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Isolated Naidu silent as Congress heaps corruption charges

Shireen in Hyderabad

The Congress party in Andhra Pradesh has mounted a strident offensive against Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu to 'expose his acts of omission and commission,' in the run-up to the assembly election slated later this year.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy has turned a bitter critic of Naidu, his one-time colleague and friend who now heads the government and the Telugu Desam Party in the state.

While Naidu is trying every stratagem to retain power in the ensuing election, Dr Reddy, popularly known as YSR, is banking on the poll to achieve his long-time ambition of becoming chief minister.

Not surprisingly, to supplement the APCC's no-holds-barred tirade against Naidu, the Congress Legislature Party, too, lambasts Naidu and paints him as the 'most corrupt and incompetent' chief minister the state had ever seen.

The APCC chief has dared Naidu to explain to the people as to how he has amassed property worth Rs 560 million in just two decades.

CLP leader P Janardhan Reddy accuses Naidu of pursuing pro-rich and anti-poor policies, thereby 'ruining' the state.

The CLP leader, in fact, demands Naidu's resignation or imposition of President's rule while YSR challenges Naidu to dissolve the assembly and seek a fresh mandate immediately if he has 'any guts'.

To add to the cacophony, Congress MPs from the state have been acting as a ginger group to 'show the real side of Naidu' to the powers-that-be in New Delhi.

"Naidu has done much more harm to the state than anybody else in the three and a half years of his rule. There is no section of the people unaffected by his lopsided policies and short-sighted priorities," says P Janardhan Reddy.

Justifying his demand for the dismissal of the Naidu government and imposition of President's rule in the state, he says this would save the state from being 'destroyed' by the incumbent chief minister.

The CLP leader does not see any contradiction between his demand for invoking Article 356 of the Constitution against the Naidu regime and the posturing of the party's high command on the issue vis-a-vis Bihar.

"You see, there is nothing wrong in demanding the sacking of Naidu. The situation differs from state to state and the Congress leaders have to look at things in their state's interests. The central leadership takes a national view of issues," he explains.

Recently, Congress members created a ruckus in the state assembly demanding President's rule on the ground that the law and order situation in Andhra Pradesh was much worse than in Bihar.

Citing statistics quoted by Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani in Parliament recently, they said that atrocities and crimes against women, dalits and tribals in Andhra Pradesh far exceeded the tally in Bihar in the last three years (1996, 1997 and 1998).

In 1998 alone, Andhra Pradesh had reported 13,046 cases of atrocities on women, 1,886 attacks on dalits and 354 attacks on tribals (known in the state as girijans). Bihar's tally, on the other hand, included 5,976 cases of atrocities on women, 720 cases of attacks on dalits and 162 attacks on tribals.

"Andhra Pradesh is a fit case for imposing President's rule. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee should take immediate steps to dismiss the Naidu government in the state for its misrule, corruption and deteriorating law and order situation," demands Janardhan Reddy.

YSR, too, is impatient to settle scores with Naidu.

Almost a month ago, he had accused Naidu of amassing property worth Rs 560 million. He asked the chief minister to reply to his charges or face legal action.

He had released documentary evidence of the property owned by Naidu and his wife Bhuvaneshwari. "It is only the tip of the iceberg. Naidu should explain how he had acquired the property," YSR asserts.

He claims that Naidu owns a triple-storeyed building worth Rs 50 million in the posh Punjagutta area in Hyderabad, in the name of his wife. Bhuvaneswari owns several plots worth Rs 100 million in Kondapur village adjacent to Hitec City at Madhapur, he alleges.

Naidu also owns a 12-acre farmhouse, just one kilometre away from the Hitec City, worth Rs 60 million. The house where Naidu lives presently at road number 65 in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad is also worth Rs 60 million, he says.

The property near Begumpet airport, which was acquired in the name of a confidante of Naidu, is currently worth Rs 250 million to Rs 300 million, claims YSR.

The APCC chief claims Naidu had invested Rs 7.6 million in Heritage Foods Private Limited, a dairy processing unit promoted by his family in Chittoor district.

After Naidu became finance minister in 1994, his wife Bhunaveswari succeeded him as Heritage Foods managing director.

Within a short time, the company has built up assets of Rs 100 million, he says. "Naidu is using Heritage Foods as a front to convert his black money into white," the APCC chief alleges.

YSR intends to take his charges against Naidu to their 'logical conclusion'.

The APCC is examining the reply given by the government to a legal notice on the chief minister's much-hyped Janma Bhoomi programme that seeks to enlist people's participation in works and schemes aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions in towns and villages.

"We will definitely scrap the Janma Bhoomi programme because Naidu has turned it into a big racket to allow his partymen and contractors to loot the public exchequer," YSR says.

Naidu hopes his 'performing govt' will win

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