Sonia Gandhi’s coterie politics have started yielding their degenerate fruits. The coterie’s political philosophy of winning elections everywhere for Congress and making Rahul Gandhi PM appear to be fading away. Their governance by proxy; The gradual erosion in Parliamentary form of governance; mega projects of corruption; playing only vote bank politics with the aspirations of people; political arrogance; obstinate adherence to self -seeking agenda; lack of empathy with the suffering of people etc., have been the characteristic features of this coterie.
The governance in Andhra Pradesh is a typical example of this setup. In 2004, Congress party came to power promising statehood to Telangana and later reneged on it unabashedly. Then they have allowed YS Rajasekhara Reddy to run amuck with his political extravaganza. They rode on the crest of his dubious success to fill the party coffers for fighting elections elsewhwere. While YSR was making mockery of Telangana, and looting Telangana resources as never before, they looked the other way. As the providence will have it, the nemesis has caught up with YSR and he has passed away in aberrant condition. Then the pent-up ire for Telangana has erupted culminating in 9th December 2009 statement in the parliament, initiating the formation of Telangana. The Congress party made the statement under compulsion. Later the incumbent CM Sri Rosaiah played ‘dhrutharashtra’ politics in collusion with Chandra Babu Naidu and Andhra Congress money-mafia. In keeping with the coterie’s policy, Congress party took advantage of the situation. For them the kickback money contributed by Andhra-money-mafia from the largesse of government projects and more number of Andhra MPs looked more important than the sovereignty of the parliament. They went back on the Telangana statement and announced the volte-face in the august body of Parliament on 23 December 2009. The credibility of the Congress party and sanctity of parliament received a severe beating.
Since then, the Congress party is indulging in all sorts of political micro management in AP. As dictated by Sonia Gandhi and her coterie of Pranab Mukherji, Ahmad Patel and Azad. They have appointed a green horn and a nincompoop Kiran Kumar Reddy as CM, with a mandate of smothering Telangana agitation and controlling Jagan. The state government was run by proxy by the coterie through Ghulam Nabi Azad. Both Kiran Kumar Reddy and Azad have miserably failed on both the fronts. The CM and his administration with their unholy obsession of controlling Telangana agitation and Jagan have mis-managed the state thoroughly both politically and financially and now facing the music. The severe drubbing received by the party in the recent by-elections is an unmistakable indicator. The results in Kovvuru and in Mahabubnagar are of special significance.
The prospect of total rout in the upcoming 18 by-elections in the state have made the coterie scurrying for special action. As usual, they are trying to stage-manage the by-elections, by all kinds of gimmicks. But, they should know the game is up. Democracy has its limitations and at the same time it has its distinctive strengths too. The democratic fervor of Indian people cannot be curbed by Italian style of administration. At last, the egocentric and oligarchic politics of Sonia and her insufferable coterie are paying their maladroit dividends.
J R Janumpalli