BHARATA BHARATI

“With YSR’s advent in 2004, evangelical activities increased alarmingly and mass conversions were witnessed in rural areas on a large scale. His open pandering to Church and missionaries emboldened evangelists to go all out in their conversion activities. They dared focus on Hindu pilgrimage sites such as Badrachalam, Simmachalam, Srisailam, Ahobilam, Mangalagiri, Kalahasthi, and didn’t spare Thirumala-Thirupathi! YSR aided the Church and missionaries in many ways.” – B.R. Haran

Political career

In a career spanning over three decades, YSR as he was popularly known, was elected to the Lok Sabha four times from Kadapa (Cuddappa) constituency and five times to the State Assembly from Pulivendula constituency of Andhra Pradesh. At a time when the state Congress was feeling the pinch of the non-availability of a charismatic leader, YSR pitched in and made full use of the opportunity. He served as president of APCC twice (1983–1985 and 1998–2000) and as minister from 1980-1983. He was Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly during Chandrababu Naidu’s tenure as Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004.

YSR undertook a massive padayatra (1500 kms) across the state in 2003, covering many villages and rural areas, and led his party to a grand victory in the 2004 elections to both Parliament and Assembly, to the shock of the TDP and surprise of the Congress high command. His party won 185 assembly seats and he became Chief Minister. In the 2009 elections for Parliament and Assembly, he led from the front on a plank of “Development and Credibility” and won 33 Lok Sabha and 156 Assembly seats, becoming Chief Minister again. But barely three months late, travelling by helicopter from Hyderabad to Chithoor, he suddenly closed his life story as his chopper crashed on a hilltop in Nallamala forest area.

Welfare Schemes for the masses

During his first term as Chief Minister from 2004 to 2009, YSR implemented many new welfare schemes apart from the usual freebies such as free power for farmers, waiver of loans, Rs 2/kg rice, which have become the order of governance in the country now. Some schemes, launched with fanfare, include “Jalayagnam” (water conservation), a programme of more than 50 large, medium and small irrigation projects worth more than Rs. 50,000 crores; “Arogya Shree,” a community health insurance scheme for BPL families; “Pavala Vaddi” or interest subsidy, a programme to provide loans to people, particularly women SHGs, at 3% per annum to encourage them to take up small entrepreneurial businesses; “Indiramma illu,” a programme for construction of houses for the rural masses, the major share of which is borne by the government.

Though the Congress party claims these schemes and many others have been a success, the opposition parties have alleged rampant corruption in implementation of the schemes. Probably a change of regime in future might bring out the facts regarding implementation of these much hyped schemes. Also, if the schemes prove really “remunerative,” succeeding regimes may continue with them, perhaps under a different name!

However, Rajasekhar Reddy was termed a pro-poor leader and the rural masses loved and adored him, particularly as he periodically increased the procurement price of paddy, which reduced farmer-suicides to a huge extent to almost nil status.

Corruption charges

YSR and his family were in the thick of controversies during his tenure. The leader of the opposition, Chandrababu Naidu, accused him of amassing huge wealth through companies like Sandur Power Company, Jagathi Publications, and Bharathi Cement Corporation, which were owned by his family members.

As the allegations gained momentum and featured in the assembly, YSR accepted holding Government and forest lands and returned 614 acres at Idupulapaya estate in Vempalli mandal to the government. Still, media reports said he could be tried under AP Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973 & Rules, 1974, AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 and AP Forest Act, 1967.

Almost all opposition parties and the media alleged his family’s involvement in the multi-crore ‘Satyam’ scam. He was blamed for the government’s granting of huge contracts to ‘Maytas’ of the Satyam group. He was severely attacked in and out of the assembly for his ‘specific’ assaults on Ramoji Rao and his companies.

During his tenure, Thirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam was always in the news for all the wrong reasons, from appointment of Chairman (once his own step-brother and another time a liquor baron), to mismanagement, to lack of transparency, to abuse of power, to shortages of jewels and gold coins, to sacrilege of Thirumala by evangelical activities and ant-social elements. The total abuse of TTD was attributed only to YSR and just some days ago Dr. Chandrababu Naidu demanded dissolution of the TTD Board.

