Articles
J’accuse
Dt: 18/2/19
J’accuse
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
J’accuse was the title of the open letter written by the eminent French writer, Emile Zole on the 30th of Jan 1898 and published in the newspaper El-Aurore . An army Captain, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew of France was unjustly accused of treason Emile Zole accused the President of France, Felix Faure of anti- Semitism because of which Dreyfus was, without true evidence, condemned to life imprisonment. Ultimately, others also picked up the case for f Dreyfus. France had to release him. Since then the phrase J-accuse has become famous and is used to expose the untruths of powerful and guilty people. In this letter, under this famous heading J’accuse, I am pointing out the sins, commissions and omissions of Sri Chandra Babu Naidu, who claiming to be the senior -most politician in the country is visiting several state capitals and New Delhi to drum up opposition to Sri Narendra Modi, vowing to defeat the BJP and Modi in the coming elections to the Lok Sabha.
Here are the accusations:
1. Polavaram project , a centrally funded work not being given sufficient funds by the Central government
· The late T. Anajaiah, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh laid the foundation stone for this historic project in the year 1980. Nothing happened afterwards.
· Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy again laid the foundations stone in the year 2005. Nothing happened since.
· Si Kiran Kumar Reddy, the then CM of AP invited tenders in the year 2011 for the project which in that year was estimated to cost Rs. 16000cr.Nothing happened since.
· Sri Chandra Babu Naidu laid the foundation stone in Dec 2015. And he desired to complete the project before the general elections 2019.
· It would be seen that three Congress CMs took up the Polavam project to no effect. Sri Chandra Babu Naidu was CM of AP from 1995 to 2004. He did nothing of the Polavama project. Now he is claiming to be the Champion for this project. His idea is to take total credit for picking up the Polavaram project and completing it as a triumph of himself over the BJP, for the Lok Saba election 2019. It would be right to recall that no project of this magnitude, whether it was Nagarjuna Sagar or Bhakhra-Nangal or Damodar Valley had ever been completed within 5 years. These were all central government projects.
2. No funds being released for the back ward Rayalaseema and north-AP. Sri Chandra Babu Naidu was the CM for 9 years 1995-20014. Nothing was done to specially develop Rayalaseema (from which he hails) and north Andhra. How would he explain his 9-year long “neglect” of Rayalaseema?
3. Transparency and Responsiveness: A 2000 sq yd centrally located site in Gudivada Krishna Districts of A.P valued at Rs.10 cr given to Kaviraju Sahitya Viharamu in early 1960s by the GOAP had been under illegal possession and enjoyment of a private person for the last 15 years . In the last 6 years, 31 letters had been written by me and a literary and social organization which had been wanting to revive the Viharamu, requesting the Collector, Krishna; RDO Gudivada and Chief Minister, Sri Chandra Babu Naidu himself to re-possess this precious land and building there, for public purpose,. Several MLAs also had written to Sri Chandra Babu Naidu. But he has done nothing -no replies, no response, in respect of these 31 representations and letters. He claims that he went to Delhi on 29 occasions but could not get a meeting with Sri Modi - He and his government could ignore 31 letters but accuse P.M for not giving an audience to him.
4. Kanukalu ( free gifts) named after himself : As never before and unlike any in the history of the Indian Republic, Sri Chandra Babu Naidu has been showering gifts from government‘s money, naming every gift after himself under the style Chandranna Kanukalu. These include give-aways ranging from Rs.40,000 to Rs. -75,000 each on the occasion of girls marriages, on the festivals of Christians and Muslims and Hindus.
Welfare schemes and even development schemes are named after himself. The latest is gift Rs. 10,000 under Chandranna Pasupu Kumkumalu to 88 lakh women members of DWACRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas ) with post -dated cheques distributed to these women
The period for cashing extends from March 2019 to the conclusion of elections to the State Legislature and to the Lok Sabah in 2019. This means he is buying votes of these 88 lakh women with government money and the money is being given as a gift from government in his name and not from Heritage Foods and other companies owned by himself or his family members.
