Perception battle

With the last of the two fasting YSRCP MPs too being forcibly removed to the hospital by the Delhi Police, the struggle for the Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh by the political parties of AP at the 'National level' has ended. The ball is in the people's court now. The political players involved in the SCS struggle, the YSRCP, the TDP and the Congress, played their bit effectively. 

All through the Budget session, the ruling TDP and the YSRCP MPs could successfully block the proceedings with a little help from the MPs from Tamil Nadu fighting for Cauvery rights. However, the efforts of the Telugu MPs to move a no-confidence motion against the Centre failed to take off due to the Tamil Tambis resistance. The two parties continued their protests as long as they could, choosing their own methods – all aimed at garnering greater publicity. 

Contending that the demand for Special Category Status is now a matter of sentiment, they tried their best to outwit each other. The protests were perhaps news for those in AP, but by and large, no one took notice of the same elsewhere. Neither the national media nor the national parties bothered to view it seriously with only a few like the Left and a rebel JDU leader, Sharad Yadav, paying lip service to the cause. 

Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, thought it fit to do a photo-op with the TDP MPs alone and did not bother about the indefinite fast of the YSRCP MPs being held at the Andhra Bhawan premises. For the rest of India, the struggle was more a part of the competitive politics of Andhra. Thus, it was a local struggle with no relevance to outsiders. 

Telugu Desam had rejected the SCS as irrelevant for the development of the State for four years and, hence, could not convince the national parties or the national media that it was in fact the only 'Sanjeevani'. Coming to the YSRCP, its struggle here was viewed only as a ploy to corner TDP in the game of one-upmanship which remains what it is. 

Now is the time for both the parties to get back to the basics of politics and convince the people of their relevance to them. The below par performance at Delhi is behind them now and it had won no plaudits. Yes, the SCS, has been propped up as an issue now in the State and as politics is all about perceptions, it is imperative now that some smart politicking is done back home in encashing the same. 

The TDP has a bigger challenge in this process as it has to defend its shifting stand apart from painting the BJP in dark and then link it to the YSRCP and Jana Sena. That is some multi-tasking which stimulates Chandrababu Naidu into a game of chess! He knows that chess is not a game of chance. Jaganmohan Reddy, on the other hand, should be wary of his potential for self-harm. He should also know that there is no such thing in chess as luck and no random factor.