The New Indian Express dated 4 September 2009 said, “Charges of massive corruption in irrigation projects and other big ventures dogged him throughout his first innings, so much so that he was described as the chief fund raiser for the Congress at the national level.”

State’s insecurity

YSR’s tenure blundered on security. Apart from the anti incumbency factor for TDP, YSR’s understanding with Maoist and PWG (Naxal) groups allegedly helped in his victory in the 2004 elections. As per the understanding, he stopped the anti-Naxal operations in the name of ‘peace-talks’ and allowed them to regroup and roam the state freely with arms and ammunition. The Naxal and PWG utilized this huge opportunity to establish contacts with Maoists in other states and Nepal.

As a result, the red corridor spread to over 15 states across India, from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh. The unholy nexus extended to LTTE cadres and Jihadis, resulting in smuggling of different kinds of arms and ammunition, including rocket launchers, and parts for making bombs, etc. The huge cache of arms and ammunitions captured by Tamil Nadu police during their regular arrests of LTTE cadres established the Naxal-LTTE nexus.

His tenure also witnessed two huge bomb blasts in Mecca Masjid and Lumbini Park areas, resulting in immense loss of life and property. So far investigations have not yielded any results. The state still reels under the Naxal menace! The general law and order situation is not up to the mark, as evidenced by regular occurrences of political murders.

The Christianization of Andhra Pradesh

With YSR’s advent in 2004, evangelical activities increased alarmingly and mass conversions were witnessed in rural areas on a large scale. His open pandering to Church and missionaries emboldened evangelists to go all out in their conversion activities. They dared focus on Hindu pilgrimage sites such as Badrachalam, Simmachalam, Srisailam, Ahobilam, Mangalagiri, Kalahasthi, and didn’t spare Thirumala-Thirupathi! YSR aided the Church and missionaries in many ways.

He sanctioned Rs. 80, 000/- per church for repair works in August 2006 as per GO MS. No: 21 dt 22/08/2006 (“CM Reddy okays public money for churches”, Deccan Chronicle, 23 August 2006) and an aid of Rs. 1.5 lakhs for the construction of each church.

This is done while the government is controlling over 30,000 temples and taking all their revenue. Only 15% of temple revenue is given back for temple maintenance and salaries of priests. Over 40,000 priests earn a salary of only Rs. 500/- to Rs. 1000/- per month. The rest of the revenue is being used for other government schemes and minority welfare schemes, as in Tamil Nadu.

The AP government is also auctioning cows and calves donated by devotees to Bhagwan Narasimhar Temple at Simhachalam to owners of abattoirs. With so much of revenue from temples, it is unfortunate that the government has not bothered to maintain a decent Goshala respecting the sentiments of Hindu devotees.

The state government identified 7000 acres of temple lands for sale to raise revenues of Rs. 20, 000 crores. In many places, those lands have been allegedly encroached upon by churches and missionaries with the connivance of government officials. Some have been given for construction of churches and mosques.

Thousands of churches have been planted by missionaries throughout the state totally disproportionate to the Christian population – one church for every seven Christians! The number of churches stands at 148,000; the temples are 190,000 (one for every 350 Hindus) and Mosques figure at 176,000 (one for every 40 Muslims)

The pastors of the planted churches straight away started their ‘harvests’ particularly in rural areas, where mass conversions have been rampant for the last five years. While the government figure of Christian population is 1.5% (2001 census), the Church itself puts the figure at 10 to 12%, which could certainly be more in view of the large scale conversion in the state. Most converts are Scheduled Castes who pretend to be Hindus to enjoy reservation benefits, while they practice Christianity at home. The AP Assembly passed a resolution for SC status for Christian and Muslim SC converts.

Emboldened by the government’s attitude, missionaries made a focused assault on Thirumala Thirupathi. The YSR government facilitated such activities by releasing a GO saying Bhagwan Venkateswara’s assets were only two hills covering an area of 27.5 sq. kms., and the other five hills would be taken over by the government for converting them into a picnic spot with multiplexes, food courts, commercial, sports and entertainment infrastructures including a rope-way to reach the top of the hills.

• YSR: End of a Controversial Tenure – B.R. Haran http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=795

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