5. Foundation Stones are laid for projects for which neither land has been acquired nor the cost is estimated, nor the executing agency and the investments are known . Some of these are a Steel Plant in Kadapa district , the Machilipatnam Fort…,
6. False Claims: Sri Chandra Babu Naidu often asserts that he is the senior most politician in the country. He got felicitated by the AP Legislative Assembly itself on this score. However, the fact is he is not the senior -most. The senior -most is Si Sarad Pawar of Maharastra. Sri Pawar was elected as an MLA in 1967. He became the Chief Minister of Maharastra in 1978 and later, he held several cabinet rank ministerships in the central government of India.
7. Fostering Dynasty: The late Sri N T Rama Rao founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to demolish the hereditary hold on the Congress and the Prime Ministership of Nehru-Indira ….Sri Chandra Babu Naidu had often criticized the Dynasty politics of the Nehru-Gandhi family. But he is himself fostering his dynasty. His son was got elected to the Legislative Council and not to the Legislative Assembly where he would had to face the public approval . Sri Chandra Babu Naidu himself is the National President of the TDP and his son, Lokesh is the all -India Secretary of the TDP. The Ministers know that Lokesh is being groomed to succeed Sri Chandra Babu Naidu. Posters show both of them everywhere.
Most offensively and unabashedly, Sri Chandra Babu Naidu, sent his son, a junior minister as the leader of a team of ministers of AP’s to the Davos World Economic Forum in Jan 2019, by- passing two Dy CMs and another senior important Minister of Finance Yanamala Ramakrishnudu. How is love and elevation of his son different from the family leadership and ownership of the Congress party by Nehru-Indira-Rajiv-Sonia progeny?
8. Promotion of Casteism: Sri Naidu has been creating state-owned caste- wise welfare corporations He had created more than a score caste-wise welfare corporations. .He is allotting money for caste Bhavans. He is allotting different amounts of money to different caste corporations, promoting caste warfare.
9. Minority appeasement in the name of secularism: While the churches of Christians and mosques of Muslims are not administered or managed or interfered with by the government or AP , all temples which have revenues / incomes above a certain limit are all administered and managed by the GOAP. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) and the Endowment Department are treated as Sri Naidu’s fiefdom. Non-Hindus are commissioners and many in the other ranks are converts to Christianity . The trust boards of temples are filled up with financiers of the TDP. Hardly any of them is known to be a distinguished Hindu or a defender of Hinduism against the internationally funded conversion missions.
· He is paying from government treasuries to Imams and Muezzins whereas no archakas or employees in the Endowment Department or the TTD are paid from government money. They are paid only from the kanukas that Hindu devotees offer to their temples.
Naidu is giving government money for construction of hundreds of churches and Christian Bhavans; he is giving money for Christians to go to Jerusalem, increasing it from Rs.25,000 to 40,000 and now Rs. 75,000. He increased money for church construction from 3 to 5 lakhs. Since 2014 July to Dec2018, construction of over 600 churches at Rs 5 lakhs each had been sanctioned by GOAP . In the same period only 500 Ramalayas , each at a cost of Rs.5 lakhs were contracture in AP, all with funds from TTD and not GOAP. Similarly, Hindu Dalits, girijans and fishermen and other poor Hindus are shown seven temples in AP by TD money while Christians are given money by GOAP to go to Jerusalem.
· He is constructing two Haj Houses with government funds at a cost of Rs. 80 cr in Vijayawada and another at a cost of Rs 10 cr in Kadapa. He donated government’s money Rs. 10.5 cr to a Muslim international conference devoted to cleanse Islam of any non-Islamic beliefs or practices or rituals. He is funding the construction of Urdu Ghars, and Shadi Khanas for Muslims. Not a single rupee of government is spent on employees or arachakas or other functionaries in temples . On the other hand, temple monies are diverted for non-Hindu purposes.
