Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao
The parting of ways by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh is so sudden and dramatic that it has surprised many observers. The alleged issue for breakup is the denial of special status to Andhra Pradesh, the issue on which the emotions of Andhra voters are stoked by all political parties, showing the BJP as a villain, with an aim to win 2019 elections.
Unwarranted division of Telugu speaking people without evolving a new criterion for statehood and irrational drafting of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act by the UPA, to suit its political calculation, has resulted in the economic imbalance in the newly-carved states where Telangana got all the economic advantage, while Andhra Pradesh was thrust with the economic burdens for the investments made on the development of Hyderabad city. The staring revenue deficit of Andhra Pradesh, post bifurcation was known even at the time of drafting the Bill by the then UPA government, but no concrete steps were mentioned in the Bill except for some vague assurances to Andhra Pradesh. That was a clear political game of Congress leaders as they knew that they were not coming to power in 2014 elections and wanted to hit TDP, which traditionally drew its economic and political strength from coastal Andhra.
Cheating by Congress
That the Congress never had concern for the Andhra area is clear from the fact that it failed to incorporate the special status issue into the bifurcation Bill. It was left to the then BJP leader Mr. Venkaiah Naidu when the Bill came to Rajya Sabha to demand the special status category for Andhra Pradesh and then PM Manmohan Singh reluctantly gave the assurance of consideration for that demand.
The Congress erred in acting on the bifurcation of the state without settling the issues to be cropped up post-bifurcation. It is this hurried action of accepting the Bifurcation Act against all the democratic traditions, which is now haunting all the parties in the state as they approach 2019 elections. Each party is trying to position itself as victim of bifurcation Act to garner the sympathy of voters. All the political parties, including the original sinner of bifurcation, Congress, have now chosen the special status issue. The pro-TDP media has created such a political situation on the special status issue as to nullify the aggressive questioning by some of the BJP leaders against the misdeeds of Chandra Babu Naidu.
The people of Andhra Pradesh, who preferred experienced Chandra Babu Naidu over the political novice Jagan Reddy in 2014 elections, are disappointed with Naidu on many fronts. His actions favouring his own son and his own community are well known. His administration is more a hype, publicity stunt rather than tackling the real issues. As the negative image started to mount on his rule, Chandra Babu Naidu needed an issue to turn the tide and he has chosen the special status as the last straw.
Double Game by Naidu
Thus the decision of Naidu to part ways with the BJP has been taken more out of political compulsion. Naidu, a past master in playing to the gallery, was never a consistent player on the special status issue. At a time when he felt is politically opportune to him he changed his tune on the special status to the state. It was the same Naidu who for all these years was taking objection to the main opposition party, YSR Congress, and its leader Jagan Reddy’s insistence on special category. In fact, Naidu is on record saying that special category status is not going to solve the problems of AP just as the problems of other special category states were not solved. He even threatened to get arrested those politicians and their supporters who insist on special status to Andhra. On the eve of 2017 Republic Day it was Naidu who challenged the opponents “to prove which state in the country got better assistance from Union Government headed by Narendra Modi other than AP”. He thundered that “no other state in independent India ever got so much assistance from the Centre as Andhra got during 2014-17 financial years”. The TDP representative in Modi cabinet Sujana Choudary had gone publicly saying that “the Centre has given all things to AP and there is nothing more to demand”. These statements of TDP leaders, both CM and Union Minister, received wide publicity even in the TDP favoured media. So what has changed from 2017 Republic Day to 2018 Republic Day is what the TDP has to explain to the people of the state!
On the other hand, the BJP on its part was making things very clear since the day one it took over the administration at Delhi on the complications involved in treating Andhra as special category state. The guidelines regarding qualifications for special status state, according to the 14th Financial Commission Report have mentioned the reasons for its failure to give the special tag to AP, but the BJP promised to give all the financial assistance without the special tag. Since the state of AP was wronged by the UPA regime, the Modi government has promised to liberally compensate the Andhra through positive discriminative actions of different ministries.
Throwing blame on BJP
The Centre called it a special package and Naidu welcomed it saying that his state wants special assistance and not a mere tag of special status. Accordingly, Polavaram project on river Godavari, though a central project has been given to Naidu to execute and funds were provided, clearances were given at a fast pace and Rs 2500 crore were given for construction of new capital Amaravati. In building national highways, urban housing projects, starting of various academic institutions Andhra was given priority. The Modi government has always been sympathetic towards the help to Andhra and rectify the injustice done to that state by the UPA.
Having enjoyed the package for almost four years Naidu now tries to throw the blame on the BJP for not sanctioning the special status. It is a fact that people of Andhra expected special status, but they largely got convinced with the way Centre has been helping them. What changed the attitude of Naidu is the political heat that is generated through the statewide walkathon of Jagan Reddy, the Leader of the Opposition in Andhra and his barbs on the failures of the Naidu administration. Despite the farmers liberally agreed to pool their lands for the capital city three years ago, Naidu could not even finalise the design for buildings of the capital. No one knows what is holding him to go ahead with the construction of Amaravathi despite the availability of land and funds!
Who is the Gainer?
Now that the decision was made to part ways by both TDP and BJP the next issue will be who the gainer is and who is going to be the loser! Naidu being an established anti-Congress man there is no way he can approach that party but he will certainly try his tricks for the formation of non-BJP non-Congress front. He has already started the game by activating his TDP Karnataka group to run an anti-BJP campaign with the sole aim of preventing BJP victory march in Karnataka Assembly elections. Naidu is already in touch with Kamal Haasan and is reportedly cajoling him to run anti-BJP campaign through Tamil population in Karnataka. At any cost he wants to thwart the entry of BJP into south as he is worried and afraid of BJP juggernaut which recently over ran CPM successfully in Tripura. For that sake Chandra Babu Naidu has already started speaking in terms of North-South divide of India. Power is Naidu’s ultimate goal and he will stoop to any level to get it. His political history testifies that. His next step will be to create a regional political group on anti BJP platform. BJP should be ready to face Naidu’s regional chauvinistic politics. On the other hand, the BJP is neither a gainer nor a loser in the current episode. With whom it joins hands in coming months will give new direction to Andhra politics. Andhra politics may not receive the attention of BJP till the Karnataka is conquered. After that it may mount all out war against Naidu.
(The writer is a retired Professor from Noble College, Vijayawada)
