After Staging Series Of Betrayals, Why These Dramas, Chandrababu?
Kotha Eedara, Krishna District: The spontaneous outpouring of love and affection of the people of Eedaram village touched me profoundly. Five couples from this village came to me asking me to name their babies. I was moved by their request. As it turned out, one young mother wanted her child named Vijayamma, after my mother. Incidentally, today happens to be my mother’s birthday. To name these infants and bless them with a long life filled with success, happiness and prosperity gave me great satisfaction. The affection they showed towards me was overwhelming. Usha, Samudraveni and other daily wage labourers told me that they were discriminated against on the basis of party loyalties. They lamented that they were not assigned work in these trying times. Prashanti narrated her tale of suffering. She told me that her husband was assigned work as a daily wage labourer last year and has not been paid his wages up until now. Her story unravelled the loot by this government, robbing these daily-wagers. Kotamma exposed the hollowness of Chandranna insurance saying that although her husband had passed away a year ago, she had not got a rupee under this scheme to date.
Read: Chandrababu’s Fast Another Attempt To Cheat People: YS Jagan
Farmers pointed out the contrast between my father, the late Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy‘s tenure and the current TDP regime led by Chandrababu Naidu. Under the current regime, they were afraid of taking up farming activity. During my father’s time there was abundant water available for agriculture from Nagarjuna Sagar. Over the last four years, farmers have suffered enormously, they observed. They said that the fields ran dry due to inadequate water supply. During my father’s rule, in times of difficulty, the government would come to the rescue of the farmer. Today, there is no such support. My father had once released Rs. 25 crore immediately as compensation and relief to farmers of this district, when their mango crop got damaged on account of unseasonal rain. In contrast, when sudden, unexpected rain hit the mango crop over the past four years, there has been no attempt on the part of the TDP government to even assess the damage, the local farmers pointed out. Nuzvid is celebrated the world over for its rich varieties of mango. To think that the farmer here faces a grave crisis because the TDP government does not even bother to estimate the damage to the mango crop, is shocking and painful, to say the least.
Chandrababu Naidu’s antics have taken a new turn with his proposed fast on Friday. When the entire state had been clamouring for Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh in one voice, Chandrababu Naidu chose to remain silent on the issue, and in fact, sang praises of a special package. Suddenly, realising the strong public sentiment in favour of SCS to the state, he wants to ride the wave, thinking that he can deceive the people of the state on this issue. He is trapped in his own bubble of illusions and does not seem to realise that his drama can fool no one.
My poser to the chief minister—when the entire state came together demanding SCS to Andhra Pradesh, when opposition parties, social activists, lawyers, students and other groups, were taking up protests and gave a bandh call, you had commented that Japan should be our role model and we should put in extra work as a mark of protest! You said that the state would be hit economically by bandhs and protests. In fact you asked people to go to Delhi to stage protests! If 25 MPs had resigned at one stroke and had taken up a hunger strike, don’t you think that would have created tremendous impact across the country and forced the Centre to climb down? Instead of taking such a strong stand in the interests of the state, why stage this drama now?
