CONG’S INDRAVELLI MEET PUTS COPS ON TENTERHOOKS

The Congress party's ‘Dalita Girijana Atma Gourava Dandora’ to be held in Indravelli on Monday has put the police officials on tenterhooks. It may be remembered that 100 Adivasis were killed in police firing in Indravelli on April 20, 1981. Though the officials claimed only 13 Adivasis died in the firing, civil liberties activists said there were many more deaths. A police constable was also killed during the melee.

Already there is a rift between Lambadas and Adivasis and the Congress is trying to mobilise both these communities for the meeting.

A huge police force will be deployed at the meeting in Indravelli to avoid untoward incidents and they will keep a close watch on unknown persons and their movements. The meeting is being held on Monday and is the day of the weekly fair in Indravelli town for which hundreds of Adivasis and non-tribals from nearby villages and mandals come to purchase essential commodities and other items.

Many Adivasi leaders say that the Congress leaders might have selected the day for their convenience to mobilise the public easily for the meeting to show their strength, forgetting the historical facts and lack of historical understanding of Indravelli and its relevance.

Some leaders compare the Indravelli massacre with ‘Jalian Wala Bhag’. On the other hand, various Adivasi organisations including Tudum Debba, Adivasi Sankshema Parishad, Adivasi Sena and district committee of Rai centres strongly opposed the Congress for organising the public meeting in Indravelli on International Adivasi Day. All these organisations have decided to organise their own programmes marking the International Adivasi Day at different places.

Some TRS leaders have been trying their best to prevent the Adivasis from attending the Congress meeting and asking the Adivasis to attend the meeting they were organising in Adilabad town and in Utnoor.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders are trying to make the ‘Dalit Girijana Atma Gourava Dandora’ successful since they took it up as a challenge. They are making all-out efforts to mobilise the public to the meeting from the slums of Adilabad town and villages to Indravelli.

It is learnt that the TPCC has put a competition among ticket aspirants for forthcoming elections by asking them to show their strength by mobilising the public for the meeting from their respective constituencies.