‘Red Book’ Missing In Reality?

During his last year’s marathon political tour ‘Yuvagalam’, TDP leader and now Mangalagiri MLA Nara Lokesh alleged that some of the police officers were foisting fake cases and terrorizing the party cadre at the behest of the YSRCP high command.

He warned that the names of all those errant officers who were creating hurdles to TDP leaders and supporters will be noted in a ‘Red Book’ and also threatened to take a stringent action on them after coming to power.

The ‘Red Book’ that was carried by Lokesh during his political tours turned out to be the biggest attraction. In fact, this has instilled big confidence in the TDP cadre to fight against the high-handedness of the then ruling party.

Despite Jagan’s vindictive politics, many TDP leaders fought like warriors after Lokesh’s assurance that the ‘Red Book’ will be opened after elections to take action against those erring officers.

His comments about the ‘Red Book’ triggered so much attention that even the then government issued notices to him through the state CID for threatening the officers. A case was also booked on Lokesh for violating the conditions prescribed in a notice served under Section 41A.

Now that the NDA alliance secured absolute power and Chandrababu Naidu took charge as Chief Minister of the state, many of the TDP supporters are expecting Lokesh to fulfil his ‘Red Book’ promise.

While all ministers including Lokesh are in the thick of things immediately after assuming charge and busy finding out the administrative lapses on the part of the previous government, the TDP cadre is eagerly waiting for stern action against those police officers who troubled them in the last five years.

It is a known fact that many police officers treated the TDP cadre with an iron fist during several occasions under Jagan’s regime. Even Naidu was also arrested amidst high drama in an unceremonious manner last year. Several leaders and supporters were arrested in petty cases without any reason. So, it is quite common for the party cadre to expect that all those officers who went overboard with their power to be punished severely in the coming days.

But, the ‘Red Book’ is nowhere in action. The cadre is slowly losing hope as there is no decisive reaction from Nara Lokesh on his promise even 10 days after the formation of the new government. TDP supporters feel that Lokesh and other ministers might not resort to vindictive politics as instructed by Chandra Babu Naidu.

However, as a consequence for their overaction and abuse of power, many IAS and IPS officers who troubled TDP in the last five years were given inconsequential postings. May be Naidu doesn’t want to waste time with revenge politics and concentrate on key aspects unlike Jagan.