YS Jaganmohan Reddy and political adventurism are twins. Having entered politics at a very early age and pushed to the centre stage by YSR legacy, Jagan thought his stylish adventurism would catapult him to power. Stretching every political moment to the extraordinary level and quitting when things go out of hand has been his style. He is not bothered whether people are following him or not. He thinks his political legacy and his adventurism would automatically attract people and transform them in to his fanatic followers. This, however, has not happened.
Latest example is his fight for special category status for Andhra Pradesh which had to be terminated abruptly following calling off of his indefinite fast in Guntur a month ago. Now, bereft of any strategy to take forward the agitation, he is settling for a safe parliamentary path. His MLAs and MPs would raise the issue on the floor of the respective House in coming sessions. This decision has been taken by him in a meeting with MPs.
It clearly shows his agitational path is closed following the adventurist fast unto death, which is generally considered last resort. His fight for special status teems with too many miscalculations. First he thought the slogan of Special Status for Andhra Pradesh would unite people of all regions emotionally. Next he miscalculated that the fight would drag all the youth and students, who are denied jobs by TDP government into the movement. The thought he would play KCR and students carry forward the movement on the line of T-movement. Third, the YSRCP supremo overestimated his beaten image and sat on indefinite fast, under the notion that it would bring the entire state into a grinding halt.
The fast was such a miserable failure that many of his own MLAs skipped the program and the party had to put enormous effort into mobilizing youth and students to the theatre of fast. As expected by everybody, unable to continue the fast when there had been no expected response, Jagan looked as if he was waiting for a pre-dawn swoop by the police to shift him to the nearest hospital to ‘ foil’ the fast. Instead of announcing the continuance of the fast from the hospital bed, in a dramatic way, he called quits.
After ‘foiled fast, there has been no talk of revival agitation for special status barring baring repetitive assertions that “Special Status is Our Main Agenda’.
The meeting of MPs, he convened on Sunday in the wake of parliament winter session beginning from November 26, he counseled the MPs to raise the issue effectively. He realized that at the moment parliament and Assembly was the only forum where his party could raise issue and put brave front as if he was still fighting for the special category status for Andhra Pradesh. Briefing the media after the meeting with Jagan, YSRCP parliamentary party leader Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy asserted the Special Category Status remains the party’s main agenda and centre was committed to fulfill the commitment made during the parliamentary debate on AP Reorganization Bill, 2014. He was critical of chief minister Naidu for not raising the special status when PM was laying the foundation stone for Amaravati and for urging for special package.
Even though his party’s presence in the Parliament was nominal, the MPs would effectively raise the issue, he said. After taking extreme step of indefinite fast Jagan himself closed the path for the agitation and he is not able to revive it. Now he has to scale back from the height of failed to fast and confine the fight Assembly, Lok Sabha and press conferences. It is certainly difficult to stir the masses for the special status even in his own region Rayalaseema. People are too much burdened by existential problems such as spiraling prices of essential commodities, vegetable etc. to think of a vague and distant dream of special status.
