We stand corrected. The Congress high command decided not to attack Y Jaganmohan Reddy piecemeal – as we thought. Instead of going in a methodical, step by step manner, issuing show-cause notices to Jagan followers or suspending them, the high command decided to go for Jagan’s jugular. Madam seems to have sanctioned an all out attack on his prime source of strength: his financial muscle. It is obvious that he is what he is now because of the thousands of crores he amassed or inherited from the late lamented Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. In a move aimed at pulling the carpet from under his feet, the state government asked the center to put in abeyance the mining lease in Bayyaram given to APMDC.
Let us not get into the nuts and bolts of the deal, and how it came undone; it is all over the newspapers. We are here talking about what is going to unfold in the days to come. Firstly, Jagan cannot comment on the infamous deal, after his followers said that Brother Anil Kumar has nothing to do with Rakshana steels. Jagan’s camp is stuck in a catch 22 situation: they can neither oppose the action Bayyaram, nor can they sit and watch thousands of crores of ‘revenue’ slip out of their hands. But that is precisely what they have to digest now. Jagan has to indeed eat the humble pie.
Jagan is already disheartened by this camp followers ditching him over the past one week, and started commenting that they are afraid of supporting him. This news will come to him like a ‘palm fruit on a groaning (lame) fox’, as we say in Telugu. Jagan derives his strength from his bank deposits and ‘irregular’ leases on iron ores and all sorts of other real estate deals. Already some indications were given when sanctions were imposed on the Obulapuram mines, owned by the Gali brothers. (Interestingly, the Gali brothers are close to the YSR family, and are part of the BJP sarkar in Karnataka.) Now with Bayyaram, the high command has hit two birds in one shot: weaken Jagan financially. And threaten to portray YSR as a corrupt leader.
Jagan’s other main weapon, YSR’s popularity, is bound to nosedive if allegations of wrong doings over the five years of his reign are unearthed. The Congress can conveniently wash its ‘hands’ off YSR, and come clean – saying that they will unearth, and undo the irregularities the YSR indulged in. In time to come, the very statues of YSR that Jagan is putting up in village after village over the past 16 days will remind people of his corruption and the way he amassed obscene wealth at the cost of the public exchequer. What will a financially (relatively, but substantially) weak Jagan, disarmed of the very political weapon the aimed at the Congress party, do to salvage the situation?
Although Mr K Roasaiah initially said that he does not know anything about keeping the lease on Bayyaram in abeyance, he now changed tack and declared that the allegations of the opposition parties have to be looked into; and hence he asked the center to keep the lease in abeyance. If he thinks he can use YSR’s name as a weapon, he has another think coming: YSR himself will fall from glory to disgrace, as the most corrupt CM in Andhra Pradesh (which he probably was, but it is not nice to speak ill of people who are no more). The high command, however, has clearly indicated that if Jagan is using YSR’s name for his advantage, they can very well make it a millstone around his neck.
We have to see what the ministers who were opposed to action in l’affaire Bayyaram have to say in this regard. Meantime, Comrade Naraina of CPI ridiculously says that this is a partial victory for his party. It is not. This is unfortunately a matter internal to Congress affairs: if Jagan hasn’t come out in open defiance of the party, the matter would have been buried in the mines they dig up. It is obvious from the timing of the announcement of abeyance. The newspapers have been reporting on this for months now and so why is action taken now, at this crucial juncture for the Congress party?
The bottomline is that the high command can hurt Jagan’s earnings (bottom line) and hit real hard.
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