The first meeting of the senior IAS and IPS officers with the AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at the Secretariat ended with a call for introspection. All the babus vied with one another to meet the new Chief Minister to greet him and offer a bouquet of flowers to draw his attention, possibly hoping that a fleeting moment of attention could land them with a plum posting. But Naidu is a master when it comes to reading such stuff. He instead recalled that when he became Chief Minister the first time in 1995, some officers who were present in the meeting, worked with him then and even received accolades for their work but there were some who through their actions, tarnished the sanctity of All India Services. The bottom line of the message was that Naidu was chosen to govern, and govern well, and a lot of streamlining was on the cards in the bureaucracy, bouquets being presented or not.
Telugu may be the ‘Italian of the East,’ as many words end with vowels as per the 5th Century Venetian explorer Niccolo de Conti who first called Telugu that, but despite being our mother tongue, Telugu can still throw up some tongue-twisters for some, almost making it as hard when it comes to pronunciation of some words. One might even think it sounds foreign when this happens. Such was the case when it came to saying ‘sarvabhouma adhikaram (sovereignty)’ during the oath-taking ceremony by members of the AP Cabinet with eight of them finding themselves in some trouble saying the word. Getting a Cabinet berth is not an easy task and after all that hard work, some realised that a single word can make getting to that prized chair one tongue twisting hurdle away.
A CASE OF BAD LUCK FOR JYOTHULA
Some politicians are destined to wait, or end up on the losing side, regardless of the fortunes of the party they represent. Though they may have all the qualities, fortune simply refuses to smile on them. Such has been the case with Jyothula Venkata Appa Rao, alias Nehru, a four-time MLA from Jaggampeta in AP. After his first victory in 1994 on a TDP ticket, and two more wins later, he joined the Praja Rajyam in 2009 elections and was defeated. Though he won in 2014 as a YSRC candidate, he shifted his loyalty to the TD, and lost the 2019 elections. Now, as a TD MLA, he was hoping that he might get a Cabinet position, but with Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalan getting picked form Kakinada district, Jyothula once again ended up on the sidelines. Hopefully the man’s fortunes change someday, is what his well-wishers are praying for.
MODI’S FLORAL TRIBUTE TO NAIDU DULY IMPRESSES
In politics, there is never any dearth of brickbats. But when it comes to bouquets, the story can be different. At N. Chandrababu Naidu’s oath-taking ceremony as the new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, a single bouquet was passed on from one leader to another after it was dutifully presented to Naidu and a picture with that leader taken. Once this was done, the bouquet, handed to security personnel, quickly was grabbed by the next leader in line and on it went. But the show stealing bouquet came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who presented one full of yellow flowers, the TD colour to Naidu, a choice that was not lost on anyone. After all, Naidu’s TD is now an important ally of the BJP at the Centre, and the TD’s support to Modi is vital for the NDA government’s stability.
REVANTH MIFFED WITH HOME-TURF MLAs
Congress MLAs from Mahbubnagar district are said to be in a quandary. Ever since the Lok Sabha election results were announced on June 4, the heated debate in party circles is that for someone who quickly built a reputation as an accessible Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, is becoming hard to reach for party MLAs from Mahbubnagar. The word doing the rounds is that Revanth, who hails from the district, has not been very happy with how the MLAs failed to ensure the victory of party candidate Ch. Vamsi Chand Reddy in the Lok Sabha polls from their constituency. Vamsi lost to BJP candidate D.K. Aruna by a slender margin, after the Congress made a clean sweep in the district in the Assembly polls by winning seven out of seven Assembly seats just six months ago. Despite the presence of seven Congress MLAs, the party lost the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat, and this party insiders say, has come as a big embarrassment for Revanth and the post-mortem of the debacle by the Chief Minister reportedly found that a few Congress MLAs themselves played spoilsport.
FOREST LAND, OFFICERS EQUALLY UNDER THREAT
Every monsoon season, Telangana sees a rise in the number of skirmishes between foresters and people wanting to till forest land. The entire process of distribution of podu land pattas to people allowing them to practise agriculture in forest land by the previous BRS regime was half-baked at best and politicians promising backing to those occupying forest land parcels is making their job harder, is the complaint from foresters. Caught between a government that does not appear to care for forest protection, and their duty to protect the forests, staff and officials of the forest department are now asking that they be provided security. The latest attack on a forest range officer in Nizamabad district by a large group of villagers trying to take over a forest plantation is being considered the last straw. The question doing the rounds in the department is whether it is worth risking their lives to protect forests when politicians of all hues are actively undermining their ability to do so.
