Film stars and politics

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The trend of film star jumping into politics in Andhra Pradesh has not started with the legendary N T Rama Rao. Much before Rama Rao launched the Telugu Desam Party in 1982, his contemporary and childhood classmate Kongara Jaggaiah had already served as a member of Lok Sabha from Ongole.
N T Rama Rao, however, was the real trend-setter. With his advent into politics, many movie artists, directors and producers too started taking the political plunge.
Hero Krishna was elected to the Lok Sabha once on a Congress ticket but he subsequently did not stay active in politics. Another hero Krishnam Raju first joined the Congress and later shifted to the BJP and was elected twice to the Lok Sabha. He served as a minister of state under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Just two days ago, he quit the BJP and joined the Praja Rajyam Party floated by Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi.
In fact, Chiranjeevi was the only hero with a massive fan following to launch a political party after NTR.
Heroine and national award winner ‘Urvasi’ Sarada was elected to the Lok Sabha on behalf of the TDP. Very recently she quit the party and joined the Congress.
Noted director Dasari Narayana Rao was elected to Rajya Sabha twice on Congress ticket and till recently served as a minister of state in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet. Another director K Raghavendra Rao is an active member of the TDP but he always remains behind the scenes. Likewise, actor and producer M Murali Mohan too remains behind the scenes in the TDP and has never contested an election. His contemporary and another actor-producer M Mohan Babu was elected to Rajya Sabha during NTR’s time but subsequently fell apart with Chandrababu Naidu and distanced himself from active politics. Now, he is virtually supporting the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Character actor Kaikala Satyanarayana too was elected to Lok Sabha on behalf of the TDP but he has now quit the party. Another character actor late Ravu Gopala Rao too was active in the TDP given his association with NTR.
NTR’s son Nandamuri Balakrishna, one of the top heroes in Telugu, used to campaign for the TDP during his father’s time but stayed away from politics for over a decade when his brother-in-law Chandrababu Naidu was at the helm of affairs. Only in late 2008 did Balakrishna start taking a serious role in TDP affairs what with Chiranjeevi launching his own party. Balakrishna, along with his nephew and upcoming film star NTR (Junior), is one of the star campaigners for the TDP in this election.
Chiranjeevi apart, the Praja Rajyam Party is star-studded with his actor brothers Nagendra Babu and Pavan Kalyan being key leaders in the eight-month-old party. Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law is a noted film producer and is the key man who runs the PRP affairs.
A couple of heroes like Rajendra Prasad and Suman too actively campaigned for the TDP.
Character actors Kota Srinivasa Rao and Babu Mohan were elected to the state Assembly on BJP and TDP tickets respectively and the latter even served as a minister in Chandrababu’s Cabinet. They are still active in politics.
Heroine-turned-character actor Jayasudha joined the Congress a few months ago and is now contesting the Assembly election for the first time from Secunderabad.
Hero-heroine couple Rajasekhar-Jeevitha too has joined the Congress but is not in the fray.
Many character artistes and producers used to sail with the TDP during and after NTR’s time but have virtually become inactive now.
Yesteryear heroes Bhanuchander and Sudhakar joined the Congress couple of days ago but they will have little role to play.
Every time during elections, some film stars, directors and producers join one party or the other with the hope of grabbing a ticket but many simple fizzle out.