· In the context of Krishna Purshkarams in 2016, over 20 tamps in Vijayawada were demolished for beautification of the city. To the agitators he promised reconstruction but simply ignored it, while continuing to fund Muslim and Christian causes and interests .
· He got the Legislative Assembly pass a resolution that reservations and other benefits meant for Hindu SCs should be extended to those SC persons who had abandoned Hinduism and converted to Christianity, thus enabling the Hindu SCs to convert to Christianity without loss of any privileges .
10. Buying votes with government money: Besides Chandranna Kanukalu ( gifts) of over Rs. 400 per family (about 1.5 cr families in AP ) on Christmas, Ramzan and Sankranti for the last few years , in the final year of his current Chief Ministership, for 85 lakh women in DWACRA groups he has given three post dated cheques, together amounting Rs. 10,000 as Chandranna Pasupu Kumkumalu (turmeric powder and vermilion) to his Telugu tallulu and chellellu . Further, he is giving a smart phone to each of these 88 lakhs omen. This is in addition to Rs. 1 lakh outright grant for each of the DWACRA groups. Earlier, he waived off the interest and loans due from the DWACRA groups to the government.
So far parties and candidates have been buying votes with their own (black) money. Now, the new practice of buying votes with government money is initiated by Sri Chandra Babu Naidu in AP ( a similar thing was done in regard to farmers in the other Telugu state Telangana) .
11. Unscrupulous Alliances: Sri Naidu started his political career as a Congressman. He was a Congress MLA and a minister in AP in 1978. After marriage to a daughter of Sri N T Rama Rao he defected from the Congress to the victorious (1983) Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of his father-in-law, NTR When the United Front of some non-Congress, non-BJP regional parties was formed (1988-89), Sri Naidu was the convener and an important functionary. When Sri I K Gjjral was the Prime Minister (1997) Sri Naidu demanded that the central government should dismiss Kalyan Singh’s BJP’s government in UP; He told Gujaral that the forging of the UF was primarily to keep communal BJP out of power. Gujaral did not agree to this unconstitutional act. . But in 1999 elections Sri Naidu’s TDP was part of the BJP-led NDA . As BJP’s ally he fought the 1999 and 2004 elections to State Legislature and Lok Sabha in alliance with BJP. In 2009 he parted with BJP calling it communal and fought and lost the elections to the state legislature in alliance with TRS and communists! In 2014, he abandoned the communists and TRS and allied with BJP again. Thus, he can be seen to be a consummate partner of a variety of parties - Congress, Communists, BJP and TRS.
In 1995 he deposed Sri N T Rama Rao, his father- in-law from the Chief Ministership of AP, Sri Rama Rao did not recover from the shock and died soon after . Since then, Sri Naidu claims NTR’s legacy to cash the Telugu people’s veneration for NTR and named the Rs. 5/- food program for the poor as Anna Canteens ( NTR was fondly called brother by the Telugu people)
Naidu’s political Trajectory
1978 – Congress (I) MLA and Minister
1984 – Defected Congress and joined his father-in-law’s TDP founded
to “destroy” family –owned Congress
1988 - to 1998 Convener of 13-party, anti-Congress; anti-BJP
United Font
1995 - Deposed hs father-in-law NTR from CM; and took over as CM
1999 to
2004 - Alliance with BJP-NDA( against Congress & Communists
2009 - Against BJP & Congress; alliance with communists and TRS
against Congress
2014 – Alliance with BJP against Congress and Communists
2018 – Break with BJP; Alliance with Congress and CPI ( against a
CPM-led 28 party Bahujana Left Front) in elections to
Telangana Assembly
2019 – Hopping all over India to forge an all-India, anti-BJP Front
(Mamata’s TMC, Lalloo’s RJD; Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi, Stalin’s
DMK, Deve Gouda’s JD(S), Sarad Pawar’s NCP, Faroukh
Abdulla’s Jammu & Kashmir National Conference and Sonia
-Rahul-PRiyanka Vadra’s Congress
N.B: Naidu’s TDP won elections only when in alliance with either CPI/CPM or BJP. (TDP + Congress + CPI + some small parties were crushed by TRS in Telangana in Nov/Dec 2018 elections to TS Assembly.
