Focus on Centre’s injustice to AP: Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati: Telugu Desam government in the state is preparing for yet another edition of Nava Nirmana Deeksha at Benz Circle in Vijayawada on June 2, sharpening its knives for a renewed attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is livid with the Centre as no help has come till now since he tightened his belt and began building the truncated state brick by brick from 2014.

Naidu also wants to showcase the development that he had brought about in the state on his own despite lack of any help from the Centre, like clocking double digit growth, getting the investors interested in the state even without Special Category Status and the work he has done thus far for the construction of Polavaram Project.

The state is yet to wriggle out of the unenviable situation in which it had found itself when Naidu arrived in Vijayawada, looking for a home and an office for himself. As he landed in Vijayawada, bumpy roads and dusty winds greeted him. The people were too stunned to say anything following the unjust and cruel division of the state.

Four years on, Naidu is now in a combative mood. With the Centre not keeping any of the promises made including the Special Category Status (SCS), he stepped out of the NDA and launched an offensive since he realised that it was the only language New Delhi would understand.

Naidu hit back at the Centre beginning with stalling of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha by his MPS and after the end of the budget session, continuing the heat on the centre in the state by taking up one programme or the other to make the people understand how the BJP had taken them for a ride.

As Chandrababu stepped up his offensive against the BJP, he began seeing unmistakable signs of the saffron party getting ready to retaliate, though not on a political plane. He sees a sinister game-plan in the attempt to create law and order problems in the state through what he calls its proxy YSRC.

He also sees something fishy in BJP’s demand for a CBI inquiry into allegations of theft of Lord Venkateswara’s pink diamond made by sacked chief priest of Tirumala temple AV Ramana Deekshitulu and the Centre’s botched bid to take over the control of the Tirumala temple, using the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as its cat’s paw.

If Naidu is angry with the Centre, he seems to be fully justified. The NDA government had not delivered the special package that it had offered in lieu of SCS and all the other promises made in the bifurcation act still continue to be pending.

Already Naidu had succeeded in discrediting the BJP to a large extent by laying bare the promises they had made. As he has a national statue, he kept the Opposition leaders in the loop over the way the BJP had been treating the state.

As he appears to be one raring for avenging the injustice done to the state, the leaders of regional parties across the country are looking at him with growing interest. Naidu’s visit to Bengaluru the other day proved beyond all doubt that he had taken the battle with the BJP very seriously.

When the division took place in 2014, the truncated state of AP was left without a capital and a host of promises of help from the Centre. Rubbing salt into the wounds, it appeared the Centre instead of separating Telangana from the combined state had done it the other way round - cutting AP out, and throwing it by the roadside.

In fact former Union minister Jairam Ramesh’s words before the bifurcation of the state came partly true in respect of Telangana and AP. He had said Telangana did not need Special Category Status since it was walking away with the bride (Hyderabad) but AP would need SCS as it would be left high and dry. Telangana walked away with the bride and metamorphosed into one of the richest states and AP was left an orphan, with neither SCS tag or any help from the Centre.

Ever since he came to Vijayawada in 2014, it had been an arduous journey for Naidu, construction of a Secretariat building at Velagapudi and bringing the employees to Amaravati to begin administration where at the same time being in the good books of the Central government which had promised SCS and made an assurance that it would honour all the promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014 and fund fully the Polavaram Project.

On more than one occasion, Naidu told his confidants that though he wanted Special Category Status for the state, he could not press it beyond a point since the Centre might grant it and then withhold all other benefits. As he had ambitious plans for AP – building Amaravati, a global city, developing the other regions of Rayalaseema and North Andhra, he was keeping a low profile with Delhi bosses. Now that it has become clear that nothing would materilaise, he is going for Modi’s jugular.

Naidu finalised the weeklong schedule at a review meeting on Thursday at Grievance Hall at Undavalli in Guntur district. He said this year, the state will not just observe it, but increase awareness of the extent of injustice done to the state.