Author: Swaminathan S Anklesaria
Aiyar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 18, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/782107.cms
Armchair theorists in Delhi and
Mumbai interpret the last general election as a revolt of rural masses
bypassed by the information technology (IT) revolution. They voted for
a new regime with a human face. This theory owes much to the defeat in
Andhra Pradesh of the TDP of Chandrababu Naidu by the Congress, led by
Y Rajashekar Reddy (YSR). On assuming power, YSR decreed free power for
all farmers, and compensation for families of farmers who had committed
suicide. This was widely acclaimed as reform with a human face.
The main problem with this thesis,
as you discover when you visit Hyderabad, is that the new chief minister
is widely believed to have risen to power on the basis of murder, loot
and terror. Local journalists narrate in the most matter-of-fact manner
how warlords routinely kill one another to monopolise works contracts and
win elections in the Rayalaseema region, from where YSR hails.
The hair-raising history of YSR's
rise to power through terror is documented by K Balagopal in a recent issue
of Economic and Political Weekly. Cuddapah district, YSR's bailiwick, has
mineral deposits, including barytes. YSR's father, the local warlord, was
a partner with one Venkatasubbiah in a mining lease. The price of barytes
shot up when it was found useful in petroleum refining. YSR's father offered
to buy out Venkatasubbiah. He refused. So, Venkatasubbiah was murdered.
The lease passed into the hands of YSR.
For many years after, YSR's barytes
mining operation was the subject of one scandal after another. Through
the AP Mineral Development Corporation, he obtained a sub-lease on the
land of one Vivekanandam, who got a court injunction against the lease.
Nevertheless, YSR continued with the mining and took away minerals worth
Rs 5 crore. A maternal uncle of Vivekanandam went to the then chief minister
to protest. He was set upon by a gang, who broke his hands and legs. After
that, few dared quarrel with YSR in the Cuddapah region.
Mineral wealth permitted YSR to
become the supreme economic and political warlord in Cuddapah district.
Elections would be concluded in his favour, and his musclemen would ensure
he monopolised all the civil/excise contracts he coveted. This sounds bland
when stated in this fashion, but the process involved a tremendous amount
of violence and inaugurated a veritable regime of terror in the area.
Until recently, the EC postponed
any election if any candidate died during the campaign. In 1989, simultaneous
polls were held to the State Assembly and Parliament. In Raychoti constituency,
where YSR sensed that his party was weak, his men are alleged to have killed
an independent candidate to gain time. In the parliamentary poll that took
place, five persons were killed including a polling officer. The Congress
was declared the winner.
Yet it is telling that Balagopal's
article has not raised any storm of protest in Hyderabad. There, YSR's
culture of violence is treated as commonplace politics.
The day after I left Hyderabad,
goons hacked four TDP cadres to death in a public bus. The attackers used
axes and agricultural implements which, by an ironic coincidence, had been
freed from excise duty in Chidambaram's budget as part of reforms with
a human face. Chandrababu had submitted a memorandum to the President recently
claiming that, since the election in May, no less than 19 TDP men were
murdered and 41 seriously injured.
Congress sources say they are meeting
fire with fire. They allege that 186 Congress workers were killed by the
TDP in the previous two years, and 850 in the nine years of TDP rule.
These figures again may be partly
exaggerated, partly make-believe. Yet, if even a fraction of the allegations
are true, armchair theorists need to do some rethinking. They like to boast
to foreigners that India is a democracy where the people's will reigns
supreme. But does warlordism in Andhra Pradesh really signify the triumph
of the people's will?
Some think that only Biharis and
other North Indians are naturally violent, and that South Indians are meek
and mild. The exploits of YSR show otherwise (as do the exploits of Prabhakaran
in Sri Lanka).
I have long argued that the most
important reform we need is police- judicial reform. We need to ensure
that law-breakers are in jail. Otherwise, they'll inevitably end up in
Parliament, state assemblies and top corporations. Unfortunately, all parties
now have so many thugs that they would rather propose reforms with a human
face, to be implemented by people with long criminal records.
