One step forward, two backward

It is too early to predict how Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's latest political caper-favouring BC status for the numerically strong (around 27 percent) kapus in the State’s coastal belt and provide five percent reservation to them in employment and education would finally pan out, but what is clear at the moment is that it is fast acquiring all the trappings of a major controversy.

With BC Commission Chairman Justice KL Manjunath reportedly expressing displeasure over the panel’s other three members submitting a report to the government on which the State Cabinet based its decision on according BC status to kapus, it remains to be seen in which direction the issue is headed for and what shape it could eventually take.

Justice Manjunath was ostensibly planning to submit the Commission's report on Monday, which was to be the official one. He is understood to have discussed, the issue of BC status to kapus, with the other three members, who had already given their report to the government, before he put his seal of approval on what he describes as the official report. It is not known what the contents of the report are but it is widely perceived that Justice Manjunath may have cautioned against extending reservations to kapus.

At this stage, it is not known what purpose the ‘official’ report would serve since the Legislative Assembly and Council had both passed the bill, which was getting readied to be sent to the Union Home Ministry for tabling it in Parliament for adoption and its subsequent listing in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

Already the move has set off a chain-reaction among the BCs who spilled on to the roads, demanding that the Chandrababu Naidu government revisit its decision while TDP's ally BJP described it as an eye wash. There were others-mainly YSRCP-who contended that Naidu's move was only to get kapus on board in order to deliver an iron-fisted punch on YS Jaganmohan Reddy as kapus are perceived to be in the latter’s camp.

The Opposition has already dubbed the move as yet another Naidu tactic to divert the attention of the people, this time from the Polavaram faux pas. It is now more than evident that the authorities will miss the deadline, particularly given the fact that the Centre is picking holes in the way the State was going ahead with the project.

Although, the kapu reservation bill has been passed, and its onward journey to Delhi has commenced, there is a distinct possibility that it may not be an easy ride to get listed in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. To accomplish the end, it has weather many a storm and survive hurdles in the form of legal hiccups that await the bill. The sentiment-driven people will take to the streets calling for its withdrawal, sooner than later.

On Friday, the haste with which the State had acted in adopting the proposal caught everyone off-guard. More than that, the speed with which the bill was prepared overnight could put to shame even the fastest Formula One drivers. A bigger shocker was that government officials worked throughout the night and readied enough number of bill copies so that all members of the Council and Assembly get them the next morning.

That is an electrifying speed that one could not see when Naidu was on his surprise checks spree during his tenure in the undivided Andhra Pradesh! Though Naidu had promised BC status to kapus during the 2014 poll run-up, he let it lie until Kapu patriarch Mudragada Padmanabham took up the issue in January 2016 and organised a major public meeting at Tuni, which climaxed on a violent note.

As the threat of kapus not supporting the TDP seemed very real, Naidu had to announce the appointment of the Manjunath Commission with the brief that it should complete the survey of the socio-economic conditions of the kapus and submit its findings with nine months. Since Mudragada kept the kapu kettle boiling all the time by inciting kapus against the TDP with his anti-Chandrababu Naidu rant, the Chief Minister could not get off the tiger he was riding.

Kapus have always remained enigmatic and whimsical, not staying with any one party for too long. The TDP assumes that if it can get reservations for kapus, they would throw their weight behind Chandrababu Naidu when he faces his bête noire Jaganmohan Reddy in the 2019 electoral Armageddon.