By Oracle
If you can’t fight them, join them.
This is the maxim in which N Chandrababu Naidu very strongly believes in. Read the interesting saga of TDP’s coalitions from Recline to Decline.
As IT Minister K T Rama Rao generally quipped, YSR Congress Party is the only political party with which the TDP has not joined hands so far. As the minister started listing out the parties with which Naidu has aligned within the past, surprisingly journalists joined the chorus with him, adding the names of parties to the list.
KTR said the BJP, the CPI, the CPI-M, journos said TRS. “Yes, the TRS,” said the minister and pat came some more suggestions from the scribes: “MIM, Jana Sena, the Telangana Jana Samithi…” And, finally, the Congress, said the minister.
Either you lose nothing or gain something at least with such a “flexible” political policy, which is far removed from the basis of any principles or ideologies.
No idea of ideologues
For instance, the TDP has nothing to do with the RSS ideology or theories postulated by K B Hedgevar or MS Golwalkar or Bala Saheb Deoras or Rajju Bhayya or K Sudarshan or Mohan Bhagwat, the Sar Sangh Chalaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. One need not be taken by surprise even if Naidu doesn’t even know the names of most of them. The RSS largely directs the BJP ideology.
Except for fancying the names of Karl Marx, Engels, Lenin and other Communist leaders projected by the Indian Communists, the Telugu Desam leader might not have had a clue about what those thinkers propounded, leave alone a deep understanding of Das Kapitall, or, Anti-Durhring by Friedrich Engels or the Bolshevik movement of Lenin.
All that Naidu wants is whether the political party he is aligning with will benefit him one way or the other. It’s for this reason, he proposed and quickly worked out a coalition with the Congress.
Bent 360 degrees
Naidu has no qualms in bending the party policy by 360 degrees and cajoled or coerced some defiant party men to adjust themselves to the contemporary political needs.
He told Telangana Telugu Desam Party leaders L Ramana, Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy and others to manage with however many seats the Congress would offer, instead of complaining and bargaining for more seats. Naidu told them that winning should be the criteria for the number of seats the party demands.
While the TTDP leaders wanted 18 seats, Naidu asked them to keep their calm and go steady with the Congress. So, the TDP may not get more than 14 seats in the bargain with the alliance.
This is in sharp contrast with the hard bargain being done by the CPI and the TJS was five and 12 seats respectively. The TTDP is unable to put up a brave front at least like these smaller parties and ready to bend it shamelessly like their leader, Babu.