The Hindu Business Line : A time to introspect

It would be inaccurate to look at the support that Mr Chandrababu Naidu's received as something borne out of sheer naivete. This section of the Indian elite genuinely believed he was a role model for the country's future politicians. Yet, all the money that Mr Chandrababu Naidu received from New Delhi by arm-twisting the outgoing National Democratic Alliance did not help him win the support of his people.

THOUGH like all Indian politicians, he always claimed he was with the poor and the downtrodden, Mr N Chandrababu Naidu has paid a stiff price for his espousal of economic policies that helped the well-off. His political opportunism certainly did not help him after nine years as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Those who had felt the pulse of the majority of the people living in southern India's least developed State were not in the least surprised by what happened. On the other hand, there were many who were simply astonished at the manner in which Mr Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party and its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, were summarily thrown out by the State's voters.

In the latter category are individuals who were obviously taken in by the media hype surrounding a person who claimed he was the most "computer-savvy" and "forward looking" Chief Minister . This category would include most businesspersons (including representatives of multinational corporations) and sections of the media (especially the English language media and specifically, the financial media) that had lauded Mr Chandrababu Naidu as some sort of a demi-god among the chattering classes.

True, Mr Chandrababu Naidu's media management skills were excellent. But it would be inaccurate to look at the support he received from chambers of commerce and the financial dailies as something borne out of sheer naivete. This section of the Indian elite genuinely believed he was a role model for the country's future politicians. There were indeed some who were gullible enough to fall for his public relations pitch. However, this section that worshipped Mr Chandrababu Naidu sincerely hoped his strategy of wooing foreign investors and the World Bank would work wonders for Andhra Pradesh's economy.

Yet, all the money that Mr Chandrababu Naidu received from New Delhi by arm-twisting the National Democratic Alliance headed by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not help him win the support of his people. Cyberabad, he claimed, would be shining like never before. Yet, among those who voted against the TDP Government were not just the rural people of the State who had been reduced to penury by four successive years of drought. The poor of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderbad were evidently not particularly impressed with the claims of a transparent, efficient and corruption-free government.

Unlike his father-in-law, N. T. Rama Rao, who had initiated a scheme to provide rice at Rs 2 a kg, Mr Chandrababu Naidu had argued strongly against populist programmes, which he felt were economically not sustainable. Such arguments may have been applauded in seminars and conferences conducted by industry associations and chambers of commerce.

However, the logic of cutting subsidies was hardly appreciated by poor farmers of the State, certainly not by the families of the hundreds of farmers who reportedly committed suicide over the past few years. Mr Chandrababu Naidu's decision to hike power prices was clearly resented by many in the State. He had also increased water tariffs and bus fares.

His successor Mr Y. S. Rajshekhar Reddy has now promised free power to farmers. What this strategy would do to the State's debt burden remains to be seen. But the new Chief Minister certainly believes free electricity will not lower his popularity rating.

It is also evident today that Mr Naidu could not address the aspirations of the people of the Telangana region. We all become more intelligent by hindsight, but there is something to be said about Mr Chandrababu Naidu's political opportunism that was deliberately ignored by large sections of the media. Some of his flip-flops are worth recounting.

Mr Chandrababu Naidu became a member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly for the first time in 1978 on a Congress(I) ticket. He served as a minister in the state government between 1980 and 1983 before quitting the Congress(I) and joining the TDP that had then just been founded by NTR. Few today remember the fact that Mr Chandrababu Naidu had stood staunchly behind Indira Gandhi's younger son and Ms Sonia Gandhi's brother-in-law Sanjay Gandhi many months after the 19-month Emergency had ended in March 1977.

Mr Chandrababu Naidu turned against his father-in-law and broke the TDP after NTR had served a fourth (and last) term as Chief Minister. His political stature rose rapidly after he became the convenor of the United Front coalition that came to power in New Delhi after the May 1996 General Elections. However, after the outcome of the February 1998 elections became known, Mr Chandrababu Naidu demonstrated his opportunism by ditching the UF almost overnight.

The former Congressman claimed the very existence of the TDP depended on it continuing to oppose the Congress. Although he stood to alienate nearly 20 per cent of the voters of AP — mainly Muslims and Christians — Mr Chandrababu Naidu aligned the TDP with the BJP after bidding farewell to the Left parties who had aligned with him. In the September-October 1999 Lok Sabha elections that were conducted simultaneously with the Assembly elections in the State, the TDP returned to power but with a reduced majority.

Thereafter, he went on an even bigger publicity binge. He met Mr Bill Gates in the US, invited him to his state capital. He welcomed another American Bill (Clinton). He set up the high-profile Indian School of Business and became the first Chief Minister to head a State government in India that obtained a Rs 2,200-crore loan from the World Bank, that too, despite the economic sanctions that were imposed in the aftermath of the May 1988 nuclear tests. However, none of these actions appear to have made a positive impact on the electorate of Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Naidu had, on many occasions, asserted the TDP's "independence" from the BJP on issues such as Ayodhya. He kept underlining the fact that his party was not a part of either the Vajpayee Government or the National Democratic Alliance. Yet that did not stop him from arm-twisting the "friendly" regime in New Delhi for more funds for calamity relief and for procurement of rice. This did not seem hypocritical to him.

The Andhra Pradesh Government represented before the Eleventh Finance Commission that it should not be "discriminated" against vis-à-vis less developed States for having "performed" well — that is, by bringing down the rate of growth of population in the State and by improving education and health-care facilities.

However, even if Mr Naidu was successful in this regard, clearly large sections of the electorate expected much more from him. In this regard at least, his situation is comparable to that of the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, whose party had to pay a price for his government's unpopularity not only in during the December 2003 assembly elections but also this time round during the Parliamentary polls.

Time and again, the TDP sought to highlight its secular credentials by opposing the points of view expressed by those in the Vajpayee Government on the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. In April 2002, the TDP formally called for the ouster of Mr Narendra Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The TDP had also protested loudly in Parliament when the Government tried to introduce a Bill seeking to ban cow slaughter all over the country in August 2003. Were the minorities in Andhra Pradesh then satisfied with Mr Chandrababu Naidu's secular credentials? Even if they were, they do not appear to have voted for him and his party.

While campaigning in his state, Mr Chandrababu Naidu sought to temper his pro-rich image. He talked about his Janmabhoomi scheme as a programme of community participation to build projects in rural areas.

He clearly did not succeed in convincing his constituents about the efficacy of the scheme. One should not write off Mr Chandrababu Naidu's career at this juncture. He has many years left in politics. But he certainly needs to introspect hard.

(The author is Director, School of Convergence, International Management Institute, New Delhi and a journalist with over 25 years of experience in various media — print, Internet, radio and television. He can be contacted at paranjoy@yahoo.com.)