Saturday, May 31, 2003
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Andhra Pradesh
By A. Devarajan
The picturesque Urban Haat -- the crafts village complex which hosted the plenum and throbbed with activity today looked desolate. But the decisions taken at the plenum and the six-point Tirupati Declaration adopted at the end are sure to force the Government to go in for a change in the course -- a paradigm shift from the hi-tech and IT-centric approach to a more down-to-earth and welfare-oriented governance inevitably in the run-up to the Assembly elections due at the end of next year in normal course. He used the forum as expected to declare the change in the course of his governance and showered sops on all sectors -- agriculture, backward classes, women, youth and even children -- leaving nothing to chance in the election year. It is sure to cost his treasury a fortune and become a big drain on it and as such it is to be seen as how he is going to mop up funds for them more so when the State is already said to be steeped in huge debts and the Opposition already out for his scalp for plunging the State into a debt-trap. Mr. Naidu, however, debunked the Opposition furore and defended his action of taking loans from the World Bank saying that it was part of the development process. Left to himself he might not have changed his anti-sops stance which he adopted right from the beginning but Mr. Naidu, known for his survival instinct made a quick somersault in a determined bid to retrieve the ground he had lost to the Opposition on this count with elections round the corner. And if the fresh sops he announced at the Mahanadu were ensured to all groups he has targeted, it is sure to improve sagging the stock of the TDP in the rural areas and cause enough discomfiture to the Opposition, especially the Congress which is hoping to romp home in the coming elections. As predicted both the Chief Minister and the leaders down the line breathed fire at the Congress and the CLP leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. What must have provoked the CM further to completely change his agenda and pour scorn at Dr. Reddy was apparently the popularity he was gaining via his ongoing padayatra. At the Mahanadu while Mr. Naidu went for YSR's jugular on policy issues the cadre down the line attacked him personally and even his persona reflecting the TDP's growing frustration over the good response he has been getting all along the route. But the Mahanadu came in handy for the TDP cadre to dig out old muck of the Congress and also certain sordid episodes which have been haunting the party and left its position indefensible. The unsavoury incidents which all those who spoke at the Mahanadu did not miss to recall involved the party veterans like YSR, Vijayabhaskar Reddy and the former Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao. Mutual accusations of these leaders at that time also gave the stick to the TDP to beat the Congress with and paint the party black. In retrospect, the Mahanadu has given a new direction to the TDP besides successfully succeeding not only in neutralising the alleged misinformation and disinformation campaign unleashed on it by the Congress and to some extent by the Left parties and the TRS. The Congress CMs' conclave which began in J&K today may not take all these things lying as Mr. Naidu kicked up a row again over the nationality of Sonia Gandhi.
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