After a series of temple attacks in Andhra Pradesh, the state’s YSR Congress government on Monday alleged an ongoing conspiracy by political opponents to defame and brand it “anti-Hindu”.

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday cited a pattern in these attacks, noting that they were occurring around the time when some prestigious welfare programmes were being launched.

“Who benefits from breaking God’s idols? Who will benefit from the crimes in temples and religious places? Who will benefit by inflaming the passions of people and resorting to violence? Who will benefit by propaganda hurting the public faith and poisonous propaganda?” he asked.

He deplored that the politics rivals were not even sparing God to reap dividends.

Reddy gave examples of nine temple attacks in the southern state which synced with some mega welfare schemes.

He said on November 14, 2019 when the Nadu-Nedu scheme aimed at transforming government schools on par with corporate schools was launched, reports of a temple being desecrated in Guntur emerged.

“Going to some far off deserted place or village, sometime in the midnight, they go to a small temple and break idols and the next day they publicise it on the social media and the opposition leaders go there to politicise while the yellow media exaggerates it,” he said.

The CM said within a week of setting up a price stabilisation fund worth Rs 3,000 crore on January 15, 2020, reports on some idols being broken in Pithapuram had emerged.

A few days later on February 11, 2020 another incident was reported from Rompicherla when the government inaugurated Disha police station for women.

Likewise, on September 5, 2020, a decades old chariot belonging to the Antarvedi Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple got gutted, around the time the government launched a scheme to supply nutritious food.

Adding a few more examples, the Chief Minister alleged that media houses aligned to opposition parties are drumming up these incidents to divert public attention on the welfare schemes in a bid to communally tarnish the party which captured power for the first time, almost 10 years after its launch.

He suggested that the police think why such activities are occurring, who is behind them and who is targeting whom.

Reddy observed that people are living amidst in an era when lies are peddled through the social media.

Most of the time, these crimes would first go viral on social media, followed by the mainstream media reporting them, he said.

“The society has deteriorated to such an extent that nobody fears or respects God. For the sake of politics, even God is not being spared. God is also being brought to politics and with God politics, some people are aiming to benefit and we are going to the climax of kalyug,” he alleged.

Likening these attacks to “guerrilla warfare tactics”, Reddy attacked Telugu Desam Party President N. Chandrababu Naidu for “making all efforts to spin these incidents into political and religion issues in a state not known for religious divide”.

Devulapalli Amar, national media and inter-state affairs advisor to AP government said one or two incidents of temple attacks could be termed as stray incidents but regular attacks point at a definite conspiracy.

He said Reddy took up the attacks very seriously and an additional DGP rank officer was appointed to review all these incidents and bring the conspirators to book.

From the High Court to the Supreme Court, the YCP Government is unhesitatingly defying the orders of every court and it is continuing to implement its own decisions in some way or other. Now, almost for the first time, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh slapped a punishment on AP Assembly Secretary Bala Krishnamacharyulu. He was convicted of resorting to contempt of the High Court itself.

Interestingly, the punishment given to Krishnamacharyulu was that he should sit in the court hall till evening. Also, Rs. 1,000 penalty was imposed on him. If he did not pay the penalty, he should be put in jail for a week. This is how comparatively small punishments that would be given to the bureaucrats and Government employees in contempt cases. If a close look is taken, the Assembly Secretary was convicted of not implementing the court order with respect to the outsourcing staff.

What more, Krishnamacharyulu was already retired. But the government is still continuing him. Analysts say that the YCP regime was using retired judges like Kanaga Raju and retired officers like Ajay Kallam Reddy to go ahead with its undemocratic activities. Moreover, the people in power were just counselling the officials to take lightly when the court awards small punishments in the court cases.

The same happened in respect of the Chief Secretary and the DGP. They were just called to the court and made to wait for long hours there. But this time, a slightly bigger punishment was given to the Assembly Secretary which is a fine of Rs. 1,000. This amount would also be paid from the people’s treasury.

AP people’s expectations are rising but the delivery of services is falling short. Amid this, warning bells started ringing already for the ruling YCP leaders. No Opposition leader has addressed a roadside public meeting in recent times in Andhra Pradesh. But, as part of his road show, Jana Senani Pawan Kalyan addressed a public meeting in the heart of Gudivada town. Without any great mobilizat on the part of the Jana Sena, a large number of people attend the meeting. Pawan’s show turned out to be a huge success going by how the crowd kept giving a cheering, good response to his aggressive speech.

Also, Nara Lokesh took out a low profile ‘Rythu Kosam’ tour which also got a good response. The success of meetings of Opposition leaders has come as a rude shock to the ruling YCP leaders and cadres.

That too, Pawan’s meet took place in an assembly segment which is represented by Minister Kodali Nani, who has emerged the strongest YCP leader in Coastal Andhra. Pawan had made lots of sarcastic remarks against Kodali that were well received by the crowd. Senani has gone to the extent of mockingly saying that Kodali Nani should stop playing second fiddle to CM Jagan Reddy regardless of his Government’s misdeeds.

Analysts say that the rival leaders’ shows had certainly set the warning bells ringing for the YCP. In just 19 months of its rule, the ruling YCP was facing public heartburn in different aspects. From the farmers’ problems to ration cards to students’ issues, the Government is under huge stress to satisfy all these sections. Clearly, YSR Jagananna cash transfer programmes would not be solely enough to satisfy the people.