Hemantha Kalam - 104 "Interesting Play"

I am apolitical and remain to be so. If at all, in politics, my interest is more academical as I am sometimes fascinated by the strategies of various political parties which should easily be good case studies for discussion in class rooms.

Today I am writing again on politics of my native state, Andhra Pradesh, as today the 11^th February, 2023 seems to be historically significant as, today the state ruling party is launching a unique programme, which to the best of my knowledge, belief and trust, has not so far been tried by any other political party in the country. If this play / ploy succeeds, this might easily become a precedent for future political parties in the country.

The state of Andhra Pradesh is to face state elections in the year 2024 but there are many parties who believe that there could be early elections in the year 2023 itself. So, all the parties are already on the field campaigning vigorously for winning the next elections. Strategies, counter strategies, bad mouthing all are going on unabated from almost all sides for a few months since.

During such campaigning times, the State ruling party, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) took an interesting step of pasting posters and stickers on each and every household in the state which says, in Telugu ‘Maa Nammakam Nuvve Jagan’ meaning, ‘Our Trust is Only You Jagan’. Interestingly, the poster also says, in small letters, that it has been released by the state government (at taxpayers’ cost), but the sticker says that they have been released by the party. Now this is not an issue at all.

The issue is that the Government’s volunteers, ‘Graama Sachivaalayam’ (Village Secretariats) employees and ‘Gruha Saarathulu’ (true translation is ‘Home Drivers’) will be entrusted the task of overseeing this project of ensuring a poster and sticker on every house.

For those who are naive and uninitiated about the matters of Andhra Pradesh, to understand this blog further, it is necessary for them to know that as soon as YSRCP came into power in 2019, with a thumping majority of 150+ seats out of 175, parallel administration has been created in the name of volunteers (Rs.5,000 salary per month flat) with responsibility of a ward or a street and it is the volunteers who bridge the people and the government. Later, in the place of Panchayats, Village Secretariats have been created. Some say that this is because the new government did not have enough trust in the old systems and people and also that they had to provide employment for all their party cadre and loyalists so these new entities and establishments have been created. Only the creators know what the truth is and I have no comments on these.

Very recently a third entity of ‘Gruha Saarathulu’ has been created. Experienced people say that this is almost like the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) system of ‘Panna Pramukh’ where the Panna Pramukhs are made responsible for a certain number of households in a demarcated area, and it is their job to ensure that the people of those houses in the area are ‘touched’ on a daily basis with the latest developmental activities of what is happening what the party is doing, blah, blah, blah.

In other words, they have been doing earlier what the WhatsApp groups are doing now, Propaganda - to the point of sickening. The important matter in the case of Panna Pramukhs is that they knew which way the wind is blowing and so remedial action can be taken swiftly. This is what I understand on the role of Panna Pramukhs. If I am wrong I am willing to listen and learn for the better.

Now YSRCP is alleged to have been in the good books of the ruling party at the centre (at least so far) and they may be taking in a few leaves to follow here too. So the ‘Gruha Saarathulu’ have been pushed into the arena now.

But then I am digressing.

Now read carefully from hereupon, please.

Imagine a Gruha Saarathi is approaching a householder and says he has to put up the poster and the sticker on his house. Independent guys like me would tend to say that this is a house I have built up with my hard earned money and why I should put up a politician’s or political poster on my house. Nothing may happen immediately as the government (note, the government) says that this is not a compulsory exercise.

But your reluctance is now known and you immediately become a suspect that probably you belong to the opposition party.

Now look at some of the possibilities!

1) Because you are a suspected member of the opposition party you may suddenly find your name missing from the voters’ list (a brilliant way to find out culprits who won’t vote for you, right?)

2) Your monthly ration and other government schemes may stop forthwith

3) A lot of new conditions might be applied only to your and other households refusing to put up the poster and sticker

4) Officials could frequent your house at all odd times on some silly excuse

5) Suddenly you will find that your house has encroached by 5 inches onto the road and so your front portion or even the full portion of the house may be officially collapsed / razed

6) Your telephone might be tapped.

(again for those naive souls, there is now a big hue and cry that in Andhra Pradesh, not only the opposition, but also the ruling party politicians’ phones are all being tapped since 2019 – again only the government knows whether this is true or not)

I never came across such a ‘brilliant’ idea of muzzling people so silently just with a poster and a sticker. Well, whoever got this idea!? (It is strongly alleged that this could be a strategy designed by the ‘I-PAC’ team advising the party but then what or how do I know anything? Nothing).

As a teacher, I am just eager to see the results and also know if any discussions on this would be held in management institutions as learning points!

If this programme really goes on and succeeds, democracy in the country will have interesting times to see from now on.

So folks that’s about it.

Until the next, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya and Nepalese), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic and Sudanese), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tongan), Vinaka Vaka Levu (Fijian)

 

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India