THE PRICE OF VENDETTA
CBI’S relentless pursuit of Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to boomerang on Congress
Banthini enta nelakesi kodithe anthe piki velthundi ( The harder you hit a ball on the ground, the higher it will bounce).” This is what a steely Y. S. Vijayamma had to say as her son Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was led to Chanchalguda prison after spending seven hours in the CBI Special Court on May 28. Principal Sessions Judge A. Pullaiah ordered that Jagan be kept in judicial remand until June 11— the day before polling in the transformative by- elections. Jagan looked calm and composed, but his wife Bharathi was tense, sitting in the courtroom clutching a copy of the Bible. There was unprecedented tight security around the court on May 28 since early morning. Hyderabad had turned into a veritable fortress with Section 144 of the CrPC clamped to prevent people from gathering in big numbers. However, it collapsed in the city court complex precincts around 5.30 p. m. as supporters and YSR Congress party workers gathered there, joining court staff who jostled to get close to Jagan, shake his hands or just touch him. Even as he was being led away to prison, his smile never wavered. No one present there believed or cared about CBI’s charges against him. He is accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income during his late father Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s ( YSR) tenure as chief minister between 2004 and 2009. Instead of evoking a sense of outrage against Jagan, in one boomerang move, the Congress turned a potential asset into an iconic adversary.
The Congress, not famous for its imagination, had used CBI to hit Jagan, as it did in the case of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s disproportionate assets case
in 2007 and in Mayawati’s Taj Corridor case in 2003. But Jagan, 39, is enjoying the resultant bounce. He is on a roll. He is likely to sweep the crucial June 12 by- elections for one Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats— 16 of which were with the Congress. The Congress government’s majority could come precariously close to the brink. In a 294- seat Assembly, the Congress numbers have come down from 156 seats in 2009 to 152 now.
Post- Jagan’s arrest, one MLA has already quit the Congress to join YSR Congress. On May 30, Bobbili MLA S. K. Ranga Rao resigned, said he would join YSR Congress, and added: “The APCC President Botsa Satyanarayana did not treat me with courtesy though I am a threeterm MLA.” Ranga Rao is now trying to persuade two other MLAs— Savarapu Jayamani of Parvathipuram and TVVT Janardhana of Kurupam— to follow suit. Satyanarayana is finding it increasingly difficult to retain MLAs, even from his home district Vizianagaram.
Ever since YSR died in a helicopter crash on September 2, 2009, differences have multiplied between Jagan and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He wanted to be chief minister. She wanted him to wait. When politics stepped in, so did the CBI. The agency did not investigate any case when YSR did all that Jagan is accused of doing now. As a cover, the Congress took the matter to court, enabling Delhi to wash its hands of in time honoured tradition. Its legislator P. Shankar Rao filed a PIL in Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking a CBI probe into Jagan’s assets on November 21, 2010— 10 days later, he became the state’s handlooms and textiles minister.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court directed CBI to start investigations into the case against Jagan on August 10, 2011. CBI called him for interrogation on May 25 for the first time, forcing him to pull out from the bypoll campaign that was peaking. Amid rumours of his arrest the same day, CBI decided to wait. Jagan was anyway scheduled to appear in the CBI court on May 28. Top CBI sources told INDIA TODAY that he was not likely to be arrested till his court appearance, when the agency planned to seek his custody.
But while Jagan was being questioned by CBI at Dilkusha Guest House near Hyderabad’s Raj Bhavan, hectic confabulations were on in Delhi between Congress state in- charge Ghulam Nabi Azad, bypoll in- charge Vayalar Ravi, Minister of State for Personnel V. Narayanasamy and Cabinet Secretary A. K. Seth. They kept in constant touch. Then, Azad met Sonia on the morning of May 27 and later, during the day, the
‘‘My father and I were honourable and much loved men as long as we were with the Congress. The minute I decided to leave the party, we became dishonourable."
orders went out: Arrest Jagan.
Congress decided to cut its losses by keeping him off the road. It also won a breather. But Vijayamma, an MLA from Pulivendula, is already on the campaign trail, saying that “the people’s court will render Jagan justice”. Things can only get worse for the Congress. Andhra Pradesh is crucial for UPA: It contributed 29 seats to UPA 1 and 33 to UPA 2. The Congress government in the state is also its only single- party regime in south India. It is a fight for survival for the Congress.
Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy admitted as much. “In most constituencies, including the Nellore Lok Sabha seat, it is a close contest,” he told INDIA TODAY. “Several local leaders have migrated to the YSR Congress. They have also taken away cadres with them. It will take us some time before we can fill the gaps and arrest the slide,” he conceded.
The June 12 by- elections are as crucial as the 1983 general elections which saw the emergence of the regional powerhouse of Telugu Desam Party ( TDP). Will Jagan be able to emulate N. T. Rama Rao and will YSR Congress be able to emerge as a critical party which will swing votes away both from Congress and TDP in the General Election of 2014? The Reddy caste vote has consolidated strongly behind YSR Congress as the community feels that Jagan has been wronged. The Scheduled Castes, especially the Malas, and the Christians are also backing the YSR Congress. But the arrest has also driven away neutral voters, particularly the middle class for whom corruption is an electoral issue.
With the Congress in office for the past eight years, there is a strong feeling of anti- incumbency that goes well beyond the Jagan factor. The votes will be split between the TDP and the YSR Congress. “There are serious implications for the TDP in 2014 as its role as principal opposition party is eroded. This is primarily because the first term, 2004 to 2009, is associated with YSR and voters seem to attribute the positives of that term to YSR Congress whereas the current term is seen as that of the Congress,” says Teja Narra, director of the opinion research consultancy Yudofud Strategies.
As many as five MLAs elected on the TDP ticket in 2009 have resigned and forced by- elections, only to be reelected— one as an independent, another on the YSR Congress ticket and three others as Telangana Rashtra Samithi contestants. The TDP suffered another shock on May 31 when the Nuzvid MLA C. Ramakotaiah declared that he would not contest on the TDP ticket again. “There is no possibility of the comeback of the TDP,” said C. Ramakotaiah, the Nuzvid MLA, who is to decide about his future party.
TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu knows he is in a tough spot. “I have no desire to see Jagan in jail. But I want government to confiscate the looted money and spend it on the welfare of the poor. TDP exposed mining and corruption scams during YSR’s rule and urged the Prime Minister to take action against him. But, as usual, the UPA and the Congress failed to act in time.”
The Chief Minister insists the Congress has nothing to do with CBI’s move. “He is trying to whip up sympathy based on the arrest. We have nothing to do with it,” he claims. But the Chief Minister has no answer to the Congress’s systematic erosion of the YSR legacy, especially his successful development and poverty alleviation programmes. Congressmen
are increasingly apprehensive of becoming unintended victims in the battle against Jagan. The arrest of Excise Minister Mopidevi Venkataramana, a day before Jagan was called in by CBI for questioning, has shocked them. Venkataramana was picked up for his alleged role in giving permission for dealings relating to the massive Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Port and Industrial Corridor ( VANPIC) project. In his two- page resignation letter sent to the Chief Minister on May 24, Venkatramana asserted: “I merely followed the instruction of the then chief minister ( YSR) and went to his office after being summoned and signed the file in the presence of his secretary though it was not sent to my office.”
CBI is working on the theory that six ministers in the YSR Cabinet and several pliable officials issued government orders which helped companies desperate for clearances and which were happy to invest in Jagan’s ventures as a quid pro quo. Loyal Congressmen such as Nizamabad MP Madhu Yashki Goud say the party and Sonia have made it clear that “we are not going to spare anyone found indulging in corruption”, adding, “the ongoing CBI probe, which is following a PIL in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, is doing exactly that.”
The YSR Congress alleges political vendetta is at work against Jagan. “Institutions like CBI have to be made autonomous and not be used as a tool of the party in power like it is happening now with the Congress unable to face Jagan in political terms,” says M. V. Mysoora Reddy, former Rajya Sabha member of the Telugu Desam Party ( TDP), who contested and lost to Jagan in the April 2011 Lok Sabha bypoll. Yet when CBI summoned Jagan, he decided to quit TDP for the YSR Congress.
Jagan’s inheritance may be too overpowering for the Congress which has painted him as a villain in recent times. “YSR was an amazing leader. He
spearheaded various schemes to provide housing, food and health security and an honourable old age. He provided free electricity and water for irrigation through the Indira Prabha scheme. As many as eight million people have benefited from his schemes, and 2.8 million farmers got free power supply. People loved him,” says D. A. Somayajulu, economic adviser to YSR, and now a Jagan confidant. He talks about the unique health scheme launched by YSR, Rajiv Arogyasri, which helped 1.1 million people avail of the best treatment offered in the state’s best private hospitals.
