Kommineni Srinivasa Rao

Even those who have achieved something very big are loath to self-boast. But, AP Chief Minister Chandrababu is different from the rest of the pack. Till now, he has named more than 20 schemes after him.

This is a new phonomenon in the country. None of the prime ministers or the chief ministers had ever dared to do this. None had ever entertained such thoughts in the first place. Jyothi Basu ruled West Bengal for 23 years and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya did for nine years. But, they never had schemes named after them. Even after his death, Jyothi Basu's name was never prefixed to any scheme or project. As for Tripura's long-standing CM Manik Sarkar, his photo is never there on any government advertisement.

In fact, the chief ministers are trustees for Government funds. They are expected to serve the people. If the people like them, they might organise programmes in their honour or name a street or a colony after them. But naming government schemes on one's own name is unprecedented. This shows the level of depravity in the Telugu Desam.

In fact, TDP founder NTR had never named any scheme after himself. Even Chandrababu did not dare to do this during his earlier stint as Chief Minister. Agreed, he did hanker for publicity, but never named any scheme after himself. During YSR's regime, schemes were named after Indira, Nehru and Rajiv, but never after himself. Rosaiah and Kiran Kumar Reddy too didn't do it. But, post-AP bifurcation, Chandrababu is naming scheme after scheme after himself. KCR too has one scheme named after him. If he apes Chandrababu Naidu, he would end up facing lot of flak.

Some wags are even going to the extent of saying that Chandrababu is unsure that his own colleagues would name any scheme after him. So, he is doing it himself. This indirectly implies that he is unsure that Lokesh could succeed him or even if he succeeds, Lokesh might not name schemes after Chandrababu.

The naming fetish has gone to such an extent that even Kapu Bhavans were named after Chandranna. This was strongly decried by the Kapus. So, Chandrababu had to finally relent.

But, if someone wants to use public money to name schemes after themselves, it would be nothing but an insult to the people of the state. This shows the level to which the TDP politics have stooped to.