Fickle-minded BJP muddies Amaravati waters

The new State president, however, categorically stated that there was no question of allowing the government to shift the capital from Amaravati. Interestingly, a day after that, when he went to Delhi to meet the Central leaders to thank them for his elevation as the party's State unit president, something happened there and after coming out, he sang a new song before the media. He said that the Centre has no role to play on the issue of capital and it was for the State to decide. Since then the State leaders and even some of the leaders from the Central party team have been speaking in two voices. Instead of coming out with a clear stand on whether they are in favour of three capitals or not, they have adopted a new strategy. They say that the three-capital formula is not good but then it is a State issue and the Centre cannot intervene. At the same time, they say Amaravati was centrally located and hence they too agreed for the construction of capital in Amaravati as partners in the TDP government. However, they go on lashing at the TDP for its failures and for its omissions and commissions and again claim that they will stand by the farmers of Amaravati and see that justice was done to them

Politics surrounding Amaravati, foundation for which was laid by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the BJP and TDP were alliance partners, is getting curiouser by the day. The then government acquired 33,000 acres of land under land pooling and signed MoU with farmers. The capital city was notified in the Gazette and the Centre included it in the map also. But things changed once the YSRCP government came to power.

For about last 300 days, the issue has been witnessing several twists and turns as the present government announced that they would have three capitals, Legislative, Executive and Judicial in different locations. While the farmers continued with their protests, some knocked the doors of the High Court and it got mired in legal battle.

At a time when the government passed a resolution in the Assembly twice and decided to shift executive capital to Visakhapatnam, the AP High Court applied brakes by asking the government to maintain status quo till August 14 and again the full bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheswari, Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy and Justice AV Sesha Sai on Friday refused to lift the status quo on the Decentralisation Act and repeal of CRDA Act.

On the political front, the situation is such that while the ruling party is clear that it wants to shift the executive capital to Vizag, all non-BJP parties are one side opposing the three-capital formula. Of course, they are not under one single umbrella that is a different issue. But what is interesting is that the BJP which claims to be working in the direction of filling the "political vacuum" in the State and dreams of emerging as the main Opposition has been making somersault on the issue of capital.

It is always said that a national party cannot have two different views on any issue. Once the highest decision-making body takes a decision, it must be followed by all down the line. But since politics is a "dynamic" situation, the national parties have now adopted the policy of confusing the people since situations are such that they cannot convince the people and win.

Initially, the then State BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana categorically stated that the BJP was opposed to three capital formula and would not allow it to be shifted. He participated in protests by farmers who are opposing the shifting of the capital. He even submitted memorandum to the Central party leadership on the issue.

The State party at its meeting in which some Central leaders like G V L Narasimha Rao also passed a resolution opposing the move to shift the capital. At that time, the political circles said that this issue had created a rift in the State unit as there was no unanimity on whether to outrightly oppose the move to shift the capital or not. Different voices from within the party were heard. Some started speaking in two voices.

This internal bickering continued and suddenly, the party leadership decided not to allow its spokespersons to participate in any television debate on this issue. Within a couple of days of this development, the Central party leadership decided to replace Kanna with another senior leader Somu Veeraraju. It is a known fact that Veeraraju has always been highly critical of the TDP even when it was the ruling party. This led to several speculations that the BJP at the Centre had decided to support the YSRCP government's stand on three capitals.

But in his first media interview, the new State president, however, categorically stated that there was no question of allowing the government to shift the capital from Amaravati. Interestingly, a day after that, when he went to Delhi to meet the Central leaders to thank them for his elevation as the party's State unit president, something happened there and after coming out, he sang a new song before the media. He said that the Centre has no role to play on the issue of capital and it was for the State to decide.

Since then the State leaders and even some of the leaders from the Central party team have been speaking in two voices. Instead of coming out with a clear stand on whether they are in favour of three capitals or not, they have adopted a new strategy. They say that the three-capital formula is not good but then it is a State issue and the Centre cannot intervene. At the same time, they say Amaravati was centrally located and hence they too agreed for the construction of capital in Amaravati as partners in the TDP government. However, they go on lashing at the TDP for its failures and for its omissions and commissions and again claim that they will stand by the farmers of Amaravati and see that justice was done to them.

The big question here is what justice are they talking about? The farmers of Amaravati had given their fertile land hoping that the future generations will have good time. So, what is the justice the BJP is talking about? That they do not spell out. Can they help the farmers in getting back their fertile land? It is just not possible since lot of construction activity had begun there. So, what justice can the BJP do to help the capital farmers who gave up their lands? Can they make the State government pay them compensation for land? Will farmers accept it? Can this help the State BJP to win over the people and help them politically to fill the so-called political vacuum? Can they claim that they have no responsibility in the matter? The new State president even went to the extent of saying that the Prime Minister had laid foundation because the AP government requested him. Was it just that simple? If they cannot protect the sanctity of the foundation stone laid by the Prime Minister, will people believe them? Faced with such questions, they have now come up with another new argument. The Centre will look into it at appropriate time.

Amidst this scenario, the State government's latest decision to continue with the construction activity has given another twist to the issue. Does it mean that the government wants to restart the real estate activity again? If Amaravati remains just as legislative capital, can it give a fillip to the real estate sector? One thing is certain, Amaravati has become Bhul Bhulaian (game of maze). Will the BJP be able to come out of it or will it get lost in the game, well, only people and time will have to decide.