The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it below for reference:
Over the past 7 ½ years, the ruling parties in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have supported the Modi government on certain issues and have opposed him vehemently on certain issues too. However, their support to the Modi government despite not being from the BJP has disturbed the English media folks a lot. In an Op-Ed published on Ocotber 14th in The Hindu, a “senior journalist” tells us that “Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrasekhara Rao are lending legitimacy to the BJP’s one-nation agenda”
Now, you would be thinking who would be having a problem with an agenda such as “one-nation” that binds the entire country together. The article provides great insights into the demented minds of the English media who have invented new agendas for Modi to further their own agenda of spreading lies and inciting hatred against the Prime Minister.
The author begins his article with a long list of pending demands from the states of AP and Telangana. He ends this section by saying that “Despite their customary visits to Delhi…the Chief Ministers have scrupulously avoided making these long-pending problems a big Centre-State federal issue of national importance. They prefer to maintain a strategic silence.”
Which state doesn’t have long pending issues? When the Chief Ministers of various states meet the Prime Minister, does the author think each one of them doesn’t present a similar list to the Prime Minister? Does the author think that the list of a BJP CM will be shorter than the list of a non-BJP CM? Should every CM start be making their list of pending issues as a Centre-State federal issue, and cause confusion?
In my opinion, the only injustice meted out to the people of Andhra Pradesh by the Modi government is the fall back on the promise of a special status. Special status was seen as a lifeline to the new state of Andhra Pradesh and this was not given to the state as promised. Other demands listed by the author such as “restructuring of debts of Rs. 50,000 crores in which the Andhra Pradesh power utilities” are not part of the reorganization act. Why should the centre restructure the debts of the state?!
And then the lies – “They prefer to maintain a strategic silence”. Does the author really not listen to KCR, his son KTR and all of the ministers? Day in and day out these days, all we hear from these folks is that the Central government is not helping the state of Telangana. KCR thunders about this in the Assembly and in his public meeting. KTR thunders about this on twitter and in his public meetings. Who exactly is the author listening to, that he is so totally unaware of the vehement opposition of KCR? Or is the author’s case that happen what may, the state governments must just blindly oppose the central government?
It definitely seems so because he says that “Notably, both the YSR Congress Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supported the revocation of Article 370”. The author seems miffed at this non-binary behaviour by the regional parties in India because he just seems to assume that they have to blindly oppose whatever the central government does! And to bolster his argument, he wonders thus – “Why has the battle for federalism been left to leaders like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee?” Does the author want state CMs to reject central schemes such as PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and Ayushman Bharat for the sake of his imaginary concept of “federalism”?
The abrogation of Article 370 isn’t the only problem that the author has with the Modi government. In his own words – “the multiple ways in which it creates trouble in West Bengal and Maharashtra”. It’s a miracle that the author really believes that it is the BJP that is creating trouble in West Bengal when it is actually the BJP workers who are being killed on a regular basis there. I wonder how the author and the newspaper cannot see their blatant hypocrisy in the mirror.
Not content with the lies spread, the author reserves his best towards the last - “the two leaders are either unable to fathom or conveniently ignore the BJP’s centralising tendencies and its attempts to implement its idea of ‘One Nation One Ration Card’, ‘One Nation One Election’, ‘One Nation One Language’.”
Why is the author opposed to the idea of “One Nation One Ration Card”? Who in their right mind will be opposed to the idea that simplifies the lives of crores of migrants in our country? Why is the author opposed to the concept of One Nation One Election? Does he care to elucidate any of his objections? Obviously not. Does the concept of “One Nation One Language” even exist in any official document? Has the Prime Minister ever talked about this concept? If anything, the Prime Minister has been at the forefront of promoting the multiple languages in the country. Yet, The Hindu provides ample space to the author to spread lies as much as he fancies.
The author spends significant amount of time praising former Chief Minister NTR, who rode to power in 1983 withing just nine months of announcing a political party. His primary plank was the pride of Telugus that was being mortgaged by the Congress leaders to their high command culture. The author rues the fact that today’s Chief Ministers are not like NTR. He asks “So, what happened to the fighting spirit of the Chief Ministers and political leaders from Andhra and Telangana?”.
In the 32 years from 1982 to 2014, the Congress was voted into power for 15 years – does this mean that people were ok with the mortgaging of telugu pride to the central government for 15 years after NTR won too? It’s such a sad reflection that authors have to fall back to a leader from nearly 40 years back to make a point in today’s politics, when the people have constantly been voting for a change.
The author is also worried that KCR and Jagan are indirectly enabling BJP to grow stronger. Does the author really not see the opposition that BJP is putting up against TRS in Telangana? Does the author really not see the dislike for BJP in Andhra Pradesh? Does he really think that the BJP is in a position to grow in Andhra Pradesh (leave aside growing stronger!). How is it possible for a political observer and a “senior journalist” to even assume that the BJP is growing stronger in Andhra Pradesh?
The hatred that the author (and of course The Hindu) has for the Prime Minister is so evident in the entire article. He is unable to fathom the fact that Chief Ministers of various states are still able to work well with the central government on issues that matter. It looks like the author wants to somehow be instrumental in instigating the CMs against the central government. What better platform than The Hindu to spew illogical arguments against the Modi government?
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