the government should give up the proposed legislation.

K.G.Kannabiran in his speech said that the idea of notified area is not new to repressive legislation but that of a notified person is new at least after the constitution came into being. He termed this as a devilish intention of the AP State government or perhaps, the AP police on whose dictation the draft was prepared. Through this law the government seeks to legislate the notion of an ‘outlaw’ which is alien to the Indian constitution which guarantees equal protection of the law and fundamental rights to all. He further said that thousands and thousands of people should gather in Hyderabad demanding of Chandrababu Naidu to give up the idea of such a draconian law.