After YSR’s death, the Congress government diluted all the schemes in an effort to wipe out his legacy, ostensibly to cut subsidies. The Congress wanted to establish the supremacy of the party over the individual, which has been counter- productive and even suicidal for the party. For it, no regional leader could be bigger than the high command, Sonia Gandhi.
Jagan was shrewd enough to build on the goodwill enjoyed by his father. Initially, as he started his Odarpu yatra, his popularity was built on people’s sympathy, seen as the son of their ‘ messiah’. The treatment meted out to him by the Congress only added to it. An aloof Azad, in- charge of the state since 2009, never really got a grip of state affairs. In fact, when Vayalar Ravi was asked to handle the bypolls, he saw that some of the Congress posters continued to display YSR’s pictures, which he got promptly removed.
When Jagan started moving out among the people, exposing himself to the rigours of politics, it was then that he endeared himself for who he is. Many erstwhile Congress leaders, loyal to YSR, were initially not sure of Jagan’s abilities. They were convinced of his leadership qualities after they saw his patience and commitment during the Odarpu yatra, which he undertook six months after YSR was killed to reach out to people who had idolised his father and condoled his death. It is during the yatra that Jagan proved his mettle. He travelled for 265 days, met 700 families in 5,152 villages, 114 towns and 13 districts, covering more than 17,430 km of the state.
As Jagan campaigned in Kadapa district on May 17, INDIA TODAY wit-
nessed first- hand the exuberant response of people. As the simple mini bus, decorated with pictures of his father and himself, meandered through villages, buildings on either side of the road teemed with people waiting for a close look at Jagan, the man who could be next chief minister.
Dressed in his now trademark fullsleeved shirt and grey trousers, browned by the unforgiving sun, Jagan stopped at every village to kiss children, bless youngsters, embrace old men and women. With his film star appeal, he left women, young and old, weeping after touching him. Men wanted to talk to him, the older ones wanted to bless him and the younger ones called out ‘ anna’ ( elder brother).
From an inarticulate businessman, he has transformed into an inspiring orator, adding a touch of drama to his speeches. He makes eye contact with people in the crowd and, with a flourish of his right hand, cuts the air dramatically while making a point. He waves to the gilded statues of YSR that grace every village and town in Kadapa district. And leaves with the promise of reviving his father’s schemes.
From being perceived as an upstart, he has transformed himself into a mass leader comparable to the legendary N. T. Rama Rao ( NTR). Even NTR’s widow Lakshmi Parvathi says Jagan’s popularity, bordering on hysteria, reminds her of her late husband. One of the hundreds present at Jagan’s palatial house at Lotus Pond, Hyderabad, on May 26, before he was taken for questioning by CBI, she says that “Jagan will be chief minister and a bigger star than NTR”.
Jagan’s wife Bharathi, 35, who is also the chairperson of Sakshi group, plays the gracious hostess, pretty in a bright pink and yellow salwar kameez. “His strength has rubbed off on us and keeps us going,” she says. Ask her for a photograph, though, and she blends into the background: “You can take sir’s ( Jagan) pictures.” Jagan’s sister Sharmila and brother- in- law Anil Kumar, an evangelist, also support him. Party leaders, friends and relatives all gather to meet Jagan. He makes it a point to meet everyone before he leaves. “It is obvious that Congress is taking revenge on Jagan. We have faith in him and know he will come out of it even stronger,” says Telugu film star Roja, who left TDP to join YSR Congress.
The politics of vendetta has created a new myth. And it is shattering an old one— that Andhra Pradesh is Congress’s strongest bastion in the south. It is a certainty that will begin unravelling on June 12. Sonia Gandhi became president of the party in 1998 when the Congress had 140 seats in Lok Sabha. The Andhra Pradesh debacle is a major breach in the long line of smaller breaches for the Congress. The party edifice is crumbling. The results of municipal elections in Himachal Pradesh, where Congress has been voted out for the first time in 26 years, have also come as a shock. Will the next General Election leave Sonia’s party with fewer seats?