Home » Andhra Pradesh » Tdp Lodges Complaint With Nhrc Against Ysrcp Government For Human Rights Violations In Andhra

TDP lodges complaint with NHRC against YSRCP government for ‘human rights violations’ in Andhra

TDP's Ravindra Kumar additionally called the arrest of party supremo Chandrababu Naidu a human rights violation by the state government.

BySouth First Desk

Published Oct 20, 2023 | 10:32 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 20, 2023 | 10:32 AM

In his letter, senior advocate and TDP Rajya Sabha member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar urged the NHRC to send a team of independent officers to assess the situation in Andhra. (Sourced)

The TDP has requested the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to constitute a team of independent officers to investigate complaints of widespread human rights violations, including in connection with the recent arrest of the party’s national president N Chandrababu Naidu, in Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter to NHRC Chairperson Justice Arun Kumar Mishra, TDP Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar urged the team should visit Andhra Pradesh in order to gain a first-hand account of the atrocities being committed in the state.

‘NHRC should gain first-hand account’

After visiting the state, the NHRC should make recommendations or issue directions, as it deems fit, including to officials of the state so as to mitigate and address any human rights violations, the letter stated.

It further urged the NHRC to initiate criminal or disciplinary proceedings against erring officers and issue specific directions to the Andhra Pradesh government, prohibiting them from profiling voters and collecting sensitive private data through the village volunteering system.

Ravindra Kumar requested that the commission direct the police not to invoke Section 151 of Code of Criminal Procedure — Arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences — against the leaders and activists of Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh, done with a view to curb democratic protests.

Also read: ACB Court extends TDP chief Naidu’s judicial custody

‘Violations sponsored by state government’

In his complaint, Ravindra Kumar brought to the NHRC’s notice the existence of widespread and ongoing human rights violations in Andhra Pradesh. These violations are sponsored, aided, and abetted by the present state government, with active assistance from the state police and other official machinery, he said.

As a result, the intervention of the NHRC is urgently required, Ravindra Kumar urged in his letter to Mishra.

He said that Andhra Pradesh was a new state formed only in the year 2014. In 2019, the present dispensation came to power and since then, there has been rampant abuse of power by the state government to silence any dissent in the state, he stated.

Kumar noted that there have been umpteen number of instances wherein the state has conspired to curtail any dissent, thereby violating various fundamental rights enshrined under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India.

A few of these instances include the arbitrary arrest and persecution of N Chandrababu Naidu, who is an Opposition leader, and the illegal prohibition on protests by the state government, apart from targetted assaults on Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, and women, and other abuses of process by state machineries that violate fundamental rights, he said.