12. Government Funds for upkeep of Private Property:
· GOAP declared his/family’s Bunglow in Road No : 24 Jubilee Hills is declared as his camp residence cum mini-secretariat. So is his/family’s bunglow on Rd No: 65 Jubilee Hills declared as camp residence cum mini-secretariat. Both are owned by him/his family (c) the Lakeview Guest House in Somajiguda, Hyderabad too is declared as camp residence /mini Secretariat.
· When AP Bhavan is there in Delhi for staying/working, a Bunglow for him in Delhi, on which Rs.5 cr were spent to spruce it up is reckless misuse of government money for personal grandeur.
· With several residences in Hyderabad paid by GOAP, the Chief Minister, stayed in Hyatt hotel in Hyderabad in exclusive, expensive suites. What morality or dharma is evident from the large-scale misuse of government money for his properties s and grandeur?
· GOAP is paying for all improvements, security, water, electricity & maintenance of all these facilities .
· Spending government money on family’s private properties in Hyderabad, Telangana declaring them as CM’s official camp residences /mini-secretariat is misapplication of government money.
· 5,59,000 sq.ft of office accommodation in the Secretariat in Hyderabad was assigned to the Government of AP. All of this is unutilized and is under lock and key. Neither the government of Telangana nor of AP is using this. This is a waste of a public asset.
· All these constitute moral turpitude and go ill with the dharma poratam being waged by Sri Naidu.
13. Unverified Expenses and Services: In the present AP state, for a population of about 5 cr it is understood that there are 1.47 cr white ration cards entitling the holders to several subsidized provisions. At 4 persons per card, the population of the poor as per white ration cards is 5.8 cr which is more than the entire population of AP. It is obvious that the supplies under the PDS are being misappropriated to make money
· It is often asserted that lakhs of houses for the poor had been built. From the several announcements made since 1956 in this regard and especially after the bifurcation of the combined state, in the last 4.5 years, alone more than 15 lakhs houses are claimed to have been built. The houses for the poor in the present territory of AP could be about a crore ! This means that 4 cr out of 5 cr AP’s people are living in government houses. This is unbelievable.
I have been requesting the CM and others concerned with the PDS and houses for poor in A.P to bring out a white paper giving details
(a) the total number of white ration cards and the number of persons enrolled in
them;
(b) the number of houses for the poor built and occupied, year after year ;
Both district – wise and year-wise so that these could be verified by independent investigators. There has been no response.
There are periodic statements by ministers that more white ration cards will be issued and more houses for poor will be built. The claim of the CM that his government is Moral, Responsive and Transparent is totally belied by the GOAP not coming out with the white papers on these subjects while several white papers on different subjects are issued.
14. Claim for Special Status : Through various advertisements and speeches in the last 4.5 years, the GOAP and the CM have been claiming that the rate of growth of the state GSDP is more than 10% which is 50% more than the all -India average; that the per capita income in AP is about 20-30% more than the average for the country ; MOUs for 17 lakhs cr investments had been signed up between GOAP and various companies in the 3 international conferences held in Visakhapatnam in the last 4 years; that this amount would create 35 lakh jobs .
No other state in India has similar figures GSDP or for investment or job creation. The rate of growth of agricultural produce in A.P is about 4 times that of India’s average. When such impressive figures are there without “special category status” for AP, could the demand and continuous widespread agitation for special category week after week, month after month justified? be justified ? States like Tamilnadu, Bihar are claiming special category status An apparently irrational emotion is being whipped up in the people of AP, setting the state against the Union government.
Whatever provisions had been made for new institutions etc., for AP are to be implemented within 10 years and not necessarily within 4.5 to 5 years. The demand for full implementation within 5 years is entirely with a view to reap political advantage at the cost.
