Shamefully Low Level Of Politics As Even A Mother Is Not Spared
Nuzvid, Krishna District: This morning’s experience was another reminder of how certain experiences remain indelibly imprinted on one’s mind. A five year-old child with a slate in his hand, met me with his father. On the slate were written in bold, the letters YSR. It came as a pleasant surprise to me to be reminded that 5 years ago, I had made this child write his first letters ever, or performed what is known as his ‘aksharabhyasam’. They had at that time insisted that I get the child to inscribe the letters YSR instead of the customary initial letters of the alphabet. Five long years flew by and the slate was carefully preserved as a souvenir, which they showed me. I was deeply moved by this. I blessed the child saying that he should scale great heights of success by studying well and working hard with integrity and commitment. I thanked father and son for preserving this slate and for remembering my father with such fondness.
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As I moved on, near Agiripally I saw for myself the pitiable plight of the cooperative dairy farmers under the TDP rule. The discrimination against cooperative dairy farmers under Chandrababu Naidu seems to have reached its zenith. In 2008, to rescue dairy farmers of the region from the monopoly of private dairies, my father, the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy had established the Krishnaveni Cooperative Dairy. “While your father breathed life into the dairy farming sector here and filled our lives with prosperity, Chandrababu Naidu has destroyed cooperative dairy farming. He is making every effort to see that this cooperative dairy is shut down. Forget about getting a reasonable market price, the arrears have now mounted to Rs. 4 crores.” I was deeply pained to hear their tale of suffering. The contrasting features were obvious. While cooperative dairies were being systematically destroyed, Heritage Dairy group, owned by Chandrababu Naidu‘s family, prospered at a galloping pace. What sort of a conspiracy against cooperative dairy farming is this?
As I walked past IIIT established by my father, my mind was flooded with a spate of fond memories. The IIIT at Nuzvid bore testimony to my father’s dream to establish an institution of international standards where education on par with the best in the corporate sector, would be imparted to the poorest of the poor in our villages.
The gates of the IIIT were locked and next to the building was a board which read IIIT Srikakulam, to my utter surprise. Why is there an IIIT Srikakulam in Nuzvid, I wondered! Meanwhile, faculty members of the institution came and met me. They told me that neither they, the non-teaching staff, nor the students were allowed to meet me and express their grievances to me. The government made every effort to see that the institution was shut down for the day and tried to ensure that no one could come and meet me. They were warned and threatened. However, the staff members took a day’s leave and met me. You can lock the gates of building, but can you lock the emotions people have? Can you shackle their thoughts and feelings?
As regards the state of the institution, it was starved of funds, resources, staff and lacked proper supervision. The Chandrababu Naidu government simply could not care less.
Chandrababu Naidu claimed that he too had got IIITs for the state and always mentioned Srikakulam and Ongole with great fanfare. But the story seemed to end with the announcement. Land was not allocated, nor were funds given for the Srikakulam IIIT. Instead, it was moved along with students, to become a part of the Nuzvid IIIT. This was a case of outright deception. The IIIT which was to have been established at Ongole, moved to Idupulapaya! This was laughable, yet at the same time tragic, because it involved the future of thousands of students. What right does Chandrababu Naidu have, to toy with the lives and careers of poor students?
Traditional wisdom says that no matter how great a man is, even the king or emperor is a son to his mother, in the final analysis. A mother is a child’s first teacher. She is treated in our culture is God incarnate—maatru Devobhava. Such is the high and holy place she occupies in our culture and our society. To lower the dignity of a mother, as we have been witnessing for sometime now, is the nadir of politics of our times. It is sinful, to say the least, and completely unpardonable. Over the past 141 days hundreds of mothers have come and blessed me treating me like their own son. Words cannot describe their love and affection. That is why I always say—a mother is a mother is a mother. I bow my head in reverence to all mothers.
I have a question for the chief minister—is it not true that cooperative dairy farmers prospered earlier? Were they not making profits? Is it not factual that they are not getting minimum support price? When you are fully aware of the situation and when cooperative dairies are being shut down what does this indicate? Is it just on your part to sacrifice the interests of cooperative dairy farmers simply to help Heritage flourish?
