TDP, Congress Using SCS As Election Issue To Mislead AP

Kommineni Srinivasa Rao

It is very interesting to see the Congress party trying to perform many acts with regard to Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh. What is more interesting is the support the Congress is getting from the TDP media. This reflects the political changes that are happening in the state. The fact is during the state bifurcation, it was BJP leaders Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley who insisted that AP should be given SCS. Finally then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh yielded to the demand.

Later, BJP went all around the state to announce that it was their effort that initiated SCS to AP, while Congress claimed its share of credit by saying it was their party which approved it. If at all congress had managed award SCS before it left, it would be good for the state. Or at least they should have included SCS as part of promises made in AP Reorganisation Act. But Congress failed to do it thus making it an important issue.

BJP promised SCS to AP for 10 years and later repented. TDP is also part of it by saying that SCS was not needed, Special Package will serve the purpose. Countering the Leader of Opposition in AP assembly and YSR Congress Party President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that with his 40 years of political experience he was saying that there was no need of SCS, Special Package was much better.

Read: Chandrababu’s Chameleon Politics

It is true that during that time Congress came up with campaigns like one crore signatures, and even Rahul Gandhi came to Guntur and spoke about it. During that time, few TDP leaders even staged a protest against Rahul Gandhi. But it was YS Jagan who stuck to his argument and held Yuvabheri, Special Meeting in Visakhapatnam, and many other protest programmes. Later for whatever reasons, Chandrababu changed his stance and started demanding SCS, while saying Special Package was of no use to the state. The person with 40 years of political experience started speaking what YS Jagan had been demanding all these days.

Later, YSRCP MPs resigned from their posts in protest against not according SCS to AP, but TDP went back on asking its MPs to resign. Later when no-trust vote motion was placed by the TDP, both BJP and TDP agreed to it. Moreover, the Congress decided not to become a hurdle for TDP's no-confidence motion and went on to support it. Finally, during the debate, the AICC President Rahul Gandhi did not even speak a word about AP. As if this was not enough, adding fuel to fire, Rahul Gandhi said AP people had become pawns in the 21st century political game.

Whose political pawn? Is it not that of Congress? Even though the then CM Kiran Kumar Reddy opposed state bifurcation, the party went ahead. And this was the reason the party did not win even a single seat in the state. It was surprising that Rahul Gandhi did not even blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not awarding SCS to AP, nor did he raise any point about it. Even Congress Lok Sabha leader Mallikarjuna Kharge made a passing mention of the issue. He never said that Congress party will award SCS, but was demanding BJP to do it.

Congress seems to be looking at TDP as a possible alliance partner, a reason why the party placed SCS as an issue to be discussed at Congress Working Committee (CWC). The Congress party said it would hold protest in the state, but at the same time APCC president Raghuveera Reddy deferred to support the bandh call given by YSRCP in protest against the central government's attitude towards awarding SCS.

On the other hand in Rajya Sabha, Gulam Nabi Azad, Dr Manmohan Singh and KVP Ramachandra Rao spoke about the issue. At the same time, the point of discussion was Azad's attitude towards the TDP MPs. In Telangana, TRS was trying to use SCS as an issue to put Congress in the backfoot. Earlier TRS also spoke in favour of SCS but now the scene has reversed. The reason was that the Telangana Congress and TDP were likely to form an alliance to take on TRS.

TRS was accusing Congress of trying to shift industries from Telangana to AP, thus making them vulnerable. Maybe keeping in view these equations, Rahul Gandhi did not give time to AP during his speech. Even during CWC, they did not make it the main issue. But the TDP's yellow media portrayed as if SCS was the main issue that was discussed in CWC. In fact earlier too, Congress made many claims about discussing SCS, but never did they get such publicity from yellow media. All these lead us to the point that they are looking at getting friendly with each other, hence the yellow media was also being supportive of Congress.

Finally, SCS was an election issue for BJP during the last polls. It is the elections issue for Congress and TDP in the upcoming elections. All the parties are only misleading people. Maybe their stance should be clearly understood. TDP and Congress are inching towards alliance in Telangana, while the Congress has toned down its criticism against TDP in AP. Today, Chandrababu was mentioning that Congress was much better than BJP, forgetting that he had severely criticised Sonia Gandhi on numerous occasions.

Of late, TDP has been cautious not to criticise Congress and believes that people are not aware of all these. But YSRCP, Jana Sena and Left parties stand by their word. There is a need to teach a lesson to BJP, which used SCS as a political tool; TDP and Congress who are trying to take political advantage of the issue this time. If people do not teach them a lesson, the same drama would continue!