YSRCP State General Secretary and former Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy affirmed that Chandrababu Naidu-led coalition government’s move to amend the Information Technology Act is both illegal and authoritarian.
He said that “The IT Act is a central subject in the residuary list. Only Parliament can legislate on it, not any state. Yet Chandrababu has set up a ministerial committee to amend it. Their recommendations will not withstand judicial scrutiny.”
Does Chandrababu think Andhra Pradesh is not part of India? Is he claiming we have a separate Constitution?, he asked and recalled that even the Supreme Court, on March 25, directed the Centre to frame rules on social media regulations by November.
He wondered that when the matter is directly with the Centre and Supreme Court, how can a state government interfere? He added that the absence of a Law and Justice Minister in the committee, with instead housing and health ministers deciding IT law, exposed its absurdity.
Lamenting Chandrababu Naidu’s dictatorship, he deplored that “In just 16 months, nearly 2,000 social media activists have been falsely implicated. Section 111 of the BNS and the PD Act were misused though courts quashed them. Even senior journalist Kommineni Srinivas Rao was harassed with a false case simply for hosting a program. This is not governance, it is tyranny.”
Warning that the repression will expand, he said, “First it is social media activists. Next it will be teachers, employees, Anganwadi workers, trade unions, labourers and even farmers. No group that questions the government will be spared. This is Chandrababu’s Hitler-style strategy.”
On misinformation, he hit back: “The real brand ambassador of fake news is Chandrababu. TDP runs the state’s fake factory. Before elections, Chandrababu, Pawan Kalyan, Lokesh and Purandhareswari spread poisonous lies, 30,000 missing girls, Rs. 14 lakh crore debts, sand shortages, drug rackets, Land Titling Act fears”.
“All were proven false, NCRB data showed no missing girls, a Union Minister clarified in Parliament, and Assembly records confirm YSRCP’s five-year debt was Rs. 3.7 lakh crore, not 14 lakh crore. If cases must be filed, they should begin with Chandrababu and his allies”, he added.
Ponnavolu declared: “The judiciary is alive. No unconstitutional law of Chandrababu’s dictatorial regime will survive. Questioning a government is a fundamental democratic right, and the people of Andhra Pradesh will resist these black laws.”
