The obnoxious tales of AP politics

When the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) walked out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), no one ever thought it would turn messy. Divorce in an unhappy marriage is not uncommon but once divorce takes place, the separated partners may take a little time to overcome the trauma but would soon move on in life.

But in case of Andhra Pradesh, the divorce has been chaotic, and things have gone to an extent where one does not have words to explain. Andhra Pradesh is now facing a political situation which was perhaps never engineered by anyone anywhere in the country.

In politics, howsoever bitter an enemy, the political parties fight it over directly through vigorous campaign. Such a fight is either between two parties or an alliance versus the ruling party. Yes, of course money and muscle power have started playing major role in the last two decades.

But the situation in Andhra Pradesh has turned so murky that on one hand, there is the TDP and on the other, a plethora of masked parties firing all their cylinders over the shoulders of the main Opposition party.

Even that should not have been a cause of worry because ultimately the people are the best judges and they would decide the future of these leaders. But then what is causing worry is the way the political atmosphere has been polluted.

During the regime of Indira Gandhi, the Opposition on many occasions during debates in Parliament used the word, "The country has gone to dogs." Those days this comment used to raise tremendous amount of hue and cry. But if one analyses the present-day situation in the Andhra Pradesh, this remark seems to be too mild.

I asked some of my friends to describe what the situation in AP was. They said the State was in turmoil. But I think that is too simple a word. I tried to google and search the dictionary, but I failed to find a synonym.

The State is witnessing unprecedent mind games. What is worse is that one leader says he has information that IT raids would take place in next 24 hours. Another leader says instructions have been issued to create violence and resort to murder so that the opponents can be blamed.

This is the most disgusting kind of politics that I have seen in the last four decades. Nothing wrong in every party trying to win but there should be some rules, some ethics.

No one expected that the battered relationship would take such dirty and ugly turn. The BJP which has one good quality where all its leaders speak exactly the same words on any particular issue.

This talent of theirs was used in Andhra Pradesh soon after the political shakeup against the government. It is a different thing that on more than one occasions they had put their foot in their mouth.

We, if take a look at the sequence of events that followed the divorce between the TDP and the NDA, it is clear that funds have stopped flowing in. All kinds of political dramas have started unfolding.

The BJP leaders never questioned the Centre on behalf of the people of the State. But went on levelling all kind of accusations without showing proof. Then comes a series of Income Tax raids but fail to take things forward.

Now the latest is complaints are being filed against the TDP's second rung leaders by some people on C Vigil app and IT sleuths are conducting raids immediately.

The political melodrama takes a new turn after Telangana goes in for early polls and romps home winning more than two thirds majority and unfolds its strategies to decimate the Congress by engineering defections and touching the 100-seat figure and the Chief Minister taking a vow to give 'return gift' to AP Chief Minister for having campaigned in Telangana.

Political situation in Andhra started turning murkier and murkier from this point of time. In between, the YSRCP stopped talking about Special Category Status to the State. It made its MPs resign on the last day of Parliament.

The new entrant into politics Pawan Kalyan who kick-started his political campaign alleging that the Centre had given two rotten laddoos also forgot about its taste and went silent.

The TDP, soon after its break up with the NDA, took up a massive campaign against the Centre saying that it has cheated and insulted the State by giving a pot of water and mud and had gone back on promise of Special Category.

This campaign did create an impact but then another twist took place in the State politics. There was an attack on the leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in the VIP lounge of Visakhapatnam Airport.

It was a minor injury but the way it was projected led to the Centre ordering a probe by the NIA. The reason is that the leader of the Opposition who boycotted the Assembly for 341 days in the name of Padayatra said he had no faith in the State police.

Not just he, even all his MLAs were asked to boycott but at the same time they enjoyed drawing salaries and other perks. The NIA finally endorsed the probe report of the State police.

After accusations, counteraccusations and war of words between the TDP and the YSRCP, another issue came to the fore. That is alleged data theft. A lot of hungama was there. Two SITs were formed by the Telangana government.

There were allegations between the AP government and the TS government over the jurisdiction. But then, this issue also did not progress and has been put on backburner. The argument by the YSRCP which filed a complaint about data theft in Hyderabad was they did not have faith in the AP police.

Another issue that caused flutter was that of about deletion of seven lakh names of voters using Form 7.

Then comes the incident of ghastly murder of Y S Vivekananda Reddy, paternal uncle of YSRCP president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. Though the body was found in a pool of blood, all TV channels first said he died of heart attack.

Then the real facts started pouring out that it was brutal killing. Again, there was a chorus that the family has no faith in the State police and there should be a CBI probe.

It is really unfortunate that for narrow political gains, political parties are attacking the institutions. The CBI and NIA which have very special jobs to handle are also becoming victims of dirty politics.

The National Investigation Agency is a Central agency established by the Indian government to combat terror in India. It acts as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency. The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across States without special permission from the States.

This being the situation, it was used for a small case of attack where the injury was not serious.

Similarly, the main forte of the CBI is still corruption cases. All other branches are mere extensions of its investigative ability. The CBI has stretched its limbs and now it covers almost every aspect/mode of crime except a few specialised ones.

But in AP, demand for CBI probe has become common. If this habit continues even for a petty theft, the CBI may be asked to probe and people may approach courts seeking its direction.

It's time for people to arise and awake and exercise their franchise with wisdom and see that the mess is cleared.