YSR Reddy legacy for Congress

It is one of the most unpleasant moment in the history of Andhra Pradesh that the most popular leader of current time has died in an accident. His popularity can be assessed from the fact that 67 people have committed suicide or died after hearing the news of terrible death of their leader. Now, his son has appealed to the public not to commit suicide and show patience and be brave. Definitely, he was popular and successful and he managed to reach this position single-handedly with his determination and hard work.

The congress party is projecting as if a national hero (leader) has died and the media is full of praise about what he did and how (well?) he managed the social welfare programs in the state. But behind all this, there is an bad face of YSR as well. He is also the one CM who put many journalist in Andhra who spoke against him. He gave little freedom to political rivals from opposition parties and even his own party. He was authoritarian and ran the show as in feudal system. He was linked with some of the business houses in making deals for his personal profit. The role of state government in changing the route for Hydrabad metro was criticised by Delhi metro chief Sreedharan. He had pointed out that the route was changed to appease the consortium and prime land was given cheap to the developers. His allegation makes much sense when seen in the light that Satyam chairman has accepted his fraud in Satyam accounts. Mr. Raju and his family was also led developer of the metro project. Undoubtedly Mr. Sreedharan was pointing the role of YSR, but implicitly, in this corruption. There are many cases of corruption against him.

Despite being one of the most corrupt chief minister, he was darling to the Congress party and particularly to Sonia Gandhi. It was not without reason. He was the man who could win majority of seats from the state for Congress party after three decades. He made possible for the party to come to center in 2004 by defeating Chandrababu Naidu. By showing remarkable performance in the state, he was able to get freedom from the high command to run his show in the state.

To win seats, he was using populist majors that gives immediate results. He gave pensions to the families of suicide victims, distributed BPL ration cards in massive numbers. But he failed to create any substantial infrastructure or industry that could provide jobs to the poor. A society can not be supported for ever by state funds. People need to work. That was missing. But perhaps if he had lived longer he could have worked on this direction as well. We did not get chance to see much of him.

May his soul rest in peace.