‘CPM wants to have the cake and eat it too’

: Andhra Pradesh’s Congress Chief Minister Y S Rajshekhar Reddy has been the target of Left ire in recent months. The death of six people in a police firing in Khammam last month widened the rift between the Congress and the Left. The Left has since submitted a charter of demands to the Congress on Andhra Pradesh related to distribution of land for the landless, but the Chief Minister, in an interview with Varghese K George, says these are “unreasonable”. Excerpts:

• Both the Congress and Left favour land distribution, but are at loggerheads with each other. Why?

Probably the Left is insecure that we are taking away their agenda. Never before has land distribution been done at the speed we are doing. In the last three years, my Government has distributed 4.5 lakhs acres of land. The Left wants to take credit for what I am doing, by agitating. Earlier they used to demand ration cards for all. Through a special drive we distributed ration cards to 82 per cent of the population and they cannot make an issue out of it now. The same thing is happening on the question of landless people. Last year the Government built 19 lakh houses at a cost of Rs 40,000 each.

• The Left has demanded an ombudsman to check irregularities in the housing project. Will you concede?

We have a strong vigilance system and an ombudsman is not necessary.

• The Left has also demanded an autonomous commission to oversee land distribution. Do you think it is necessary?

How can you have a commission to oversee an executive function? Under what laws? Do they have such commissions in Kerala or West Bengal? If they have, they should tell me.

• So you think the Left agitation was unnecessary?

Absolutely unnecessary.

• The Left has also demanded allotment of title rights to lands forcibly occupied by agitators. Will you oblige?

How can that happen in a democracy? Someone will occupy property—belonging to private, Government or Waqf bodies—and force us to allot it? This cannot happen in rule of law.

• When Congress President Sonia Gandhi called you after the Khammam firing, did she tell you to go soft on the Left because the Centre survives on their support?

It is a fact that their support is necessary. It is also a fact that we indulge them a lot....

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