The ugly attempt of Telugu Desam Party leadership to gain political mileage over the tragic suicide of four members of a Muslim family in Nandyal has backfired on the party.
The incident has definitely caused a lot of embarrassment to the YSR Congress party government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy due to involvement of the police, but the prompt action taken by the government by suspending and arresting the police officials named by the family controlled the damage to a large extent.
What is more, following instructions from Jagan, the district authorities on Thursday handed over a cheque for Rs 25 lakh to the mother-in-law of Abdul Salam, who had committed suicide along with his wife and two children by jumping in front of the train before recording his anguish over a selfie video.
But the TDP leaders allegedly tried to malign the Jagan government. According to Salam’s mother-in-law, some people went to her residence on Wednesday evening and promised to get her a compensation of Rs 1 crore and a permanent house, if she spoke against the Jagan government and YSRC.
“Please don’t politicise the incident and I request the political parties not to exploit the family for political gains. The bank authorities came to us only to verify our account details. There is no pressure from any police officers. We are getting full support from the government,” she claimed.
TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on whose instructions the local TDP leaders have been making the suicide a big political issue and attacking the YSRC and Jagan government, demanded a CBI inquiry into the reasons that led to the suicide.
But when Jagan pointed out along with the evidence to prove that the lawyer who secured bail to the arrested police officers - inspector Somasekhar Reddy and constable Gangadhar, belonged to the TDP, the opposition party has gone silent.
The lawyer quietly resigned from the party – he was the general secretary of the TDP – and defended his action to argue for the police officers for bail.