KCR’s style of functioning needs course correction

Paying tributes to the famous American poet Robert Frost, President Kennedy said, “The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested; for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.” This special significance of Robert Frost was bringing an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on platitudes and pieties of society. When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.

Himself a voracious reader, K. Chandrashekhar Rao showed great regard and respect for intellectuals during the agitation for Telangana state. And he used to often meet some of them to discuss various problems that would confront the Telangana state and possible solutions to those problems.

He also used to discuss problems of irrigation, education and agriculture with experts concerned. He successfully led the near peaceful movement for creation of Telangana state with an unyielding constancy and in long struggle for Telangana he utilised all opportunities including his resignation as Union Labour Minister to secure political gains for Telangana movement.

He could also fearlessly lash out at Andhra hegemonists with searing eloquence, laced with sarcasm and wit. All this made him the darling of Telangana people. After formation of Telangana State became a reality due to granite will power of Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, KCR went to her along with his family to thank her. After that he went back on his promise of merging TRS party in the Congress.

Later TRS contested the elections on its own to the new state assembly. During the election campaign, KCR exhibited rare knowledge of problems facing each Assembly constituency. He also pledged to make a Harijan leader as the first Chief Minister of new state of Telangana and vowed to remain as its watchdog.

And when the results came, surprisingly TRS didn’t receive any groundswell of support from the electorate, but managed to secure 63 seats in the 119-member Assembly and became eligible to form the government. It secured a minority vote of 33% on a 70% turnout, i.e., around one in five persons voting for TRS.

And when KCR was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Telangana, people of the region enthusiastically welcomed the long-excepted change. As Chief Minister, KCR made multiple promises, raised high expectations among people and created an aura of political invincibility around himself. In the beginning, he used to hold prolonged meetings with officials and acquaint them with his views on various issues.

But he rarely gave any chance to the officials to actively participate in the discussions. It did not take long for the officials to understand the mono-mania of the new Chief Minister, and they soon learnt the art of silence. And at the cabinet meetings too, the Chief Minister continued with his Mono-Mania and rarely gave a chance to his ministerial colleagues to speak. And with KCR centralising all power in his hands, his ministers became virtually disempowered.

The only two exceptions to this were his young, able and articulate son K T Rama Rao and his nephew, an energetic and astute administrator T Harish Rao. All this made the new government of Telangana KCR-centric. KCR also grew in his belief that he knows the way forward of any sector.

This new situation was a surprise to many discerning political observers of Telangana. When the new state came into existence, they fondly hoped that KCR will endear himself to all sections of the people and will be able to solve the perennial problems of poverty, unemployment, lack of health care, affordable education and myriad other problems.

They also thought that he would ensure horizontal accountability, transparency and people’s participation in his administration. It was also expected that his exercise of discretion would be firmly based on public reason and not private gain. They were also of the opinion that he would make civil service in the state independent of the whims of the political executive.

At times, KCR took many decisions to benefit the people. One such decision was continuous supply of power without any cuts. He also unveiled a strong social agenda to confer individual benefits on millions of needy persons. And if the proposed reservations in government jobs to Muslims and Scheduled Tribes fructify, they will go a long way in benefiting those sections.

KCR has done well in reorganising Telangana state into 31 districts. This will bring administration closer to the people. But the main flaw in this arrangement is inevitability of the posting of inexperienced officers as heads of district administration. If KCR has done reorganisation of districts to promote decentralisation of administration, one wonders why he is not undertaking to confer decentralised powers on panchayat raj system.

M S Rajaji who worked as a Chief Secretary in the undivided Andhra Pradesh state wonders why all the successive governments that have spoken about the power being given to the people and sworn by democratic decentralisation go on giving more and more powers to the Collectors while reducing the powers to the elected bodies.

As this trend is an anathema to democracy, he says that we should have representative bodies with adequate powers at different levels, particularly when we have spoken of “We the people of India’’ in the constitution. As the KCR government is in hyper drive to promote his regime’s three years in office as a golden period for Telangana and its people, we have to objectively take stock of the actual performance of the government.

The three main schemes of government are: Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha and irrigation projects on Godavari River. The Mission Kakatiya which aims to renovate and restore the long-neglected thousands of thanks in Telangana will benefit the rural people abundantly The Mission Bhagiratha is meant to supply protected drinking water to every household in all the villages of Telangana.

As many villages in Telangana already have protected drinking water supply arrangements, many civil servants question the necessity for a new scheme. The huge cost of this project estimated at Rs 43,000 crore makes people feel that the cost is inflated for some invisible considerations.

The scheme to provide irrigation to millions of acres from Godavari River is a commendable one. But the scheme designed and re-designed by KCR himself at a huge cost of about Rs 55,000 crore is questioned by some experts, who came out with an alternative scheme with lesser cost.

The scheme worked out by KCR envisages construction of huge reservoirs at various places, entailing acquisition of thousands of acres presently under cultivation. The engineers presented other competing schemes with lesser cost to KCR, but to avail.

Renowned engineer of international repute, late T Hanumanth Rao and Sriram Vedire, Advisor to the Union Ministry of Water Resources, suggested construction of a dam on Godavari river near Kaleshwaram with FRL at 115 meters and a storage of 88 tmcft, with minimum submergence in Telangana and Maharashtra states.

Under this scheme, 9 barrages have to be constructed between SRSP and Yellampally, where river fall is very high at 150 meters. At all the 9 barrages, a storage of about 37 tmcft is possible. There is also zero submergence at all these barrages. Apart from these, another barrage has to be constructed with FRL at 132 meters at Manthani to facilitate continuation of Kaleshwaram for lifting water from Kaleshwaram reservoir to Manthani and from there to Yellampally.

The capacity of barrage at Manthani is 9 tmcft. Godavari perfectly fits in technical parameters of constructing series of barrages on it and its tributaries. This will simultaneously help in controlling floods and mitigating droughts and provide for inland navigation of sea going vessels. To promote inland navigation, the Union government will also provide sufficient funds for the scheme.

Most of the works under all the three schemes are given to Andhra contractors who have succeeded in establishing contacts with the Chief Minister. A major election promise of giving three acers of land to every landless person has not made much headway during last three years. Equally the promise of providing free education from KG to PG has not moved even an inch.

The mixed record of KCR’s three-year rule has fortunately not yet dimmed his popularity among the people. By and large, the people are still hoping that KCR will fulfill all his poll promises. This provides ample opportunity to KCR to undertake course correction and to change his style of governance by adopting consensual approach in resolving various problems.

He should ensure internal democracy in the functioning of the party. It is better if he desists from hurling choice invectives against his political opponents in the interests of decency and decorum. During last three years KCR has given an impression that he is not a democrat in belief and practice and instead became oligopolistic. Hence, he should shed his present passion for personal power.

During the remaining two years of his present term as Chief Minister KCR should sincerely try to provide real good governance. He should promote the rule of law, accountability, decentralisation; honesty in public affairs; and administrative responsiveness and ethical approach to governance. He should also stop alienating the people from him, as all the Chief Ministers of undivided Andhra Pradesh state used to meet people for an hour every day.

Unheeding all the saner advice, if he still continues with a personality-driven, autocratic style of governance and self-preservation, then sycophancy and servility will become the defining characteristics of his governance and hence his governance will be truly viewed as the “Governance with Difference.’’ (Author is a veteran journalist)

By Ch Rajeshver Rao