Governments change for a reason. Those who come to power, especially regional party leaders, sequester themselves behind iron curtains and fail to understand the people's sentiments. Surveys deceive them, and they are often made to believe that everything is fine.
Published Feb 17, 2025 | 11:00 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 17, 2025 | 1:25 PM
YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu, Revanth Reddy, K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Synopsis: Parties and leaders in power fail to understand the people’s sentiments. Surveys deceive them, and they are often made to believe that everything is fine. Post-elections, they blame the people. Their reluctance to understand the reasons for their defeat is unclear. Even if they understand the reasons, they are, apparently, unwilling to accept them.
“Driven by greed, people brought the Congress to power. Now, they are suffering,” remarked former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, recently. He also claimed that the people of the state are once again looking for his leadership.
“I distributed money to the people with the press of a button. Yet, I don’t understand why I was defeated. Something must have gone wrong with the EVMs [Electronic Voting Machines],” former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy rued after his party’s poll debacle eight months ago.
The present chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu’s response was no different after he lost the polls in 2019. “What haven’t I done for the people? Still, why was I given only 23 seats? The EVMs must have been manipulated,” he said then.
The inference from the above statements is that the three regional party leaders believed they had done nothing wrong while in power, but the people made a mistake by defeating them. This mindset is a form of self-deception.
Governments change for a reason. Those who come to power, especially regional party leaders, sequester themselves behind iron curtains and fail to understand people’s sentiments. Surveys deceive them, and they are often made to believe that everything is fine.
Post-elections, it has become customary for them to blame the people. Their reluctance to understand the reasons for their defeat is unclear. Even if they understand the reasons, they are, apparently, unwilling to accept them.
The reasons behind the defeats of Naidu in 2019, KCR in 2023, and Jagan in 2024 are clear and well-known. Before being thrown out of power in 2019, Naidu became detached from the ground realities. He ignored the negative campaigns against his government and failed miserably in election management. TDP leaders had then openly pointed out these facts, but Naidu refused to accept the criticism.
In the case of KCR, his arrogance disconnected him from the people. Despite severe opposition from the people, he gave party tickets to the same MLAs the public disliked.
People, therefore, concluded that KCR’s ego had got the better of his humility. Consequently, the same people who supported the Telangana movement turned against him. They did not defeat him out of their greed for the Congress’s promises, as KCR claims.
As for Jagan, he believed that distributing money would make people ignore everything else. But people thought otherwise. The government’s functioning turned chaotic, and the people suffered due to a lack of development and revengeful acts. The result: Jagan’s party was reduced to a mere 11 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
Let’s now discuss the performance of the current governments in the two Telugu states – led by Chandrababu Naidu and Revanth Reddy. According to TDP workers, the trappings of Naidu’s previous governance are still visible. Back then, he had boasted about real-time governance and IVRS (interactive voice response) surveys, claiming that more than 70 percent of the people were satisfied with his administration. However, in the 2019 elections, 60 percent of the people voted against him.
Naidu used to tell stories about “Happy Andhra Pradesh” and “Clean Andhra Pradesh” while describing the conditions in countries that didn’t even have a population of one crore. He then went on to wonder why Andhra Pradesh couldn’t be like them.
Talking about the “Happy Index” — it won’t resonate with a society that cares primarily for basic needs like food, sleep, and work.
Recently, Naidu announced a plan to develop a programme to help government employees cope with work stress and enjoy Sundays with their families. Do they require to be told about reducing stress and enjoying Sundays? It is well known that the Naidu administration’s daily review meetings are a major cause of stress for government officials. If he reduces these reviews, there would be less pressure on the employees.
For example, he recently held a review meeting with government secretaries, which commenced at 10.30 am and continued late into the night. It is not known what the 12-hour meeting has accomplished.
Even before 2019, many senior officials were seen struggling with health issues, thanks to such prolonged review meetings. To cut the story short, such meetings are a form of punishment and rarely productive. If officials and others can leave their offices on time, there will be no pressure on them, and it will help them lead a happy life.
The real issue is that the employees are overburdened with extra work, such as updating apps, filling out reports, and attending lengthy meetings, while their grievances remain unaddressed.
While Naidu has the luxury of focusing on his political career because his family members handle the business interests, it is not the same for an employee. He or she has to take care of both official work and family matters. If governments pay salaries and benefits to employees on time and avoid additional burdens, they will be happy without the need for special
programmes.
The current situation in Telangana is no different. “I have been observing the Congress government for a year. If I hit, it will not be an ordinary one. I will strike hard,” KCR recently said, warning the Revanth Reddy government. The chief minister responded in kind: “What do you mean by striking hard? Full or half? (obliquely referring to the consumption of alcohol).”
Such remarks might be entertaining but will not satisfy the people. The Revanth Reddy-led Congress government has been in power for 15 months now. Although KCR’s remarks may not be entirely accurate, there is a growing dissatisfaction among the people. There are several reasons — one being Revanth Reddy’s failure to make a mark as the chief minister.
There were some good initiatives as well as failures under KCR’s leadership. But, there is hardly anything to showcase in the Congress’s 15 months of governance.
What Revanth Reddy has to realise is that political strategies, diversionary tactics and gimmicks will not work forever. If the hasty implementation of programmes has proved problematic, it is time Revanth recognised that the responsibility of addressing the basic needs and concerns of the people rests with the government.
(Vemuri Radhakrishna is a Senior Journalist and Managing Director of Andhra Jyothi Telugu daily. The article was originally published in Telugu in Andhra Jyothi and translated and reproduced with permission).
