CHANDRABABU NAIDU’S IMPRINT ON THE GOVERNANCE OF THE STATE – Part I
By Benami Buster
After
he smuggled himself to power, in the most abhorrent ways seldom
paralleled in Indian polity, by dethroning the leader of the masses, Sri
NTR, by ways of political deceit and betrayal, which Chandrababu had
come to personify over the years, he set upon the task of governance of
the State.
Image Courtesy:
http://sriks6711.wordpress.com/
As recent history would tell us, we would have leaders, who in the
rumble and tumble of real-politik, take sides, switch sides, take
partisan stance, but when given the task of governance, adopt a liberal,
democratic, all-inclusive approach to governance. We will not be cruel
to Chandrababu Naidu by comparing him to legendary political leaders of
yore, the Country had seen, but, naidu, does not even satisfy the
minimal attributes of a leader, in contemporary times, who is acceptable
to all sections of society, by his own frailties, and also on account
of the issues he dealt with, in the manner he dealt with.
Any
leader in governance would like to, at least be seen as making an
effort, to usher in a transparent, honest, and a fair process of
governance. Naidu is the only leader in contemporary politics who made
manipulation, jugglery, spin-doctoring, media propaganda as effective
instruments of governance. Let us take instance by instance :
a)
Late NTR had imposed “prohibition” (no place for sale, consumption and
trade in liquor) in the State of A.P. In fact the campaign for
“prohibition” in the State was people-driven during the reign of K.
Vijayabhaskara Reddy’s tenure as Chief Minister between 1992-1994, which
was latched on to by Ramoji Rao’s eenadu.
After
Naidu captured power, within a few months, he could understand the
absence of revenue generation on account of prohibition and in a series
of smart moves, EENADU started campaigning as to how “prohibition” is
not in the interests of the State at all, as to how revenues started
dwindling. One of the most popular decisions of any Government, –
“prohibition” – imposed by NTR was lifted by Naidu. There were rumors
and stories galore as to why and how the said decision was taken as a
measure to garner pelf and assets for himself, and as is the trend,
there was no investigation, no enquiry and a self-certification for
himself was granted by the ever obliging EENADU.
b)
He later on identified the areas which spelt doom for NTR during NTRs
earlier reign between 1983 to 1989. He realized that the institutions of
check and balance, had come very hard on NTR causing him untold
embarrassment. Therefore, he went about the task of either subjugating
them, and if not possible, subverted the parallel institutions of
governance, such as Legislature, Judiciary etc. He would put his moles
in every institution, and as James Manor#,
the Englishman had recorded, even into the institution of Judiciary, to
make things easy for him. The two moles he had inducted into the State
higher judiciary, as noted by James Manor, came up for discussion during
the course of recent hearing in the case of Smt. Y.S. Vijaya in the
High Court against the misdeeds of Chandrababu Naidu during his reign as
Chief Minister of the State.
Even during his latest lecture on THE BEST AND THE WORST OF INDIAN STATE he said that
“Another
worst feature of the Indian state is one-man dominance where certain
chief ministers radically dominate their political sphere with the help
of industrialists, “where one-person government is so strong that MLAs
cannot represent and respond to their constituencies.” This is a
negative trend. Examples he cited were Chandrababu Naidu, Naveen
Patnaik, Narendra Modi, Karunanidi and Jayalalita“.*
The
judiciary has never been the same ever since Chandrababu Naidu smuggled
himself to power and as any stakeholder in the judicial institution of
governance would lament, the master craftsmen brought on all his skills
by employing lawyers, who are “NOT BEFORE” certain Hon’ble Judges, with
an aim to marshall his case to a designated destination. And as he
celebrated the dismissal of the W.P. filed by Smt. Y.S. Vijaya, by
distributing sweets in the precincts, of the Legislative Assembly, he
would be very proud of the actions he had taken, in regard to subverting
every institution since 1995, which had kept him smiling. He still,
unbelievably, seems to believe, that he is destined to have the last
laugh.
Many
men-made rulers, have come and gone, humbled by the aphorism that the
“law has an uncanny way of catching up”. One may be on the run….. run…….
Run……and then will find nowhere to go. It is a case of “when” and not
“whether” with the law while Chandrababu naidu would be saying “whither
with the law”.
To Conti…..
*http://www.jamiajournal.com/2012/01/17/prof-james-manor-from-the-uk-speaks-at-jamia-on-the-best-and-the-worst-of-indian-state/
#
Prof James Manor Profile