2009: A bad chapter in Andhra Pradesh's political history!

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Year 2009 will certainly be a bad chapter in Andhra Pradesh’s political history. And, Year 2010 might well be an annexure to that!
Just one man – a desperate one at that – has scripted such a bad script that the state, which has been the envy of all others in the country over the last few years, is facing probably its worst phase ever.
Happenings in the last one month have clouded over all the events in the last 11 months on the political arena in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2009.
From being envied as a role-model state across the country to the current regional turmoil, it took only a month for Andhra Pradesh to be tagged as the most unfavorable state in more ways than one.
The ongoing strife has also exposed the political vacuum that the state plunged into following the tragic death of a tall leader Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash on September 2.
Year 2009 could have truly belonged to Rajasekhara Reddy, but for his untimely death. It was under his leadership that the Congress successfully retained power in the state and also sent the largest contingent of MPs to the Centre in the general elections in April\May this year.
The state was cruising well on the path of development until his demise caused an upheaval. The state hasn’t really recovered from the tragedy, as the administrative machinery virtually collapsed following one crisis after the other.
The state had weathered many a storm with Rajasekhara Reddy at the helm but under the new dispensation headed by the “experienced” K Rosaiah things seemed to be falling apart.
Rajasekhara Reddy’s death, in a way, became the trigger for one political crisis after the other in the state even as governance became the biggest casualty.
First, there was a hard-pitched campaign for Rajasekhara Reddy’s son and Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy being made the state Chief Minister in place of his father. For about two months, the Congress in the state stood grossly divided on the issue with a majority of the legislators backing Jagan as the successor to his late father. After a lot of dilly-dallying, the Congress high command finally succeeded in containing the rebellion in the party by endorsing the candidature of Rosaiah for the Chief Minister’s post.
Later, the demand for creation of a separate Telangana state, by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, has become the biggest challenge for the Rosaiah administration to handle this year. It was the war-cry of a man desperately seeking to re-establish his political credentials that has pushed a stable government to the brink.
The resultant political crisis has left the state divided on regional lines while the major political players too find themselves on the edge.
The ruling Congress party stands vertically divided, so is the principal opposition Telugu Desam on the statehood issue. The other main opposition Praja Rajyam has now become virtually non-existent in Telangana with its chief K Chiranjeevi reversing his stand to support a unified state.
The separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti is fighting a do-or-die battle as a last ditch effort to keep its flag flying.
Year 2009 began in the right earnest as the state headed for a general election. Though the Congress managed to retain power by a bare margin of just 155 seats, the principal opposition TDP made a strong comeback winning 92 seats in the 294-member Assembly. Fighting its first elections after coming into being in August 2008, the PRP of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi failed to make a mark and was left content with just 18 seats. The separatist TRS too lost clout as it managed only 10 Assembly and just two Lok Sabha seats. The election results clearly established that people of the region endorsed development rather than division (of the state). In the event, the TRS was increasingly losing its relevance and, hence, to ensure its survival, the wily Chandrasekhar Rao once again tried to bring the separation issue back on centre stage by launching a fast-unto-death for Telangana.
That Rajasekhara Reddy was no more alive to counter such a selfish political agenda came in handy for Chandrasekhar Rao and also the separatist elements within the ruling party to exploit the situation and push the state into an unprecedented political crisis.
What, however, shocked everyone was the abrupt decision of the Centre to announce its intention to initiate the process for forming a separate Telangana state even as the Congress failed to spell out its stand on the vexatious issue.
That has opened a Pandora’s Box and put Andhra Pradesh on the boil.

