YSRCP Will Fight For SCS Till End

S Gopinath Reddy

Yesterday, when YSR Congress Lok Sabha members submitted their resignations to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and began their indefinite fast in the national capital Delhi, another drama was unfolding on the streets of Amaravati, the “capital in dreams” of Andhra Pradesh. One leader hopped on to his cycle destined to take another U-turn and another walked the streets of neighbouring Vijayawada city.

But both have conveniently erased from their memory and are also conspiring to erase from public memory what they have preached and taught during the last four years about the contentious Special Category Status.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his yellow brigade are keen to project themselves as “Saviours of Andhra Pradesh” who are genuinely fighting for the Special Category Status on the streets of Andhra Pradesh and in the power corridors of Delhi. Ironically, it is the same group of people who ridiculed SCS and benefits from it. The self-claimed seniormost politician of the country even suppressed the movement for SCS with an iron fist, got activists and leaders arrested, not only from the streets but also from the tarmac of Visakhapatnam airport. Naidu even had a resolution passed in the State Assembly congratulating the Modi government for announcing “special package”, which till date remained a myth shrouded in secrecy. Realising, he is surfing rough waters, Naidu changed tack and began talking about SCS.

Surprisingly, Pawan Kalyan, film star turned politician and founder of Jana Sena political party, who shared dais with the then BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Chandrababu Naidu started behaving as if wisdom dawned on him of late. Pawan Kalyan, who during the last four years never questioned the TDP government on any of the major issues including the SCS, mounted a scathing attack on Naidu and his minister son Nara Lokesh. However, all along and even now, his main target appears to the main Opposition YSRCP leading to confusion among the masses.

On the other hand, it was YSRCP and its president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had been agitating for SCS and kept the issue alive among the masses during the last four years. “Say no to Special Package – SCS is our right” was and is the slogan. Mr Reddy has believed and propagated that only SCS can save the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh, which lost its main revenue source Hyderabad to Telangana, during bifurcation.

Post 2014 election results and even before Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister, Mr Reddy met him and stressed the need for according SCS to Andhra Pradesh. From that day on, YSRCP had been campaigning for the much needed SCS and resorted to all available democratic forms of protest to keep the issue alive. Demonstrations, protest rallies, hunger strike camps and bandhs were organized. Mr Reddy himself sat on indefinite fast for seven days in October 2015. The government forcibly raided the hunger strike and shifted the fasting leader to hospital. Representations were given to all the senior leaders in the NDA government. Mr Reddy leading a delegation of party leaders met the then President Pranab Mukherjee thrice.

Chandrababu government opposed the agitation so bitterly that it even arrested Mr Reddy from the tarmac of Visakhapatnam airport when he reached there to participate in a protest programme. “Those who dare to demand for the SCS will have to face the wrath” was the refrain of the State government. Social media activists were also arrested and harassed for campaigning for the SCS.

The YSRCP president and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly organized Yuvabheri programmes across the state creating awareness among the youth and students. As a last resort, YSRCP MPs stalled the Lok Sabha proceedings and submitted their resignations and launched indefinite fast.

It was YSRCP which kept the torch of Special Category Status burning. In fact, it was Mr Reddy who had been setting the agenda for the ruling TDP and the chief minister. Thanks to the relentless efforts of the main Opposition party, Naidu himself took several U-turns in the process. The resignation of party MPs is not the end, but a beginning for the long battle ahead in keeping the SCS live.

It is evident that after YSRCP, all other political parties, except BJP, have started talking about the SCS. There will be bigger maneuvers from the ruling TDP. The SCS is a just demand of five crore people of Andhra Pradesh for whom it is now or never. The YSRCP is sure to take the demand forward intensifying its agitation.