The Master Manipulator

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