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Madiga agitation in overdrive, as fast enters seventh day

The Andhra Pradesh government has filed an application seeking the high court's intervention to expedite the concurrence of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes in the matter of categorisation of SCs into four categories, on the basis of the numbers involved in various sub-castes.

The move follows an indefinite fast by Madiga Reservation Poratta Samiti president Krishna Madiga, and violence by his supporters.

State advocate general V Venkataramaniaiah made a special mention before a before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Umesh Chandra Bannerjee and Justice C V N Shastry, the tenor of his brief being to direct the NCSC to give its concurrence within a fortnight, at the latest.

The bench is slated to hear the petition on Monday.

Manda Krishna Madiga, meanwhile, continues his fast at Bansilalpet, in Secunderabad, for the seventh day in succession.

Another senior leader, P Sivaji, who has been on indefinite fast for five days, was removed to the government hospital following a deterioration in his physical condition. The condition of another fasting Madiga activist, Muniprasad, is also being described as critical.

And with that as epicentre, members of the community have gone on a spree of violence, torching buses and government buildings, blocking traffic at various points, and laying seige to police stations. Elsewhere, four youth belonging to the MRPS attempted suicide by consuming pesticide. The condition of three of them is today termed critical.

A note left at a torched Mandal Revenue Office read: "If our demands are not met, another Naxalite group could take birth!"

The genesis of the controversy was when the state government categorised the SCs into four divisons based on population: Division A being the Rellis, B the Madigas, C the Malas and D the Adi Andhra community.

The move had been unanimously endorsed by the state assembly.

At the time, it was proposed to confer the benefits of reservations, in the fields of education and employment, based on the above categorisation.

Ruling on a petition by members of the Mala sub-sect -- who were incensed at being categorised as Division C -- a full bench of the High Court headed by then Chief Justice Prabha Shankar Mishra struck down the government's order, and castigated it for not having first secured the concurrence of the NCSC.

The government then approached the commission -- and is yet awaiting a ruling from that body.

The violent agitation spearheaded by the Madiga community, meanwhile, shows no sign of abating -- more so after a direct endorsement by Krishna Madiga himself.

"When the government bans meetings, when it refuses permission for my people to undertake fasts and stage dharnas, when there are police bandobusts in areas belonging to our community, when we are disallowed the basic democratic right to protest, then it is no wonder my followers have taken to violence," said the Madiga leader. "The government has only itself to blame for this state of affairs."

Underlining his argument that the government crackdown had sparked the violence, Krishna Madiga pointed out that when 200,000 Madigas had converged in Dandora recently for a protest meeting, there was not one single instance of violence, no untoward incidents. "By cracking down, the government has driven our activists to take this route," he alleged.

When it was pointed out that it was the court, and the NCSC, that was responsible for the delay, Madiga pointed out that the commission had asked the government to collect relevant data in support of its decision, and that it was the government that had delayed its submission, thus sparking the ongoing protests.

The ongoing agitation has of late taken a political turn, with the Madigas demanding that the ruling Telegu Desam Party turn the screws on the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre, which the TDP helped install by extending support.

The Madiga community had openly backed the TDP in the last general election. "If the TDP cannot ensure that the BJP government brings in the categorisation, then the TDP should withdraw support to the BJP government," Krishna Madiga demanded. "The TDP MPs, who won the elections with our support, should resign."

There is, the Madiga leader said, no question of his community continuing its support to the TDP -- a statement with ominous overtones, given the impending assembly election in the state.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu suffered a direct rebuff when his invitation to the MRPS to meet him for talks was categorically turned down. A spokesman of the Samiti said there was no point responding, when the government had not spelt out any concrete agenda for the proposed talks.

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