- Saturday, July 27, 2024
The Telugu Desam Party supremo, who is credited for making Hyderabad a tech hub as the chief minister, was arrested last week in a million-dollar corruption case.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Friday (15) cautioned its software professionals against joining any rally in coordination to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to sympathise with its chief and former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu who has been arrested recently in connection with corruption case worth £36 million related to alleged diversion of money meant for training unemployed youth.
Leaders of the TDP organised rallies of software professionals to express solidarity with Naidu who is currently in a jail in Rajahmundry, located 434 kilometres from Hyderabad, capital of undivided Andhra Pradesh and currently the capital of Telangana which was carved out of Andhra in 2014.
The veteran leader was sent to a two-week judicial remand after being denied bail in the case by a special anti-corruption case last Sunday (10).
Naidu’s party has been holding protest rallies across Andhra and in Hyderabad, too, they organised them featuring software professionals. These protests were staged in areas such as Madhapur and Nanakramguda that are popular technology hubs in Hyderabad, which is also called Cyberabad since it’s a major information-technology hub.
Naidu is credited with setting up of Cyberabad by setting up several IT companies in the city during his stint as the chief minister of Andhra between 1995 and 2004. He also served as the first chief minister of Andhra following its bifurcation between 2014 and 2019 and had been its leader of the opposition since then.
On Wednesday (13), a huge protest was held at Wipro Circle in Hyderabad with participants carrying placards that read “I am with CBN”. Next day (14), the city police foiled the protest in Madhapur and took many youngsters to custody where they were warned before being let off.
While TDP leaders planned to hold more protests on Friday and Saturday with IT employees from various firms in Hyderabad, police said no permission was given for protest rallies held by software professionals in association with leaders from Naidu’s party.
Gone Sundeep Rao, deputy commissioner of police of Madhapur zone of Cyberabad, said in a statement that violators would be dealt with stern legal action, the Hindustan Times reported.
The police in Cyberabad were against such protests being staged by IT employees as they felt it would harm Hyderabad’s brand image.
Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, a senior TDP leader and former minister of united Andhra, slammed the government of Telangana accusing it of curtailing fundamental rights of IT employees by stopping them from registering protest against the arrest of Naidu.
Telangana, which is ruled by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, will head to elections later this year.
Andhra Pradesh, where chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress is in power, will hold polls next year.
