By Sushil Kutty
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu braved the freezing Davos cold in a safari suit and then returned home with a special chill reserved for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he met 29 times in four years but could not convince to part with ‘Special Status’ for Andhra Pradesh. Modi has agreed to a ‘Special Package’, take it or leave it.
Naidu was also unhappy with @Modi for not picking up a call from @Ncbn. Maybe @Modi was @Washroom and nobody in #PMResidence would dare knock/barge into said washroom. That would be like somebody with guts in the Congress to bell the cat – Rahul Gandhi, who takes off on a whim and stays put on a lark!
Chandrababu Naidu made 29 trips to Delhi to meet Modi. But for the TDP to say that every one of the 29 trips was ‘special’ would be unbelievable. It must have started with a ‘Special Package’ trip before it tripped on ‘Special Status’. Naidu is a canny politician with an uncanny timing to strike. He proved that when he two-timed his father-in-law years ago. And all these years, Chandrababu Naidu has not changed stripes, he continues to be a leopard! Unlike Rahul Gandhi, Chandrababu Naidu always takes off on a mission.
The Andhra Pradesh CM kept political correspondents (PC) waiting Wednesday evening though every one of the scribes knew what was coming – TDP ministers pulling out of the Union ministry or TDP pulling out of the NDA. Later, after being told of the decision, the consensus among the PC was that never has a ‘snub’ cost the PM more. And if the TDP was to believed it was ’29 snubs’, one after the other – drip, drip, drip…
Now, all the “empty talk of the PM” has left nothing at the bottom of the barrel for Naidu to scrape. It was useless. Sheer waste of time. TDP has pulled its two ministers out of Modi’s cabinet: Civil Aviation Minister Gajapati Raju and MoS Science, Technology & Earth Sciences YS Chaudhary. Raju is the better known of the pair. But to say that Raju was always in the air, and Chaudhary grounded on Earth was a flight of fancy.
Political pundits are now looking at the ramifications of the TDP move. The fact of the matter is: the dilemma was right from the beginning always for Naidu, stay put or pull out? The Prime Minister had only one option – say ‘No’ to Special Status for AP, a category restricted only to the seven northeast states and “three hilly states”. For Chandrababu Naidu to insist on being a ‘special needs’ hilly-billy was constitutionally wrong.
Not that Andhra Pradesh doesn’t ‘need’. Bifurcation left AP backward compared to Telangana which, going by how KSR splurges crores, is stinking rich. AP is also burdened with “heavy unemployment”. Naidu has clarified that the purpose of joining NDA/the government was to elevate AP out of the hole.
The TDP has 16 Lok Sabha MPs and six Rajya Sabha MPs. The BJP and the NDA have a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha. The Modi government would not fall for want of numbers. It is just that losing alliance partners would not be good politics and the BJP would rather avoid that. It gives parties like the suddenly sober Shiv Sena reason to sound sane. Another alliance partner Akali Dal has also been chapping at the bit for some time.
Union finance Minister Arun Jaitley has ruled out Special Status for AP. He was pretty firm about. Wednesday evening, Jaitley offered the 90:10 formula to Naidu which is 90% of the finances given to a Special Status state. Naidu in his wisdom told Jaitley to take a walk, adding that it was clear that the BJP was not interested in resolving the crisis. For now, TDP would go “step-by-step” to rile BJP.
Naidu was also hamstrung by domestic politics. . His party’s main rival in Andhra Pradesh is Jagan Mohan Reddy of YSR Congress, which has eight MPs in the Lok Sabha. Reddy has made ‘Special Status for AP’ an election issue and Naidu cannot be seen relenting on the issue come hell or high water. It was sink or float and Naidu has chosen to float. Two BJP ministers in Naidu’s ministry have quit in “reciprocity” but the TDP has a majority in the assembly and can carry on regardless of BJP-support.
The AP Chief Minister has always considered himself no less in stature than a Shah or Modi or Jaitley or Sonia Gandhi. Time was when he used to be the fulcrum in any ‘Third Front’ initiative and today it is TSR of Telangana who has given a call for a ‘Third Front’ to take on the NDA and the UPA. At the moment it is all about the “hurt sentiments” of the people of AP. Jaitley said Wednesday evening sentiments do not count when it comes to ‘Special Status’. Naidu has taken that as a ‘special affront’. (IPA Service)
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