Hyderabad: While 19 opposition parties from across the country have already declared that they would boycott the inauguration of the new parliament building complex by Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow, two major regional rival parties from Andhra Pradesh (AP), the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), have decided to attend the inauguration. Although both parties are not part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), they insist that their support is a principled democratic responsibility. So what explains this strange behaviour by the two main political parties of AP?
Both the YSRCP and TDP have in the past supported the NDA and voted in its favour on various issues – be it the election of the president and vice-president, or the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA/NRC) – despite consistently maintaining an attitude of political disaffection against the Union government for not granting Special Category Status (SCS) to AP. In fact, the TDP quit the NDA before the 2019 general elections and joined ranks with the rival United Progressive Alliance (UPA), while the YSRCP won 22 out of the 25 parliamentary seats from the state in 2019 on an anti-Union election plank.
“Our leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has always maintained that we are independent and not associated with any national alliance,” Devulapalli Amar, national media advisor for the Andhra Pradesh Government told The Wire. Denying that the YSRCP is an undeclared alliance partner of the NDA, he further explained the need to maintain ‘friendly’ relations with the Union government.
“Only a few days ago the Union government finally released Rs. 10,461 crores of pending bifurcation dues from 2014-15. This is due to our friendly attitude with Delhi. Despite being part of the NDA, the-then TDP CM couldn’t manage this,” Amar added.
Earlier this month, under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, the Union government has allocated a substantial amount of Rs. 10,460.87 crore to address the revenue deficit.
“We are happy the funds rightfully due have been released. But if you go through the letter from the Union finance ministry sanctioning the funds, you can see that they have clearly mentioned no more funds over and above shall be given,” Kommareddy Pattabhi, TDP spokesperson, told The Wire.
“If this is the case, then how will other projects in the state be funded? How will Polavaram be completed? For mere trifles, Jagan Mohan Reddy has sacrificed the stakes and long-term interests of the state and the people of AP.”
The Wire has independently reviewed the finance ministry’s letter. Section 2(IV) of the document says: “The Government of Andhra Pradesh shall ensure that these projects/schemes would not seek financial assistance from any other scheme of Government of India.” It is unclear whether this verifies Pattabhi’s claim, though.
The finance ministry’s letter sanctioning the revenue deficit grant.
Furthermore, Pattabhi alleged that the ruling party is planning to use this money as election fund come 2024.
“Jagan Mohan Reddy accepted this offer from the Union government because he is bankrupt, both to run the state and to fund his election campaign,” he added.
Name-calling and outrage replaced with silence
In the lead up to the 2019 general election, the TDP exited the NDA citing broken promises. Things turned bitter after Chandrababu Naidu began hobnobbing with UPA allies. He even labelled Narendra Modi a “terrorist”, urging his brothers and sisters hailing from minority communities to shun the BJP. In response, BJP leader Amit Shah declared the doors of NDA permanently closed for the TDP.
Vivekananda Nemana, a final-year PhD scholar from Princeton University and a close observer of Andhra Pradesh, wondered whether the sudden reversal in the TDP’s position reflected a sense of desperation within the party.
“After railing against the communalism of the BJP, Telugu Desam MPs went on to unanimously vote in favour of CAA-NRC. There is no indignation expressed anymore over BJP’s treatment of the state or even public mentions of SCS, a total reversal on the issue that dominated post-bifurcation politics in AP and prompted the TDP’s withdrawal from the NDA in the first place,” he told The Wire.
Resentment over the Union government’s reneged promise to grant SCS to AP, which would have exempted the state from certain taxes while providing preferential treatment in receiving central funds, helped fuel angry political stump speeches and nightly news debates in AP for many years after bifurcation. But Telugu TV channels and politicians of all major parties have since fallen quiet over the issue. The TDP has also supported both the presidential and vice-presidential candidates put up by the NDA in 2022.
Refuting any allegations of the TDP’s desperation to curry favour with the BJP, Pattabhi said that “our party has no personal enmity with anyone. We only take decisions based on the current situation. There is no need to go back into the past”. Seeking to justify his party’s actions, Pattabhi said there are numerous examples of parties changing their stand on issues depending on the context.
Today, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal met Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) as part of his efforts to rally support against the ordinance which he alleges to be against the spirit of federalism and the Constitution of India. Labelling Modi as “maafi ka saudagar”, KCR declared his support to Kejriwal and the people of Delhi.
“If the TDP and YSRCP vote in favour of the NDA on the ordinance bill for short-term political gains, it will be a vote against their own state’s interests. It will be a huge loss for the people of Andhra Pradesh, who have witnessed first-hand the consequences of anti-federalism, and whose politics have consistently affirmed state’s rights ever since,” Vivekananda told The Wire.
About turn
In 1982-83, the TDP was born in the fire of federalism when popular actor N.T. Rama Rao (NTR) rallied political forces against the high-handedness of the Indira Gandhi government in Delhi. In fact, NTR even served as the president of the National Front led by the Janata Dal between 1989-90. Chandrababu Naidu served as the convenor of the United Front between 1996 and 98. The late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy too wrestled the shackles of the Congress high command’s centralising tendencies before the 2004 general elections and managed to carve out his own space before his untimely death.