Chandrababu Creating Strife Between Communities Using Kapu Reservations

Kommineni Srinivasa Rao

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has a dramatic way of doing things and tries to convince people that what he’s doing is genuine. He would attempt to keep them under some sort of an illusion. Logic, truth and reasoning are alien to him. All that he needs is a handful of votes.

The Centre has announced 10% reservations to the Economically Backward Communities or EBC groups and has taken up a constitutional amendment to this effect. Individual states can follow suit and adopt this proposal. There is nothing wrong with this, in principle. However states cannot tweak this 10% in any way. There is no provision of any kind to this effect because this has been done through a constitutional amendment.

Chandrababu Naidu however, announced a 5% reservation in this 10% to the Kapu community after getting a resolution passed by the Andhra Pradesh cabinet. The yellow media immediately went to town with screaming headlines stating that the Kapu community had got half of the proposed 10% reservation to EBC groups. It would be perfectly in order if things went according to the plan of the Andhra Pradesh government.  One could, for a moment, forget the humiliation of the Kapu community by Chandrababu Naidu and think that justice had at last been done to the Kapus.

On the contrary, what Chandrababu has done is to create strife between the Kapu community and other social groups. Legal experts have questioned Chandrababu Naidu on this aspect already. How can he set aside 5% of the 10% given to EBC groups, exclusively to the Kapu community? They have pointed out that by announcing an unconstitutional reservation system, Chandrababu is once again out to deceive members of the Kapu community.

What exactly did Chandrababu Naidu promise to the Kapus in the 2014 elections? He had actually made a commitment that he would merge the Kapus with the backward classes and then give reservations to them. He announced a backward classes commission headed by Justice K.L. Manjunath, whom he sidelined.  He got a report written by other members favourable to him, got it passed by the AP assembly and then announced that it was now up to the Centre to act in the matter.  In saying so, he became a laughing stock at that time.

Kapus know how Chandrababu Naidu tried to crush them when they staged a protest. Therefore, there is seething resentment in the community against him. Moreover, Chandrababu Naidu rubbed salt into their wounds by banning Sakshi from covering news related to the Kapu protest. The AP government slapped cases against Kapu leaders. Chandrababu Naidu claimed then, that Rayalaseema rowdies were responsible for burning the Tuni railway station.

Chandrababu now reckons that all will be well if he says that 5% of the 10% reservations given to EBC groups, has been set aside for the Kapu community. His favourite media channels and outlets have promptly taken the cue and swung into action.

YSR Congress party president, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on the other hand, has announced several times that while he supported the demand of the Kapu community, the subject of reservations was within the jurisdiction of the Centre. If the YSRCP is elected, it would set up a Corporation for the Kapu community with Rs. 10,000 crore, he stated. It must be pointed out here that even this announcement of his was faulted by the TDP leaders.

Perhaps, the TDP reckons that YS Jagan should also have tried to deceive the Kapu community, as the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh has been doing. If Chandrababu Naidu is sincere to the cause of the Kapu community, why did his party MPs not seek a clear 5% reservation to the Kapus when the EBC reservations bill came up in the Parliament? They did not make this proposal. Now, neither a cabinet resolution nor a resolution passed by the assembly can alter the course of things, experts have pointed out. It is clear therefore that Chandrababu Naidu is once again out to deceive members of the Kapu community through such announcements, they pointed out.  Are the Kapus so gullible as to be swept away by the propaganda launched by Chandrababu and his yellow media?

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