In the officially undertaken agitation under the name dharna poratam, South vs North is being subtly promoted . This is disintegrative of our nation and the Republic. In all the public speeches and publications of Sri Naidu’s demand for special category, the advantages that could accrue to the state have never been explained to the public . There are already some border states like J&K and those in the North East that are having special category for more than a decade or so. Did this categorization help them to achieve the prosperity that AP ‘s CM hopes to deliver with special category for AP?
15. Amaravati the Dream Capital: Much criticism, almost bordering on slander, is leveled on Sri Modi, the BJP and the government led by him for allegedly not giving all the money that Sri Naidu has been demanding to build Amaravati as a AP’s capital city, rivaling Singapore and many other splendid capital cities in the world.
· Rome was not built in a day; neither was new Delhi. The Act bifurcating AP envisaged the use of Hyderabad as capital of the AP state for 10 years K.Sivaramakrishnan Committee appointed by the Union government to suggest the place for capital of the new state recommended Donakonda where the land needed for the capital is available with the government itself . Rejecting that recommendation, the CM chose Amaravati covering the fertile agricultural land; not a little of it; but as much as 30,000 acres of farmland .
· When Andhra districts were separated from Madras Province in 1954, did the government in Delhi or Madras give any money to the new state? The High Court for the new state was accommodated in Guntur itself in 1954-55; the capital was in Kurnool, to begin with in tents. When Gujarat was separated from Maharashtra in 1958, how much money did the Government of India or Maharashtra give to Gujarat for building its capital in Gandhinagar? And much earlier, when Orissa was separated from Bihar, who gave, how much money for building Orissa’s capital in Bhuvaneswar? When Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh were created as new states out of Bihar, UP and MP respectively how much money was given for the capitals of the new states?
· A country like Australia has a beautiful capital in Canberra, incomparably smaller than Sydney or Melbourne . How does Washington DC compare with San Francisco or New York?
· What are the state organs that should be located in a capital city. How much space do they require and what would be the cost? They would be a fraction of what is sought by the CM for Amaravati - more than a lakh crores of rupees.
· If in Hyderabad, AP’s share in the Secretariat is 5,50,000 sq.ft and offices share is about 2,00,000 sqft. a total of 7,00,000, sqft. The cost of building 7 lakhs and furnishing themcoudl cost about Rs. ( .7 X 3000) Rs. 2,100 crores! Even if ths estimate is too small, Rs. 30,000 cr or Rs.100,000 cr is fantabulous.
· New Delhi’s private houses, market places and several offices and company offices, educational institutions were not built by government but by private individuals and companies. Even in Hyderabad the combined area of all the buildings for the undivided state of AP is a miniscule fraction of the building spaces that were built by private companies and individuals. A city comes up not all with government money but as per a master plan made by government and the construction facilitated by policies that attract private capital from developers of the real estate.
· Sri Chandra Babu Naidu is keeping 5.5 lakh square feet of AP’s share of the government’s Secretariat in Hyderabad, unused by anybody, under lock& key –an unpardonable waste of valuable space . Not allowing Telangana State is an unfriendly act.
· Why the buildings now being built in Amaravati like that for the High Court should be temporary? When Indian Architects /builders could design and build the world’s tallest tower in Dubai, why is AP engaging Singapore’s companies to plan and build in Amaravati? Is it right that even without the master plan finalized for Amaravati, to ask money from the government of India? Does this not amount to political blackmail of the central government, Modi & BJP?
16. Public Debt : In the last 4.5 years, A.Ps public debt increased from Rs. 96,000 cr to nearly Rs. 2,50,000 cr. Servicing of this debt is the single largest expenditure at about Rs.15,000 cr per year now.
