Gate Relakayalapalli incident, a lesson to the political parties

• Election campaign kicks off ahead of eight months
• Extravagance during party activities witnesses the flow of easy money
• Leaders trying to get the blessings of the people through show-off
• No effort to showcase the achievements of the party and the MLA
• Firing crackers during program is not safe for the people
• Money belonging to a person or party is also the money of the country
• Mahathma Gandhi’s practices still relevant to reach masses
• No money needed in such campaign methods
• No party thinks on such ideological lines

The Gate Relakayalapalli incident where three persons were killed and six people were injured at a meeting organised by BRS MLA Ramulu Naik was unwarranted and absolutely avoidable. The political parties should take the incident as a lesson to avert such tragedies in the forthcoming elections in Telangana. The incident exposes the dark side of elections and eagerness of parties to show their strength among the masses.

Firstly, Telangana witnessed launching of election campaign ahead of eight months of its schedule. All political parties started their campaign by different methods like padayatra, athmeeya sammelanam (meeting with near and dear) and public meetings. It is not proper to any political party to start such programmes so much time before the elections.

Secondly, the programmes of political parties used to witness extravagance and squandering. Tatha Srinivasa Rao, a senior journalist and running a school in Karepalli said, “Spending lakhs of rupees during elections has become common, but spending money for show is unwarranted. It is not useful to either the masses or the country. Firing crackers is not good. It shows that the parties are getting money easily and spending it on such activities”. Citizens do not have any good opinion on such wasteful expenditure.

Thirdly, the political party or the contesting candidate should treat the money that he spent as wasting the money of the country. The wasteful expenditure will not only not benefit the particular candidate but also a huge loss to the country itself.

Fourthly, the political parties should adopt new methods in campaigning instead of spending money in a lavish way. There is much time for elections and a leader or MLA who wants to contest in the elections can meet the people by visiting their villages. Even they can also visit the houses of masses. The practices of Mahathma Gandhi in sending message to the masses are still relevant to the present election campaign. A candidate can get more mileage if he took part in social service activity in a village or hamlet. “Unfortunately, we forget such things”.

Vellampally Narendra Swaroop, an advocate in Khammam said, “Firing crackers during summer is not proper and poor and innocent will be affected by it. The parties and candidates should also focus on lessening their expenditure by following simple methods”.

All the victims in the Relakayalapalli incident are poor and labourers. Sanjay, who lost his legs in the incident, came to Karepalli from Maharastra to work in chilli fields. A Srinivas of Relakayalapalli said that the financial assistance extended to the injured is very less and it should be increased. (eom)