|
STATES,
ANDHRA PRADESH
Naidu
Under Siege
Opposition
to a hike in power tariff dents the chief minister's reformist zeal
By
Amarnath K. Menon
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| Naidu:
Multiple Trouble |
Anniversaries
are usually occasions for celebration. But exactly five years after he
dethroned his father-in-law and seized power, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu is spending tense days and sleepless nights. For
the past few weeks, the Congress and the left parties have been out on
the streets protesting against the steep 14.5 per cent hike in electricity
tariff in the state. Matters came to a head on August 28 when thousands
of protesters marched to the Assembly in Hyderabad, tried to storm the
barricades and fought a pitched hour-long battle with the police. The
violence and ensuing police firing left three dead and injured 200 others,
including 56 policemen.
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MULTIPLE
WOES
|
|
FINANCIAL:
State's share in Central tax revenues has fallen. Fiscal deficit
may rise.
POLITICAL:
The demand for a separate Telangana state is picking up.
REFORMS:
The public outcry against the power tariff hike portends tough
times.
|
It was a
bloody affair that will haunt Naidu for the rest of his political career.
Video footage by TV journalists provides enough evidence of excesses by
the police to justify the Opposition's demand for a judicial probe. Naidu
has tried to gloss over the police brutalities and the demand for a probe
by asserting that one of those killed had a criminal history. He even
accused the Congress and the left parties of drafting troublemakers in
their ranks. That was when Congress Legislature Party leader Y.S. Rajasekhar
Reddy reminded Naidu that he had personally welcomed a criminal involved
in the murder of five persons into the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) some time
ago.
The distressing
situation is largely due to Naidu's brinkmanship and doublespeak. The
impetuous TDP chief allowed the protest to reach boiling point in spite
of repeated appeals to put on hold the plan to increase the power tariff
until a committee of legislators had examined it. His contention was that
it was for the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC)
to decide the tariff and that his Government would seek a downward revision
in January 2001. In reality, the Government has pledged to increase the
tariff again-in fact twice before 2002-in keeping with the conditions
of a loan taken from the World Bank to help restructure the power utilities
in the state.
The Congress
and the Left insist on the hike being rolled back. Naidu has accused the
Congress of disruptive politics and demanded that its president Sonia
Gandhi spell out the party's stand on power-sector reforms, which make
it imperative to raise the tariff like in Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh
and Karnataka. Counters Reddy: "He is trying to stifle the Opposition
and ignore the people's movement against the high cost of power."
The chief
minister is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. His tact and
media savvy have not helped Naidu garner public support for the power
reforms. He has also been unable to explain to his own partymen how these
power reforms are important for Andhra Pradesh to emerge as a frontrunner
with a vibrant economy and as a preferred investment destination. When
he mooted the plan at the first meeting of newly elected TDP legislators
last year, many opposed it on the ground that it was too steep. Naidu
put the plan on hold and got the APERC to announce it formally earlier
this year, claiming that the Government had nothing to do with the hike.
He then promised to provide a subsidy to the Transmission Corporation
of Andhra Pradesh but later wriggled out of it saying that the state had
no funds for the subsidy.
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