Chandrababu, A Master At Creating Constitutional Crisis

By P Charitha

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is getting into the habit of repeatedly creating a Constitutional Crisis and confusion every time he is cornered with an issue, which pushes him into a political self-defence mode.

When pushed into a corner Chandrababu goes on a counter attack by filing writ petitions in courts, arbitrarily issuing GOs, propagating false allegations through various media channels and social media.

Questioning the Election Commission's orders, it may be recalled that the Chandrababu govt approached the High Court seeking quashing of orders of the Central Election Commission transferring the three IPS officials. Chandrababu came out with a GO keeping the Intelligence

DG beyond the purview of the election commission much to the shock of the AP CEO as well as other senior officials. But the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled that the orders of the

Election Commission with regard to transfer of three IPS officers including DG Intelligence AB Venkateswar Rao. Rahul Dev Sharma SP, Dr YSR Kadapa district and SP Srikakulam, Venkataratnam be implemented forthwith and refused to intervene in the matter.

Chandrababu's defiance raised many eyebrows and people started to wonder as to what the relationship of Chandrababu Naidu and Intelligence chief AB Venkateswara Rao was which had prompted him to issue a GO to protect the officer keeping him out of the purview of the Election Commission and defying the EC.

AP Voters Data-Theft Case

Chandrababu Naidu's stance again in the recent data theft case involving lakhs of voters data, their personal details, UID numbers and other confidential data which were handed over to a Hyderabad- based IT company called IT Grids to develop the TDP app, Seva Mitra also showed his devious intent in trying to create confusion in the public minds.

When a complaint was first lodged by T Lokeshwar Reddy in Hyderabad about IT Grids India's role in the theft of voters’ data, he dismissed the allegations and said that the data was safe.The same line was parrotted by the government officials. Chandrababu, then questioned the validity of the Telangana police role in the investigation. If that was not all he put his PR team into action and started a media propaganda blitz claiming it to be a ploy by the Telangana government and YSR Congress party. He also went to the extent of filing petitions in the High Court claiming that the four IT Grids India employees were missing, a case of a person gone missing, was also filed at Peddakakani police station in Guntur about an IT Grid employee with the help of senior police officials.

However, when it was proved that the voters data was stolen, he immediately took a U turn and changed his course of action to control the damage. Counter cases were filed in Guntur and Telangana stating that the data was stolen and he directed officials to form another SIT in Andhra Pradesh to investigate into the case under the pretext of jurisdictional issues that the data belonged to the people of Andhra Pradesh. He even tried to create rifts between the Police officials of the two Telugu states but that also failed and then he went on to claim that this was a conspiracy by the TRS government as a last resort. It is rumoured that the IT Grids CEO Ashok Dakavaram is in the safe custody of the AP government somewhere in Vijayawada and Guntur.

Vote- for -Note case

Even in the Vote-for-note case where his role was clear or rather where he was caught red-handed for which he had to move lock-stock and barrel from Hyderabad to Vijayawada as a compromise package from the centre. He filed allegations that the center were tapping the phones of and filed cases in Andhra Pradesh. Chandrababu constituted a SIT and tried to portray this as a rift between the two states.

YS Jagan Murder Attempt Case

Chandrababu's tactics to sideline and detract the case of the murder attempt on YSRCP leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in Visakhapatnam also showed his demeaning attitude. Instead of responding sensibly over the attack on the leader of the opposition, he scoffed at the incident , stated that it was staged by the YSRCP to get mileage, then said that the Airport Security was not under the AP Government jurisdiction. Not stopping there Chandrababu has been protecting the attacker J Srinivas and the Fusion Foods owner Harshavardhan Choudary. When YS Jagan Mohan Reddy filed a petition for an independent body to investigate the matter, he constituted a SIT to probe the case. When the court ordered the National Investigation

Agency to take up the matter , he instructed the AP police officials not to cooperate with them and tried to stall the case further. Chandrababu also filed a case in the Court challenging the NIA probe in the case as it was evident that he had feared the results of the investigation would reveal the TDPs role in the murder attempt.

No Entry for CBI

When he got to know that the Centre was going to conduct raids and investigate the irregularities in the projects and welfare schemes, he alerted the local administration and actually issued directives to not allow the CBI into the state. In an unprecedented move, he withdrew the general consent accorded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct raids and carry out investigations in the state. With this order, the Central probe agency cannot investigate any case that takes place within the limits of Andhra Pradesh.

The CBI that functions under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act can only enter the other states with the General Consent of that state government. Principal Secretary (Home) A R Anuradha on November 8, issued the order to withdraw the general consent accorded to all the members of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise the powers and jurisdiction under the said Act in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This order had come three months after the state had given general consent to the CBI for functioning in the state. This had further widened the rift between the state and the Centre.

IT Raids on TDP leaders in the State

The Income tax Department had conducted raids across the nation last year in November where several TDP leaders offices including his close associate CM Ramesh were also raided. Chandrababu tried to politicise these raids as vendetta by the Centre. He instructed the AP police to not cooperate with the central officials and instructed the police top brass to not provide bandobust to the central officials.

Controversy over Appointment of the state DGP

Even here, Chandrababu tried to intervene in the appointment of the DGP flouting seniority and UPSC rules. He first tried to pull his candidate Nanduri Sambasiva rao who was due for retirement. When the Center objected citing seniority and also that Sambasiva Rao had completed his term and couldn't get an extension. He tried to make changes in the Laws where the state could appoint their own DGP. He first appointed Malakondaiah and then R P Thakur . The Supreme Court had clearly stated in a recent case that for the appointment of the DGP he should be of the Central Cadre and the name should go through the UPSC Seniority Panel . Bowing to this judgement the AP government had recently sent a list of names of senior IPS officer (DGP cadre) to the central panel.

Complete disregard for the constitutional bodies, counter attacks , taking arbitrary decisions resulting in constitutional crisis has become synonymous with  Chandrababu Naidu's style of functioning.

Also Read: 15 Years After YSR, Chandrababu Will Meet His Nemesis In YS Jagan