A unique train journey

Desaraju Surya
Vijayawada: Last week I was on a train journey – a journey of a different kind.
I was one of the passengers accompanying Lok Satta Party president N Jayaprakash Narayan – as part of my journalistic duty -- on board a special compartment attached to the Krishna Express bound for Tirupati.
Narayan, a former Indian Administrative Service officer who quit his job after having served as a secretary to the then Chief Minister N T Rama Rao, chose to take the rail road for a novel election campaign for his party in the run up to the April elections in Andhra Pradesh.
It was a simple campaign planned by a simple man that Narayan is. There were no frills, no hungama whatsoever and those who accompanied him were disciplined. By any count, the trip was a grand success and Narayan has certainly set an example for others to follow.
Empowering the youth by creating jobs and enforcing “new politics for the new generation” is the mantra that Lok Satta Party is following to attract the voters.
The party, founded two years ago by Jayaprakash Narayan, promises to create 50 lakh jobs by developing at least 1000 satellite towns across the state at a staggering cost of Rs 40,000 crore.
To take this slogan to the people, he embarked on this 530-km train journey from Secunderabad to Nellore, addressing whistle-stop meetings at important railway stations en route. A specially-hired second class bogie was attached to the Tirupati-bound Krishna Express for Narayan’s yatra, which he undertook following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and former US President Franklin D Roosevelt.
“Satellite towns will be developed in every district depending on its size. At least two lakh jobs will be created in these satellite towns so that youth need not migrate to towns and cities in search of livelihood. Our emphasis is on strengthening the grassroots,” the Lok Satta Party chief explained to people.
He may not have created waves like other high-profile politicians but the unassuming JP, as he is fondly called, struck the right chords with the electorate.
At one small railway station in Nalgonda district, there were just two women to greet him but JP readily obliged them with autographs even as the train halted there for just a minute.
At Bhongir in the same district, the party candidate contesting the April 16 Assembly election came with a group of supporters to welcome JP during the trip. He addressed ordinary passengers at another station even as the party “volunteers” distributed leaflets listing the Lok Satta’s promises. No where were crowds mobilised to show off the party’s strength and ordinary passengers and workers formed his audience.
“We are not promising heaven, like the so-called traditional parties have been promising. We are only assuring the people that their basic needs will be taken care of and life will be made merrier for them by all means,” JP said.
“Politics these days has been revolving around three families in the state. The main parties have totally ignored the grassroots but the Lok Satta Party will make politics revolve around the people again,” the former bureaucrat promises to thunderous applause from youth who gathered in a sizeable number at Warangal railway station.
As the train started moving after a two-minute halt, JP reached for the general compartment attached to the special bogie and interacted with the passengers for over 30 minutes. Greeting every passenger personally, JP explained his party’s main objective of cleansing the current politics and bringing back dignity to the lives of people.
With such plain speaking, the Lok Satta Party chief could only win wide applause from the people.

Andhra Pradesh's coffers drying up!

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh is heading for bankruptcy.
The state that boasts of a Rs 1.05 lakh crore Budget for the 2009-10 financial year, now hardly has cash reserves that are sufficient to meet the salary bill for the next two months besides the election expenditure.
The state government has approached the Reserve Bank of India for sale of securities to raise Rs 1915 crore to keep things moving. In the last four months the state has raised Rs 7,000 crore through sale of securities but all the money was ostensibly utilized on individual benefit schemes with the April elections in view.
As a result, all projects ambitiously launched by the Congress government have come to a standstill.
Contrary to what Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy boasted, the global economic meltdown dealt a telling blow to the state economy as well resulting in a severe shortfall in revenues.
“Yes, it is a distress. Our revenues have certainly fallen but we are somehow managing the affairs,” a key official in the finance department said.
Bureaucrats running the finance department are, however, not willing to speak any figures. “This is election time and please don’t ask us for figures. It will send wrong signals and we will be in trouble,” the key official pleaded.
The finance department head, principal secretary I Y R Krishna Rao, was willing to say this much: “The situation is not bad as we have not gone for any overdraft facility. We can manage.”
A couple of examples clearly indicate how bad the state’s finances are. The government owes Rs 3400 crore to contractors executing various projects under the ambitious Rs two lakh crore irrigation development programme – Jalayagnam. This has virtually brought the project works to a halt as the contractors are unwilling to execute works without cash flowing.
The state government owes about Rs 12,000 crore to the power utilities, particularly the distribution companies (Discoms). Last month, the government released Rs 1050 crore out of the total outstanding, which is hardly sufficient to overcome the acute resource crunch being faced by the Discoms. Given the worst ever power crisis being faced by the state, Discoms are forced to buy power at an exorbitant price – Rs 12 to Rs 14 per unit. “Even if we are paying that much, there is no power available. Even if power is available, we have no money. The government is simply asking us to borrow from banks but we already owe crores of rupees to them. We are literally at our wit’s end,” head of a Discom lamented.
Though the state government was spending significant amounts on populist schemes like housing, free power, health insurance, Rs 2-a-kg rice and several others, it somehow managed to run the show in 2006-07 and 2007-08 financial years as it sold away hundreds of acres of government lands and raised about Rs 20,000 crore. With the real-estate bubble bursting in 2008, the Rajasekhara Reddy government could not sell land and this choked the revenues. At the same time, political expediency forced the Congress rulers to come up with one populist scheme after the other – ranging from enhancement of scholarships to students, fee reimbursement, waiver of loans to different sections, payment of incentives to farmers (who could not avail of the loan waiver) and the like.
The incentive (to farmers) bill alone touched Rs 1750 crore this year, as against Rs 800 crore initially estimated. At the same time, revenues through commercial taxes took a dip because of the economic slowdown while revenue from excise alone has been keeping the cash registers ringing, highly-placed official sources explained.
Now, the state government is knocking on the doors of banks, including the World Bank, to seek loans. Nothing explains the current scenario better than the government’s eagerness to secure a Rs 1300 crore loan from the World Bank for urban projects. “For more than two years we behaved as if we did not want any financial assistance from the World Bank and kept the project in cold storage. With our finances drying up, we have again gone to them with a (begging) bowl,” a high-ranking official noted.
Even individual departments, that are seeking release of funds from the state finance department, are reportedly being directed to raise loans from banks to carry on their projects.
As things stand – and with much more ‘populism’ in the offing after the polls – Andhra Pradesh seems to have no way out of the financial morass.

