The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) came down on the State government for the alleged stripping and beating of Dr. Sudhakar, who is placed under suspension allegedly for pointing out that the government was not supplying N95 masks to doctors, by the Visakhapatnam police.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, the TDP national president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that the Dalit doctor who had asked for an N-95 mask was not a thief and the YSRCP government should explain why the doctor was being threatened. All the harassment had led to this present condition of the doctor. Dr. Sudhakar could have been taken into custody without using lathi and tying his hands with a rope. Treating him like an animal was nothing but vengeance. “A Dalit doctor being meted out this treatment is a blot on civil society. This is barbaric to say the least. I strongly condemn this extreme act by @ysjagan Govt that has blurred the line between man and animal #JusticeForDrSudhakar,” he tweeted.
Yanamala reacts
In a separate statement, TDP politburo member and Opposition leader in the Legislative Council Yanamala Ramakrishnudu accused the government of converting Andhra Pradesh into a jungle rule within one year of coming to power in the State. Condemning the lathicharge on the Dalit doctor and migrant workers, Mr. Ramakrishnudu said that Dr. Sudhakar had been delivering his valuable services to the people for many decades but now the ruling party had dragged him to the streets. A senior Dalit doctor was treated inhumanly. Injustice was meted out to the Dalit families whose members died in the tractor accident in Prakasam district. Former MLA Sravan Kumar was blocked from visiting the Ambedkar memorial in an arbitrary manner, he alleged.
Mr. Sravan Kumar, in another statement, said that the Chief Minister should own up responsibility for the ‘attack’ on Dr. Sudhakar and his health condition. The government should register cases against the persons who ‘attacked’ Dr. Sudhakar under the SC, ST Atrocities Act, he said.