Lagadapati Rajagopal: The How and Why of his escapade

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: How and why did Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal “escape” from the Government General Hospital late on Sunday night?
There was a lot of drama involved in the entire escapade, sources close to the MP as well as those in the police department say.
It all began around 5 pm on Sunday when the Krishna district Joint Collector B Ramaiah and Vijayawada Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijay Kumar went to the Government General Hospital, where Rajagopal was shifted from his indefinite hunger-strike camp, and informed him of the decision to shift him to the NRI Hospital at Mangalagiri for “better treatment.”
The MP, however, was insistent that he be taken to NIMS in Hyderabad, which the State Human Rights Commission too had ordered.
But the officials reportedly told the MP that state Home Minister P Sabita Reddy and Director General of Police R R Girish Kumar negatived the move since it could lead to a law and order problem in the state capital.
The JC and the DCP reportedly told Rajagopal about this but the latter remained adamant and refused to be moved to NRI Hospital. Alternatively, Rajagopal suggested that he be taken back to the hunger-strike camp at Swaraj Maidan where he would undergo medical treatment in the 108 ambulance.
Rajagopal also reportedly warned the officers that they would be dragged to court for “treating an MP in such a shoddy fashion.” “I will make you face music for the rest of your life,” he reportedly warned in a very angry tone.
The two officials then communicated the MP’s stand to district Collector Peeyush Kumar and Commissioner of Police K V Rajendranath Reddy.
Even as they were waiting for further instructions, Rajagopal was engaged in a secret meeting with his close aides P Gowtham Reddy and Nagalla Sivaram Prasad and reportedly planned to give a slip from the GGH.
Around 10.30 pm, Rajagopal quietly walked out of his room in the Central Diagnostics Ward in the GGH, even as the JC and the DCP remained mute spectators, got into a waiting Qualis and sped away in a jiffy in the company of Gowtham Reddy. A few meters outside the hospital premises, he changed into another SUV and sped towards Eluru on the busy National Highway-5. En route, the SUV carrying the MP and Gowtham Reddy rammed into two barricades but did not stop for a moment.
Rajagopal boarded a Hyderabad-bound train at Eluru and reached the state capital in the early hours of Monday.
He came to NIMS in an autorickshaw around 1.15 pm and before anyone could identify him ran straight into the acute medical care ward and lay down on a bed.
The MP launched his indefinite fast in Vijayawada on December 12 protesting the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Before he was removed to the GGH in the wee hours of Saturday, the MP reportedly asked the Krishna district minister K Parthasarathy and Collector Peeyush Kumar not to shift him to hospital and enable him to continue the fast. “Let me sit on fast for at least two days more than K Chandrasekhar Rao. I will then take treatment and subsequently call off the fast and go to New Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi,” Rajagopal reportedly told them.
However, Inspector General of Police Umesh Sharraf, who has been posted on special duty in Vijayawada, turned down the MP’s proposal and got him shifted to hospital in a bid to break the fast, a top official in Vijayawada said on condition of anonymity.

Rosaiah's first 100 days as Chief Minister

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: K Rosaiah completed 100 days as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on December 11, after having ascended the throne on September 3 following the death of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash on September 2.
The first ten days of Rosaiah’s stint have gone in mourning for Rajasekhara Reddy and the next 40 days in political uncertainty over his continuance as Chief Minister in the wake of demand for appointing Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy as the successor to his late father.
Amidst this came the unprecedented floods in different parts of the state that kept everyone engaged for more than 35 days. Over the last 15 days, the Chief Minister had been busy in fire-fighting over the Telangana issue and now the integrated Andhra Pradesh movement that picked up in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
Governance has become the biggest casualty in Andhra Pradesh as the state has been moving from “one crisis to the other” for over three months now.
“There is a crisis but it’s not so much crippling. There is certainly an amount of slackness in the governance. Lack of a strong ‘leadership’ is obvious,” a Cabinet minister observed.
Everyone acknowledges that Rosaiah, given his vast political experience, is an “able administrator” but not an “able leader.”
“There is inarguably a (political) leadership vacuum in the state, caused by the death of Rajasekhara Reddy,” the minister, considered a ‘neutral’, added.
Bureaucrats point out that there has been a lack of “cohesiveness” in the administration in the last three months.
“Everything is happening in a routine fashion but there is no guidance as such from the top on effectively carrying the government programmes forward,” a district Collector noted.
For most part of these 100 days, the Chief Minister was busy trying to make his Cabinet colleagues fall in line and get down to serious administrative business, as a majority of them were jumping over each other to display their loyalty to Jaganmohan Reddy.
The Chief Minister’s attempts to tone up the administration through a bureaucratic shake-up did not materialize for one reason or the other. “This has also left the bureaucracy in a state of despondency, leaving a telling impact on the administration,” a high-ranking IAS officer pointed out.
Added to all these is the grave financial crunch that the state has been facing. The state’s coffers have dried up and the government is dragging the cart through borrowings from different sources. All the major development projects have virtually come to a standstill as the government owes lot of money to the contractors.
Uncertainty prevails even over the welfare programmes as the subsidy bill has become too much to bear for the government.
With the political crisis stirred by the resignation of MLAs and MLCs from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions likely to continue for some more days and with no signs of the movements for separate Telangana and unified Andhra Pradesh abating, real governance will continue to be on the back burner.

