(S. R. Seshu)
“It is my dream that each and every citizen of Golden Telangana is content and prosperous.”
Thus reads the full-front page advertisement with an impressive photograph of the Chief Minister, K.Chandrasekhar Rao, in all newspapers in Hyderabad to mark the second anniversary of the Telangana Rastra Samithi’s rule on June 2, 2016. It lists out the popular schemes, such as Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, Shaadi Mubaarak and so on. No doubt these grand schemes provided succor to the people of the new State and common citizens started feeling the aura of the Golden Telangana. However, there are two very important things the maga Telangana leader achieved in the last two years for which he must be mighty contended than any other politician in the contemporary Indian political landscape: 1) Complete annihilation of dissent and opposition, and 2) A meticulous consolidation of family rule.
“Had he lived, it wouldn’t have happened,” is a common statement frequently made by the people and politicians who can’t digest the split of the State into two. Here “He” is Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy and “It” refers to the “bifurcation.” The unnatural death of the Rayalaseema strongman gave a new lease of life to the separate state demand and one should salute KCR’s maverick moves and statesmanship for changing the gears of the movement to force the Union Government to succeed to his demand. KCR in fact sought to play the role of a watch dog (kaavali kukka) after the formation of the State by handing over the steering to a Dalit but he had to succumb to the pressure exerted by the same Dalit leaders to shoulder the responsibility of Telangana. Within two years, KCR rose to become a mammoth leader showing clear indications that TRS can’t be touched in the next decade, at least.
Where is opposition?
Nature conspired to bless KCR for taking an initiative and spearheading a remarkable popular movement. Otherwise, how come the Congress, which ‘gave away’ the separate State, would become a big zero in the new State? Similarly, the Telugu Desam Party, the fence-sitter, burnt its fingers in the electoral hustings and facing extinction in Telangana. That is how, KCR started his journey as an unquestionable and undisputed Chief Minister. He wasted no time in accommodating his former pals from the TDP to completely wipe out the party that reportedly humiliated him politically. The then president of the Congress party Mr.D.Srinivas has been nominated to Rajya Sabha this week. MIM and YSRCP also don’t have any scope to raise the voice of dissent in the present scenario for various reasons.
Political leaders must have been attracted by the huge electoral gains of the TRS in the elections at various levels but KCR’s political shrewdness is evident in silencing three key persons. They are, 1) Once his mentor Professor Kodanda Ram, who played a crucial role in the movement as the Chairman of the Joint Action Committee, 2) Balladeer Gaddar and 3) Manda Krishna Madiga, the founder of Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi. All of them have a considerable nuisance value.
“KCR could prove himself as a leader with political acumen by completely isolating these three leaders. Though Manda Krishna is not a big force to reckon with after the split, the way Gaddar and Kodanda Ram were sidelined amazes me,” a senior journalist with a three decades of standing in political report comments. Now and then Gaddar and Kodanda Ram make noises about the KCR’s decisions or attitude but they failed to oppose him tooth and nail for unknown reasons. “KCR knows their strengths and weaknesses very well. Kodanda Ram’s colleagues are roped in to take up political assignments and Gaddar has no major points to make fuss about. We don’t know whether they are maintaining strategic silence or they were silenced by the Government,” another analyst says.
Gaddar spoke against the vaastu priorities of KCR, Kodanda Ram criticized the police action against the University of Hyderabad students and Manda Krishna took objection for not giving ministerial berths to women. That was it; they stopped there and are seen spending their time to appear in TV shows and news conferences and seminars. It is difficult to find out a single voice of dissent now.
The media with allegiance to the TDP supremo N.Chandrababu Naidu initially tried to question the “dictatorial politics” of KCR but it proved to be a damp squib. The largest circulated Telugu newspaper, Eenadu, known for its TDP leanings, literally bought peace with KCR. The ferocious leader, who wanted to plough the entire Ramoji Film City, was a guest of the media mogul. Ramoji’s dream project “Aum City” in a huge extent of land is hailed by KCR as a fantastic project!
Two noise-making TV channels were taken away from the air notwithstanding the hue and cry raised by the ‘lovers of democracy’ and ‘free speech’ in Delhi and Mumbai sans any effect. One of the punished channel had to covert its spare channel into “Telangana” channel while the other had to carry on a protracted legal battle to restore operations. Almost all media houses are crawling when the powers-that-be wanted them to bend.
How is the family?
Another biggest achievement of KCR is, consolidation of his family members on the line of the Maratha strong man-Bal Thakre. Son KTR, Daughter Kavita and nephew Harish are eyes, ears, heart and brain of KCR now. It doesn’t mean that the trio got the positions for free. They struggled very hard in the face of great political uncertainty and ambiguity and performing very well. The trio could prove themselves at every given opportunity.
The foreign returned, highly educated KTR displayed his mettle and achieved a historic victory in the elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) bagging 99 seats in 150-member body. Impressed by his son’s winning streak, KCR stripped himself of the portfolio of Municipal Administration and Urban Development and gifted to KTR, who turned out to be a youth icon with English accent and initiatives such as start-ups. The Minister for Information Technology and Panchayat Raj KTR’s graph has already dwarfed the equally capable Harish, who is the only leader who got the knack of garnering support of MLAs for his political growth when needed.
On the other hand, MP Kavita became the cultural ambassador of the Telangana through her outfit Telangana Jagruthi.
The KCR’s diamond will and planning for sure ensure ‘Bangaru Telangana.’ Any doubts?
