Chandrababu, A Past Master At The Politics Of Compromise

Kommineni Srinivasa Rao

We often get to hear Chandrababu Naidu using the term politics of compromise. He seems to be using the expression for political mileage but his skills of manoeuvring things clandestinely and turning the tables on the Opposition, are extraordinary. He is well-versed in political blame-game. Above all he has a section of the media ready to support and cover up his misdeeds.

Chandrababu Naidu currently, claims to be fighting against the Centre and the BJP simultaneously. If he was really opposed to them, how could he give a nominated post to a BJP member? Chandrababu can do such a thing and even get away with it. He had appointed Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir's wife Swapna as the member of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board. Isn't this an example of politics of compromise? The reason behind this compromise is that Sudhir enjoys goodwill and respect within the BJP and would be useful in opening channels of communication with the top leadership in the party, and hence his wife was made a member of TTD Board. Not only this, even as he was portraying to the state that he was fighting against the centre, Chandrababu had a closed door meeting for over one and half hours with Centre's IB officer. Many eyebrows are being raised about the meeting and questions are being raised about any backdoor deals.

On the other hand, important BJP leaders were never seen to be criticising Chandrababu. It was surprising to note that BJP state leader Kambhampati Haribabu has not raised his voice against AP CM, while a few of his partymen have criticised the rampant corruption that was prevalent in the state. Haribabu even failed to react to Balakrishna's rant on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similarly, BJP National President Amit Shah also observed that they had no disputes with Chandrababu. When the BJP's Somu Veeraraju was highly critical about TDP's corrupt rule, why didn’t Amit Shah react?

A top leader who is holding a constitutional position had once observed that Modi and Babu were good partners. It is said even now he was continuing to lobby for Chandrababu in Delhi. It surprising that BJP and RSS had not protested against the nomination of a Christian MLA on the TTD Board by the ruling TDP government. Similarly, the BJP had not called for an inquiry into corruption in the Polavaram project and Capital development. Nothing other than the politics of compromise is at play in these cases.

The fact is that nobody can beat Chandrababu in the act of compromise. Just look into history... he was a Congress minister and had been saying that he would fight elections against NTR. Of late he stated in an interview that he had suggested to his father-in-law NTR to start a political party. So this means that his first act of compromise was with NTR while being in Congress. After the Congress party's defeat, he seems to have played the same game to quit Congress and join TDP. He later stabbed NTR in the back and took over the leadership of TDP.

Chandrababu made everyone believe that he was not on good terms with NTR's second wife Lakshmi Parvati, but used to line up his candidates before her for party tickets. Isn't this an example of politics of compromise? Lakshmi Parvati recounts this and many more such incidents which took place at time. It is said there were different opinions in Congress party over NTR being dethroned. NTR wrote to Governor Krishna Kant to dissolve the assembly when Chandrababu set up a camp in Viceroy Hotel. Thanks to Chandrababu's art of ‘managing’ the situation, the Governor did not dissolve the assembly. It is also said that the then Prime Minister also did not heed to the advice of Congress leaders. A high-ranking Delhi source in the know of things at that time, revealed this. This is the reason Chandrababu praises PV Narasimha Rao!

Later when he was the convenor of United Front he called BJP a party that destroys Masjids, while at the same time he was engaged in politics of compromise with BJP and supported the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Yet another instance of the nature of his politics relates to the Gujarat riots. Chandrababu threatened to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government if the Gujarat government is not dismissed. This issue was raked up in Parliament with the opposition parties demanding a discussion. Even as everyone thought the issue might come up for voting, the politics of compromise came into play and TDP stayed away from voting.

Coming to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, he wrote a couple of letters to the Centre and asked for bifurcation of the state into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Be it Chidambaram or Advani or for that matter other Opposition parties, Chandrababu is a master at the politics of compromise.

When Kiran Kumar Reddy became the assembly speaker, as an opposition leader Chandrababu was to participate when the speaker ascended the seat, but he stayed away from it. Later however, when Kiran Kumar Reddy became the CM, he changed his attitude and showed how adept he was at the politics of compromise. Similarly when Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy resigned as MP and was contesting the by-election, Chandrababu campaigned aggressively that YS Jagan was playing politics of compromise with BJP, but later after sometime TDP-BJP became alliance partners. Now, incidentally, he has given Kiran Kumar Reddy's brother a nominated post.

Is it true that Chandrababu played politics of compromise with KCR through the help of central ministers including Venkaiah Naidu in the Note-for-Vote case? At present he was playing politics of compromise with the Congress and this is the reason TDP MPs were seen standing next to Sonia Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh. Such a list of politics of compromise by Chandrababu is endless and will only prove the point that he is a past master at the politics of compromise. But he has to understand the fact that people do have a vivid memory of the past!