Congress spent forces take up the cudgels for Telangana

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The spent forces in the ruling Congress party are trying to seize the occasion and mount pressure on the party high command to bifurcate AP and carve out Telangana even as Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao remained adamant on his fast-unto-death over the statehood demand.
As the movement for Telangana no longer remains in the hands of TRS, the so-called “Congress seniors” want to utilize the opportunity and improve their political fortunes, observers say.
Congress Working Committee member G Venkataswamy, who could barely walk, visited Chandrasekhar Rao at the NIMS here and later shot off a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi to take an urgent decision on Telangana. He wanted Sonia Gandhi to permit the state government to move a resolution in the winter session of Legislature favouring creation of Telangana state. “This is the right time for creating Telangana state in deference to the aspirations of the people,” Venkataswamy said in the letter.
Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao, Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation chairman M Satyanarayana Rao and former MLA Uppunutala Purushottam Reddy – who no longer enjoy public support – too are championing the Telangana cause.
State Ministers, hailing from Telangana region, too are apparently under pressure.
While vowing their “unflinching support” for a separate state, these ministers too announced that they would mount pressure on their high command for conceding the Telangana demand.
Among the Telangana ministers were P Sabita Indra Reddy, D Sridhar Babu, D K Aruna, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, Sunitha Laxma Reddy and Ponnala Lakshmaiah.
These ministers called on KCR at NIMS and persuaded him to give up the fast but to no avail. They told him that they had already written a letter to Sonia Gandhi seeking her immediate intervention in the issue.
“Writing letter is not enough. You people go to her personally and get a concrete assurance on formation of Telangana state. Only then will I end my fast,” Chandrasekhar Rao, a former Union Minister, reportedly said.
Even Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas was told by KCR in similar terms and the former will begin his efforts (for Telangana) in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Congress circles are abuzz with talk that certain sections within the party have been trying hard to project Chief Minister K Rosaiah in a poor light by pointing to the “law and order failure” in the wake of the stepped up movement for Telangana.
“At least two aspirants for the Chief Minister’s post are trying to project the happenings over Telangana as a failure on part of Rosaiah and push him into a spot. They want to show to the high command that Rosaiah is ‘infirm’ and could not handle delicate situations like these properly,” one senior leader observed.
Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao, however, was quick to come to the defence of the Chief Minister saying: “If indeed there is any law and order failure, the Home Minister should also be held equally responsible.”
Now, everyone is curiously watching how the ministers and MLAs from Telangana act in the state Legislature which will sit for its winter session from Monday.

Telangana movement and its new course

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The “movement” for a separate Telangana state has now slipped out of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s hands.
Like in 1969, students are now coming to the forefront to give a new direction to the movement that virtually got buried when Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was at the helm as Chief Minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its affiliate students’ outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad have joined the “struggle” while the Telangana protagonists within the ruling Congress party too have stepped in to apply pressure on their high command – and take the contentious issue to its logical conclusion.
Government employees belonging to the region are doing their part by observing a silent pen down protest in support of the statehood demand.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti of K Chandrasekhar Rao – which came into being in 2001 to revive the statehood struggle – is no longer the torch-bearer as other players pushed it aside.
By his flip-flops on the much-hyped fast-unto-death for Telangana, Chandrasekhar Rao got himself sidelined and now the students and other sections have taken over the mantle.
“KCR is only one part of the story while the aspiration for Telangana state is deep-rooted. His fast has, however, become the triggering point (for a wider struggle),” political analyst Prof Haragopal observed.
What has, however, become a worrying factor is the violent turn the movement has taken in the last five days.
Not just in the state capital Hyderabad but also in other parts of the region, the pro-Telangana agitators have been vandalizing public and private properties even as the state government is caught in a fix over launching a crackdown on the unruly elements.
The state governemnt has now gathered evidence about the involvement of some former naxalites and unsocial elements in the agitation, in which the so-called students have been vandalising public as well as private properties.
“We are only awaiting orders from the political bosses to launch into action. Since it is a sensitive issue, and also going by the past experiences, the government is obviously adopting a cautious approach,” a top-ranking police official said.
Interestingly, many senior Congress leaders, who are virtually spent forces, have been trying to champion the Telangana cause. They have written a letter to their party high command seeking “immediate resolution” of the Telangana issue.
Today, 13 Congress MPs hailing from Telangana region met AICC president Sonia Gandhi in the Parliament lobbies today and apprised her of the happenings in the state in the few days and the need for taking a concrete decision on the statehood demand.
“We have informed Sonia Gandhi about the growing aspiration for Telangana state. She told us that she was aware of the issue and would take an appropriate decision. We shall meet her again on Monday or Tuesday,” Andhra Pradesh Congress MPs Forum convenor Ponnam Prabhakar said over phone from New Delhi.
Chief Minister K Rosaiah, however, pushed the ball into the Government of India’s court pleading the state government could hardly do anything on the issue.
He, however, discussed the issue and the ongoing agitation for Telangana with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi during his Delhi visit.
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas, who is also a proponent of the statehood demand, saw nothing wrong in the party seniors taking up the issue with the high command. “It is a good thing,” he remarked.
The government’s further moves on tackling the renewed agitation for Telangana will be decided upon Chief Minister K Rosaiah’s return from his two-day trip to New Delhi.