JEDDAH, 13 May 2004 — The much-touted address www.chandrababunaidu.com has been hit by a virus. The virus is called Congress-TRS alliance, which has wiped out his Telugu Desam Party from the floor of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
Hyped by the media as the CEO of the state, Naidu hoping to reboot his policies for the next five years was given the boot at the recent assembly elections after the result showed that the masses rejected his push toward an IT-driven state while ignoring basic necessities of the people in the southern state. The message to all political parties was pick their priorities carefully or get logged out.
The people’s verdict also alarmed the ruling NDA coalition at the center and bodes ill for Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government whose entire election campaign centered on its achievement in the IT sector and a “resurgent economy”.
People and the media have talked at length about Naidu’s vision and his efforts in connectivity of all district headquarters and police station. He also turned the state capital Hyderabad into an IT hub with a fair amount of success. But the Net result is a poor showing by his party, which lost even in Hyderabad.
Why this, despite a high tech election campaign backed by a galaxy of film star?
Many actors campaigned for the ruling party. Using the talent of top film producers, directors, singers and other artistes, the TDP launched an unprecedented media blitzkrieg.
Advertisements, in which these actors, singers and producers figured prominently, highlighting the achievements of Naidu’s nine years of rule literally bombarded the Telugu television channels.
He was projected by the media as the most promising and competent chief minister in the country. But the media-added glamour could not save him from a humiliating defeat at the hustings.
When such a high profile leader gets a thumping, then something must be terribly amiss. Is it the direction of the party or the people? The whole thrust of his rule was achieving excellence in information technology. That too more virtual than real.
No doubt, IT attracts a fair amount of people. But most of them hardly go to vote. More over, this elite band of geeks is too small for a party to rely on if they hoped to ride back to power on their support alone. The IT revolution in Andhra Pradesh swept the urban areas, where a new tech class emerged. But in its wake it left a trail of destruction by creating new pockets of poverty through unemployment. The one-point agenda also trampled the expectations of the millions of others in the state, who had to take a backseat to other tech-educated professionals who walked away with the cream.
Some have attributed the Congress victory to its alliance with the newly-floated Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS). This is just one of the reasons. The dominant reason is the total rejection of the urban centric policies of the Naidu government.
In a country where 70 percent of the population lives in villages, with half the population having no clean drinking water, a large majority living in shanties and slums, the slogan highlighting infotech is totally incongrous.
This is what Naidu failed to realize as he tried to sell his tech-savvy but hollow economic achievements to the masses. He worked hard to showcase Hyderabad as IT destination, but was hit hard by ground realities of poverty, farmers’ suicidal deaths, and imaginary developmental schemes.
Nobody believed his assertion that the state has moved farther. The per capita GDP of the state, which was 5.61 in 1994-95, was down to 3.79 in 2000. The industrial growth, projected at 11.97 in 1994-95, was down to 4.60 in 2000-01 and the agriculture sector growth too was down 3.4 percent. The result: Increase in unemployment and poverty.
Another important reason for his defeat was the total alienation of the minorities due to his support to the Vajpayee government at the center. Although, the TDP did not join the government, its support was seen as absolutely essential for Vajpayee’s survival. Naidu failed to preserve his large Muslim support base and his secular image.
He had an opportunity to redeem his secular credentials after the Gujarat mayhem during a parliamentary vote on Gujarat government when the opposition-sponsored motion was tabled in the House.
Everyone expected him to pull out of the NDA. But his 28 MPs just abstained by walking out of the Lok Sabha as the BJP-led government crossed this crucial hurdle.
The Muslim groups, seeing this as a betrayal from Naidu, expressed their feelings through the ballot.
Perhaps, that’s why Naidu’s party lost even in Hyderabad. In addition, all the six Muslim candidates fielded by the TDP were also defeated.
In India, where the basic needs are the priorities in every state, politicians need to push the right buttons come voting time. This state assembly vote has shown that it is not the computer one.
