The agitation by farmers of Amaravati against shifting of administrative capital of Andhra Pradesh to Visakhapatnam entered 250 days on Sunday.
This is supposed to be one of the longest agitations across the country during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Following a call given by the Amaravati farmers’ joint action committee, people took up “Rana Bheri” programme against the capital shift. They beat drums, blew conches and banged plates to express their protest.
Activists of almost all the opposition parties including the Telugu Desam Party, the Congress, CPI and CPI (M) took part in the protests across the state to extend their their solidarity with the agitating famers of Amaravati.
The only opposition parties that have not taken up any programme are Bharatiya Janata Party and its alliance partner Jana Sena headed by power star Pawan Kalyan, which were very active during the early days of the agitation.
While one can understand the stand taken by BJP because of the stand taken by the central leadership not to interfere in the capital muddle, one fails to understand why Jana Sena Party did not take part in the agitation.
In fact, Jana Sena chief issued a statement very recently expressing support to Amaravati farmers.
He even demanded the resignation of the MLAs of TDP and YSRC from Krishna and Guntur districts in protest against injustice meted out to poor farmers of Amaravati, who parted with their lands for the capital city.
He even alleged that Jagan had mooted the three capitals formula only to divert people’s attention and settle scores with his opponents.
“Capitals are not shifted based on mere personal agenda and decisions,” he said.
So, who stopped the Jana Sena chief from participating in the agitation of Amaravati farmers which entered 250th day on Sunday?
Forget participation, there was not even a single statement from Jana Sena chief or his party leaders in support of the agitation.
May be, Pawan is apprehensive that the alliance with the BJP would get affected if Jana Sena takes a different stand on Amaravati.
In February, too, he had to drop his plan to take out a rally from Guntur to Vijayawada in support of Amaravati farmers reportedly after getting a call from BJP national leadership.
So, this time, too, Pawan might be forced to keep silent following the instructions from Delhi bosses!