Andhra Pradesh heading for a hot poll

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Elections-2009 will be by far the hottest in the history of Andhra Pradesh. For the first time, the state will witness a triangular contest between the ruling Congress, the “Grand Alliance” (of Telugu Desam Party-Telangana Rashtra Samiti-Communist Party of India (Marxist)-Communist Party of India) and the Praja Rajyam Party floated by Telugu Mega Star Chiranjeevi.
On paper, however, it will be a “multi-cornered” contest with other players like Bharatiya Janata Party and Lok Satta Party of bureaucrat-turned-politician N Jayaprakash Narayan in the fray.
But the impact of these two outfits will be not significant by any count and as such the fight will essentially be between Congress, Grand Alliance and Praja Rajyam Party.
The Congress is ready to fight the elections on the “development-welfare” plank while the Grand Alliance have a range of issues – ranging from corruption to Telangana – to attack the ruling party with. Chiranjeevi wants to do an “Obama” in Andhra Pradesh and is harping on the “change” mantra.
Andhra Pradesh could well decide who would form the next government in New Delhi. For the Congress, the stakes are too heavy. An impressive performance – an encore of 2004 – by the Congress here will put it in the driver’s seat even in New Delhi. By sending as many as 33 members to the Lok Sabha in 2004, Andhra Pradesh electorate enabled the Congress party to form a government at the Centre in the company of other political outfits.
But the Grand Alliance, which is aiming at forming the so-called “Third Alternative” government at the Centre, is bent on spoiling the chances of the ruling party by exposing the Congress primarily on the corruption issue apart from a host of other “failures.”
Equally bent is the PRP to mar the prospects of not only the Congress but also the Grand Alliance. On the face of it, the PRP may well give a tough fight to both the Congress and the Grand Alliance by splitting their votes in most pockets in the state but its aspirations may actually come a cropper if it fails to secure a common symbol for all its candidates. As things stand, the infant party – that solely banks on the charisma of Mega Star Chiranjeevi – is unlikely to get a common symbol and will have to make do with multiple symbols for its candidates. The most significant aspect of Elections-2009 will be the total isolation of the ruling Congress in the state. In 2004, the Left parties had aligned with the Congress while Telangana Rashtra Samiti was also part of the alliance that ousted N Chandrababu Naidu from power. TDP had only the Bharatiya Janata Party for company in 2004 but the combination could not outwit the Congress-Left-TRS combine.
The 2004 poll outcome makes for an interesting study. The Congress, which polled 38.56 per cent of the total valid votes, bagged 185 seats in the 294-member state Assembly while the TDP with a 37.59 per cent vote share could manage only 47 seats. The CPI got 1.53 per cent votes (six seats), CPM 1.84 per cent (nine seats) and the TRS 6.68 per cent (26 seats) while the BJP secured 2.63 per cent and just two seats. The Congress won 33 seats, TDP four, TRS two (down from five after the split and subsequent bye-elections) while CPI, CPM and MIM bagged one Lok Sabha seat each.
Elections-2009 will, however, be entirely different. The CPM, CPI and TRS have now crossed over to the TDP with the sole objective of dislodging the “corrupt” Congress. The BJP has none for company this time and is striving to rediscover itself in the state.
Here comes the PRP into play which could mar the Grand Alliance’s prospects as well as those of the ruling Congress. How much will the vote split be is hard to predict but at least in the coastal Andhra region and to some extent in Rayalaseema, Chiranjeevi's party could cast its spell. The PRP's impact is expected to be the maximum in East Godavari and West Godavari districts, which hitherto used to be the TDP's citadels. In north coastal Andhra too -- comprising Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts -- Chiranjeevi's party is likely to eat into the traditional TDP votes much to the comfort of the Congress. In the final analysis, this could prove to be the most decisive factor in determining who comes to power. Of course, the outcome in Telangana will also be crucial as the region has as many as 117 seats.
The Congress, however, is putting up a brave front saying no combination or force could prevent it from retaining power. "It will be a positive vote for the government, which is quite unprecedented. The slew of welfare measures, apart from the major development works including the construction of irrigation projects, will stand us in good stead," Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy boasts.
May 16 will be the Judgment Day for all of them.