Besides this debt, the State of AP has been giving guarantees for the debts being incurred by state enterprises and SPVs. Inspite of this mounting debt and deficit budgets, the various give -aways and write offs are staggering . They, like Chandranna Kanukalu had never been demanded by the people . The CM is using government money to promote his own popularity in the hope of getting the votes and perpetuating rule by himself through the TDP . Sinking a state and its people in increasing debt is not indicative of responsible leadership.
17. Spending Public (tax and debt) money to buy votes: Apart from Chandranna Kanukalu for brides ( amounts depending on caste and religion), for all on Christians, Ramzan and Sankranti (never asked by public) , the latest give-aways are Chndranna Pasupu Kumkalu to 8 8lakh DWAKRA women and Rs.one lakh outright grant to each group; and these beside loan and interest for them.
The Chief Minister /and/ or his family own an increasingly prosperous company Heritage. The Chief Minster is not considerate and gracious to make that company give Kanukalu ( for brides and women; SC; ST employees; but he is freely distributing other ( ie govt’s) people’s money to buy popularity and votes. He/his family owns Heritage Foods company. He has not given Pasupu Kumkalu and smart phones to ladies working in the company nor has he increased wages or given gifts to his company employees. He lives upto the Telugu idiom,” Attagari sommu allude danam chesadu” –meaning, the son-in-law is gifting away mother-in-law’s (not his) wealth. Is this dharma to uphold which he has dragged AP’s people into costly poratam, (agitation and struggle) ? (I have written to him to please distribute Chndranna Kanukalu to employees of his/family’s companies from his, his family’s companies monies )
18. My anguish and prayer: It is very unfortunate and distressing that so capable a CM and politician is whipping up emotional antagonism of Telugu people of AP against the Central government, the BJP and Sri Modi. Even as it is, AP is doing far better than so many other states in the rate of growth of its gross state product and industrialization and in the number of educational institutions etc. Setting the people of the state against the Union government the ruling party that is the BJP -led NDA and personally targeting Sri Modi is unbecoming of any leader who looks to a better future for the State and for himself.
19. This long narration , J’accuse is written in great distress for I reckon that Sri Naidu is
Himself besmirching the reputation that he earned as a forward -looking, hardworking, intelligent and capable political leader of the people, capable of growing to national stature.
One’s quality and character are known by the company he keeps. Bank loan defaulters, contractors, industrialists with no record of public service, owners of chains of educational shops, clever manipulators of justice, party-hoppers seem to be in the influential company of the Chief Minister.
Whom the Gods want to destroy, are endowed with immense power. Power breeds ego and also fear ( of losing power). To fear is added jealousy (my junior as P.M).
Sri Naidu always uses the word, ”I” and never the word ”we” or our government or our party. That shows intoxication with power. The intoxicated lose viveka, (intellectual power of discrimination); loss o f viveka leads to krodha ( anger). That leads to downfall, not only of oneself but also his companions . May all these vices not seize the once great Naidu garu!
Critics ask me as to why I don’t write critically about Sri K Chandra Sekhar Rao , Chief Minister of Telangana as he also gives Kanukalu ( gifts) like KCR kits, sheep, cows/buffalos, capital inputs to farmers and Bathukamma Cheeralu, Iftar and Christmas parties, all at State government expense. The simple reason I don’t write about him accusingly is a) he is not waging any dharma poratam against the Union government or personally against Sri Narendra Modi b) he is not whipping up mass frenzy among people invoking Telugu pride c) he is not claiming to be National President of what is essentially a regional party proprietarised by a father-son duo, son the as the National Secretary of the regional party and d) he is not in the company of anarchists like Delhi’s Kejriwal, West Bengal’s Susri Mamata Banerji and another father-son duo party JD(U) of Gowdas in Karnataka. Recklessly gifting away government’s tax and debt money to promote loyalty to oneself goes ill with Dharma to people and country. Also, the present activities of Sri Naidu clearly indicate his descent into reprehensible populism at the cost of the States’ and people’s long term well being, from his nine -year (1995-2004) noble performance as Chief Minister of AP. This decline and fall surprises and saddens me like many other millions.
(4,612 words)
END