Absurd Propaganda, A Sign Of Heightened Frustration In Chandrababu

Kommineni Srinivasa Rao

If there is one thing Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu deserves to be commended for, it is inventing lies and repeating falsehoods over and over again. In this respect, he is matchless.

Every morning, he comes up with a teleconference. One does not really know how many people participate in this teleconference, but a leak is carefully crafted and put out in the media. True to his style, it is full of criticism or lies, to be more apt, directed at PM Modi, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, and AP Leader of the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Then in the afternoon, he convenes a meeting at one place or the other, and yet another in the evening, ensuring full coverage for everything he says. His aim is to appear on television for 3 to 4 hours every day. Chandrababu continued his meaningless tirade against KCR and YS Jagan even in the opposition rally at Kolkata on Saturday.

Chandrababu Naidu described PM Modi, KCR and YS Jagan as vultures descending on the state of Andhra Pradesh. He claims that PM Modi is envious of him. Chandrababu Naidu does not stop with that. He accuses KCR and YS Jagan of colluding with PM Modi and the BJP. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister wants his hand-picked media outlets to project this argument. What is worse is that he expects his propaganda machine to go into an overdrive playing out KCR and other TRS leaders’ criticism of earlier days and thereby capitalise on it.

Chandrababu is learnt to have directed his party men to spread the canard that TRS has a strong dislike for people of the Andhra region. At the time of 2014 elections, he set into motion false propaganda saying that KCR and YS Jagan were adopted sons of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. Back then, it must be remembered that he pleaded with BJP and jumped on to the NDA bandwagon. The same Chandrababu Naidu who had earlier described the BJP as a party which destroys mosques and claimed that he would never go in for a pact with it, allied with it as an NDA partner in 2014.

For four years, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister was a partner of the BJP in the NDA government. He got a resolution passed in the state assembly which commended PM Modi as a visionary Prime Minister and expressed gratitude to him on behalf of the state of AP. It was only after Chandrababu Naidu realised that his U-turn on special category status to Andhra Pradesh, would become a noose around the TDP’s neck that he made another U-turn and quit the NDA.

From the time that he quit the NDA government at the Centre, Chandrababu Naidu has been criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi in sharp terms at every given opportunity. No one should question him on the resolution passed in the AP assembly hailing Narendra Modi as a great prime minister. Such is his attitude. Modi gave Rs.7000 crores to Polavaram project and also helped set up ten institutions like IIT and IIM in Andhra Pradesh.

When questioned on this these aspects, Chandrababu Naidu flares up retorting in an absurd manner, saying that critics who question him are speaking in support of PM Modi. In any case, Chandrababu Naidu has his yellow media which projects whatever line he takes.

Has Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao ever interfered in AP affairs? There may be disputes between the two States. That is another matter altogether. Didn’t Chandrababu Naidu crave for a tie-up with the TRS? He did not even spare the opportunity of his brother-in-law Harikrishna’s death to try to broach the subject with the TRS supremo. Where was his love for the pride of Andhras at that time? Did he forget the criticism of the TRS leaders of earlier period when he tried to strike an alliance with the TRS and that too at the time of his brother-in-law's death? YSR Congress party leaders rightly flayed Chandrababu Naidu for indulging in politics on a tragic occasion of bereavement.

Coming to another matter, was it not Chandrababu Naidu who tried to pull down the KCR government? Was it not the Andhra Pradesh chief minister who, not minding his own business, tried to descend on Telangana like a vulture? Wasn’t he caught red-handed in this matter?

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is indulging in cheap propaganda describing KCR as Telangana Modi and YS Jagan as AP Modi. Wasn’t it KCR who was singularly responsible for the overwhelming defeat of BJP in Telangana to the extent that 103 candidates lost their deposits? As regards YS Jagan, he never struck a deal with the BJP in Andhra Pradesh. In fact, it was the TDP which had an electoral alliance with the BJP in 2014.

It was Chandrababu Naidu who described the Congress party as a worthless party and held Sonia Gandhi responsible for the miserable plight of the people of the state. For a chief minister to ask his party cadre to indulge in negative propaganda, is stooping to a new low. For some time, Chandrababu Naidu tried to paint Pawan Kalyan also with the same brush, calling him an ally of Narendra Modi, but of late, he seems to have given that up. It is being said that he has directed his party men not to criticise Pawan Kalyan.

The strange thing about Chandrababu Naidu is that he wants people to praise whatever he does and whoever he is commending. By the same token, he wants people to slam those he is critical of. It is not clear whether he has come to an understanding with Pawan Kalyan after pleading for his help or has reached out to him.

TDP today, unlike what it was under NTR, is a party full of leaders who prefer power over honour and self-esteem. That is its tragedy.

Also Read: Attack On YS Jagan: High Court Rejects AP Govt Plea