Want land? Rush to AP

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Want land to set up an industry, an educational institute, a company or anything else? Well, come to Andhra Pradesh and the state government is ready to distribute any extent of land for whatever purpose. But the time is too short – hardly a couple of more days since notification for the general elections is expected any moment – and some “formalities” are to be fulfilled before the land is allotted.
The state government has in the past few days cleared numerous proposals for allotment of land to various sections and officials of the revenue department are too busy burning the midnight oil to issue requisite government orders to complete the formalities.
Journalists, government officers, judicial employees, government employees, industrialists and some private persons were given thousands of acres of land across the state.
Overlooking the protests by local people, the controversial Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Port and Industrial Corridor Limited was given 6796.44 acres of land in Prakasam district and 224.38 acres more in Guntur district. All this is land previously assigned to local people for agriculture but now the government has “resumed” it to re-allot to VANPIC, promoted by UAE-based Ras-al-Khaimah. Ras-al-Khaimah also got another 105 acres in Medak district for the Hyderabad Economic City project.
In Chilamathur in Anantapur district, the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has been given 1680.99 acre for establishment of Lepakshi Knowledge City. Another 1064.86 acres has also been given in Tummala village to APIIC and another 349.24 acres in Chilamathur for development of an industrial park. All this land is said to be for the Lepakshi Knowledge City that is just about 70-km from the new Bengaluru International Airport abutting the National Highway-7.
In Anantapur district again, the APIIC got 429.11 acres in Gudipadu village for an industrial park.
In Chittoor district, 977.74 acres of land spread across three villages has been allotted to the APIIC for establishment of a Digital World City.
Several other proposals for allotment of land to journalists and government employees have also been cleared by the government and now about 200 acres of land is ready for distribution.

"SAVING IS SIN, SPENDING IS VIRTUE!"

(This is a reproduction of an email circulated by a dear friend).

JAPANESE do not spend much. They save a lot. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billion. Yet, Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.
Americans spend, save little. Also, US import more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.
But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India... Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billion in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities are in trillions. Result: The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going -- that is for the US economy to work -- other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US! Otherwise the US economy would go for a six. So will the global economy. The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less. A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. Same is the case with India... We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India... Why is the world after US? The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact, they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So US imports more than what it exports year after year. The result: The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer does not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper-financier. Who is America's biggest shopkeeper-financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak.
Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japan government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan, have become its pain. Hence, what is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend.
Dr Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. "Saving is sin, and spending is virtue."
Before you follow this neo-economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend. This is what US has successfully done in last few decades. -- Professor Jagdish N Bhagwati.