Special Category Status for Chandrababu Naidu: How the Andhra leader is stamping his presence on national politics.
Chandrababu Naidu could successfully sell the five-year-old cake of "Special Category Status" to truncated Andhra Pradesh with "Opposition Unity Against Narendra Modi" as the icing on its front.
He roped in Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien and a galaxy of politicians, some on the verge of retirement, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The Dharma Porata Deeksha — organised on Monday at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi — is against the government at the Centre for apparently dodging the subject of bestowing Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. This was promised by Dr Manmohan Singh on the floor of the Rajya Sabha while passing the AP Reorganisation Bill.
It was a big hit — not because of the attendance of the audience, but because of those who shared the dais with Naidu.
Chandrababu Naidu’s political legerdemain stands out on these occasions. Despite his poor communication skills, he articulates his thoughts so effectively that he instantly becomes the cynosure of all eyes. (Whether the effort reaches fruition or not is debatable).
Getting the Congress party to toe his line is a big thing — the Congress was the straight target for the Telugu Desam Party whose very foundation itself is laid on anti-Congressism. And this, after the two parties clarified that they would not have any truck in Andhra Pradesh in the upcoming elections shows Naidu's eloquence in articulating his thoughts.
Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh in chorus sang the anti-Modi tune while referring to Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. In the process of expressing his righteous indignation, Naidu launched fireworks on Modi. He tried to sell the idea that Modi was in league with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and YSRC Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
However, in the process, he also told an English news channel journalist, in response to a question, that he would not mind working with the YSR Congress and its president YS Jagan if they came forward to support the cause of the state. He, however, hastened to add that “if at all they win two or three seats…”
The YSR Congress retorted saying that it would win not two or three but 23 seats in the Lok Sabha.
In a bid to annul the remark he had made a day before, Naidu said that the BJP and the YSRC were hand in glove with each other, soon after submitting a memorandum to the President of India. Naidu, of course, has been echoing this view for a long time.
Andhra Pradesh was promised Special Category Status on the floor of Rajya Sabha by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for five years, and then Leader of the Opposition and current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and now Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu had demanded SCS for 10 years. However, the same was not incorporated in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2013. This is because the issue of the SCS was raised only after the Lok Sabha had passed the Bill. Thus, it remained an 'assurance' of the Prime Minister.
Despite a cordial start, eventually, the bitterness between PM Modi and Naidu soared so much that the Prime Minister specially flew to Guntur just to pour scorn on the TDP and state how the AP state government had been dodging on the submission of utilisation certificates for funds sanctioned by the Centre. Naidu on his part gave a point-by-point rebuttal to Modi's charges.
The two leaders stooped as well by bringing the attack to a personal level, in my view, unbecoming of their respective statures. While Modi called Naidu "father of Lokesh", Naidu spoke about the estrangement of Modi’s wife Jashoda Ben. BJP National president Amit Shah wrote an open letter to the people of Andhra Pradesh, suggesting that the “delusional politics” of Naidu was about to end.
Narendra Modi’s attack against Naidu was more than trenchant — he actually ripped Naidu apart, touching on several political issues, including Naidu’s inconsistent stands on the SCS, while acknowledging the special package granted to the state and the Assembly resolution lauding the package, then making a U-turn and toeing the line of the Opposition, which has never moved away from demanding the SCS. Modi also tried to invoke NTR by recalling the usurping of power by Naidu from the Telugu Desam patriarch.
Even though national leaders who are opposed to Modi — including Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and the Shiv Sena — are rallying behind Naidu, that has contributed to drawing media attention. This would be of great help to amplify the state’s claim for SCS through opinion leaders.
But, back home, Naidu will have to do a lot of explaining — first, about his consistently inconsistent stand on the Special Category Status and the reportedly veiled threats Naidu allegedly held out against those who demanded SCS that anybody talking about the “status” would be “incarcerated”. Next, he would have to explain the reasons for aligning with the BJP and NDA, as Naidu had announced that he would never join hands with the BJP after breaking ranks with it in 2004. He will also have to justify his reasons for snapping connections with the BJP in 2018 and joining hands with the Congress against whom the TDP continued to fight, as well as a host of charges the YSR Congress has been levelling against the Chandrababu Naidu Regime.
Interestingly, the Delhi show, meant for a showdown with the BJP, yielded the desired effect for Naidu to portray himself on the national political arena.
His recent camaraderie with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the CBI-state police wrangle and her support to the “Mahagatbandhan” is like a shot in the proverbial arm for Naidu’s coalition politics. He tweeted on Tuesday: “The coming together of over 23 political parties, keeping aside their ideological differences to form the Mahagathbandhan shows that in the face of tyranny, the leaders will fight tooth and nail to uphold the federal structure of Indian Constitution. #DharmaPorataDeeksha”
However, the important missing links in the 'gathbandhan' — like Naveen Patnaik of Orissa, KCR of Telangana and Mayawati of UP — indeed hold the key to the success of any anti-Modi brigade.
Smashing the certitude of TDP’s stranglehold over the electorate in Andhra Pradesh, surveys at the national level are projecting a surge in YSRC’s political fortunes.
How Naidu contains this remains a million-dollar question in the light of corruption charges against Jagan Reddy becoming too stale. Plus, mollycoddling the Congress beyond a point will have its ramifications. However much Naidu tries to portray himself as the champion of the cause of Special Category Status to the truncated Andhra Pradesh and as the master chef of the age-old political pudding, the proof of it still lies in the eating — in this case, the elections.
Also read: It’s show time: What the Bengal drama tells us about 2019 elections, and its main players