What is the secret behind TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi? After a week-long US trip, Naidu returned to Hyderabad, and then rushed off to Delhi to visit the pilgrims rescued from Uttarakhand and sheltering in AP Bhavan.
While he had to criticise Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and his government as usual, Naidu heaped praise on Modi, who had descended on Uttarakhand in a blaze of publicity and “rescued” several hundred pilgrims belonging to his state.
Since everything is done these days with an eye on the next general election, the fact that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate is likely to be Modi is good enough reason to suck up to him. In fact, TD leaders a few days ago did not rule out a tie-up with the BJP in the next general election.
The BJP is also looking for new partners. Naidu was part of the BJP-led NDA alliance and could be looking to refurbish old ties. He is unlikely to go with any Congress led coalition, and the much-talked-about Third Front is not going to capture power at the Centre.
Praising the BJP’s current poster-boy Narendra Modi is a good way of getting one’s foot in the door of a possible BJP-led alliance.
Survival on survivors
It doesn’t take much for TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to square off against each other. Naidu had announced that he had arranged for flood survivors to have flown from Delhi to Hyderabad.
Not to be outdone, the CM announced that the government will arrange for a special flight from Dehradun so that the pilgrims need not come all the way to Delhi, but can fly out straight from Dehradun. The next day the TD also arranged a flight from Dehradun.
And then, as everyone saw on national television, “leaders” from the two parties abused and punched each other as they vied for the attention of the exhausted pilgrims. No intelligent pilgrim could have been left in any doubt that it was his vote and not concern for him that prompted the two parties to arrange for flights — at the taxpayers’, not the netas’ expense, of course.
TD flights have landed
The Telugu Desam, headed by a man considered at one time to be the most tech-savvy politician around, is no match for other parties when it comes to mounting a publicity and media relations blitz.
The state publicity department might have sent SMS alerts, but it was nothing compared to the flood of messages, emails, and pictures sent out by the TD from 6 am to 12 midnight on rescue of Uttarakhand flood victims.
The SMS alerts gave a complete picture of what was going on in Dehradun and AP Bhavan in Delhi. The messages besought the media to “please cover the event in Dehradun or Delhi”. Some of the messages read like flight bulletins, with the number of passengers, the take-off time etc., of the flights arranged by the TD to bring the pilgrims back home.
Messages followed alerting the media to the time the flight took off, and then later what time it would land at Shamshabad Airport and finally what time the flight landed. Congress headquarters in Gandhi Bhavan, on the other hand, sent no such information about the government's own efforts in this direction.
The media war, at least, was won by the TD hands down. The tragedy that unfolded in Uttarakhand was milked for all it was worth by political parties in AP. TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu has returned to the state capital from Uttarakhand though he had earlier promised he would stay back to monitor rescue operations till the last pilgrim reached home safely.
But he has certainly got his five minutes of fame when he reached the affected places early and arranged for pilgrims from the state to be airlifted home. No sooner had the flight landed, than his son Lokesh was at hand to push the wheelchair of one of the passengers while leaders decorated the vehicles carrying pilgrims with party banners.
There are still hundreds of pilgrims in Dehradun, but the politicians have made their point, got their photo ops, and its business as usual.
Opportunity in calamity
The tragedy that unfolded in Uttarakhand was milked for all it was worth by political parties in AP. TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu has returned to the state capital from Uttarakhand though he had earlier promised he would stay back to monitor rescue operations till the last pilgrim reached home safely.
But he has certainly got his five minutes of fame when he reached the affected places early and arranged for pilgrims from the state to be airlifted home. No sooner had the flight landed, than his son Lokesh was at hand to push the wheelchair of one of the passengers while leaders decorated the vehicles carrying pilgrims with party banners.
There are still hundreds of pilgrims in Dehradun, but the politicians have made their point, got their photo ops, and its business as usual.
Waiting pangs for babus
There are inordinate delays in postings of IAS officers by the government. Mohd Abdul Azeem was taken out of the VMC where he was commissioner, and was posted as deputy secretary in the Secretariat. M.M. Naik, Khammam joint collector was posted as e-Seva director three months after he handed over charge.
Lakshmi Narasimhan also had to wait for three months to get a new posting after he was relieved of his post as Prakasam joint collector. Eight promotee officers, including K. Dhananjay Reddy, got posted six months after the Centre cleared their postings.
T with chocolates, not dosas, is fine
Chocolates, it seems, are superior to dosas. When Union minister Vayalar Ravi commented that Telangana was not a dosa to be handed around, Telangana Rashtra Samiti MP Vijayashanti and other party leaders were angry with him.
Vayalar had insulted the Telangana people’s self respect they chorused. Recently, when Vijayashanti was asked about her Medak Lok Sabha seat, which is being eyed by her own party chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, she said that the Medak seat was not like chocolate to be given to Chandrasekhar Rao.
TRS leaders, including Chandrasekhar Rao, kept silent. Congressmen, of course, could not resist asking why if the Medak Lok Sabha seat can be likened to a chocolate, Telangana can’t be likened to a dosa.