On May 13, after the stupendous victory of the Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar Congress duo in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin proudly tweeted that the “landmass of [the] Dravidian family stands clear of [the] BJP”.
This was a proclamation full of hope and promise for India at a time when the nation faces an existential crisis. There have also been multiple commentaries since then about the chief ministers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka upholding Dravidian values.
However, the other two major states in the south – Andhra Pradesh and Telangana – appear to be an anomaly to this model.
Both Telugu states are also ruled by non-BJP governments but that seems to be the only thing that they share with the other southern states.
For beginners, both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have chief ministers (Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) and K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) who hail from politically and economically well-off castes – Reddy and Velama respectively.
Their counterparts from opposition parties also belong to similarly well-entrenched castes – Kammas (founders of the Telugu Desam Party i.e. TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and again Reddys (who occupy top positions in the Congress party) in Telangana.
This is in stark contrast to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, all of which are now helmed by OBC, or backward class, chief ministers.
This is a testament to the devolution of power to more diverse sections of society in these three southern states, as opposed to the continued concentration of power within the wealthy castes in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, members of which have occupied the chief minister’s post for the past seven decades, barring minor exceptions (including in the undivided Andhra Pradesh).
Naturally, there is no demand for a caste census in the Telugu states from the major parties. All the neighbouring chief ministers are now part of the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) coalition, which has officially adopted the demand for a caste census. This exercise has been recognised as a necessity if there is ever to be a meaningful thrust towards an egalitarian society.
Also Read: Why the BJP is Afraid of a Caste Census
As the national stage is being set for the parliamentary elections in 2024, regional parties from both the Telugu states are conspicuously absent from the INDIA coalition.
By itself, the BJP is not expected to win any Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh and barely a few in Telangana. But it is believed that the BJP is counting on this tacit support from all the regional parties in the Telugu states to compensate for projected losses elsewhere in the country.
At a time when the BJP is aggressively pushing its unabashed Hindutva agenda, political parties across the spectrum from the Telugu states seem to be insouciant in a way that makes one ponder if these rumours are true.
Voting record of Telugu regional parties
Telugu parties seem to have adopted a strategy of “confuse and confound” when it comes to national issues and their approach towards the BJP’s core agenda. The voting record of the Telugu regional parties on important issues in parliament since 2014 speaks for itself.
The YSRCP, BRS and TDP all voted in favour of the dilution of Article 370, one of the core agendas of the saffron brigade, though one must add there were several other opposition parties too who played footsie on this issue, even if they have refined their position since.
The TDP was in favour of demonetisation – even though it wreaked havoc on the lives of the hapless – while doing nothing to stem the scourge of black money. In 2016, Chandrababu Naidu, TDP supremo, claimed that demonetisation was a “moral victory” for him because he had proposed the idea earlier. But he conveniently took a 180-degree turn two years later, terming the withdrawal of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as a “disaster”.
KCR whole-heartedly supported demonetisation in 2016, urging Modi to go for a “total clean-up”. Six years later, in 2022, his son and party scion K.T. Rama Rao termed it a colossal failure. Y.S. Jagan Reddy took a cautious approach, staying completely silent on the issue for weeks and then meekly urging Modi to postpone the implementation.
BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao. Photo: Twitter/@KTRBRS
Thus, none of the Telugu parties took the trouble to speak up on behalf of hapless common people who faced the brunt of demonetisation and the nameless individuals that died waiting in queues to withdraw their own hard-earned money.
With regard to the infamous farm Bills, surprisingly, both the YSRCP and TDP voted in lock-step with the ruling BJP. The BRS opposed the Bills but later flipped. The YSRCP later on also paid lip service in support of the agitating farmers.
The YSRCP and TDP helped advance the right-wing agenda with their support for the Citizenship Amendment Bill, while the BRS opposed it because KCR did not want to lose the trust of his party’s large minority support base in Telangana. Both the YSRCP and TDP cheerfully supported the BJP’s nominees for the presidential and vice-presidential elections, paying no heed to the united opposition efforts.
All three major Telugu regional parties have chosen to remain mute while other regional parties in the south steadfastly voiced their concerns against innumerous murders in the name of cow hooliganism, love jihad, etc. In Telangana, the ruling dispensation kept mum when a rationalist was publicly thrashed by right-wing goons for his atheist stance.
While the entire nation was shocked to witness the disgusting incident in Madhya Pradesh when a poor tribal man was urinated on, there was no whimper from either the ruling or opposition parties when a similar incident took place in Andhra Pradesh barely three weeks ago.
Even with the ongoing clashes in Manipur that expose the divisive agenda of the Modi government and its Nero-esque approach to humanitarian crises, the Telugu parties and politicians wish to remain in deep slumber.
Also Read: Modi and Manipur: The Legacy of Nero Lives on in India
Similarly, there is no condemnation of the communal violence in Haryana from the Andhra parties, with the TDP and YSRCP busy playing cat-and-mouse in ugly skirmishes in the Chittoor turf wars. It is almost as if they live in a different universe, while their counterpart Stalin has taken a proactive stand in not only condemning the Manipur violence but also opening up his state to afflicted Manipuri sportspersons to train for the national games.
‘Understanding’ with BJP?
There are obvious political calculations behind stances such as opposing the no-confidence motion and supporting the government on Bills that need more pushback.
For instance, it is widely rumoured that the YSRCP is not quite a fiery opponent of the BJP or Modi because of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s pending corruption cases and the fear of central agencies.
The BRS is sometimes alleged to have an ‘understanding’ with the BJP central leadership that led to their softening of stance on corruption allegations against KCR’s daughter and Telangana MLC Kavitha, while the Aam Aadmi Party’s Manish Sisodia remains behind bars in the same liquor scam. The BRS denies this charge, though.
The TDP seems ever eager to get back into Narendra Modi’s good books after running a sham anti-BJP election campaign in 2019, when all the parties in Andhra Pradesh made a hue and cry about granting ‘special status’ to the divided state, which they said got the short end of the stick post-bifurcation.
Today, four years later, both major parties in Andhra Pradesh have let the special status demand die a slow death, as the BJP conveniently ignored it and moved on.
In essence, the Telugu states, with a huge landmass and considerable voting population, seem cut off from the model of anti-Hindutva politics which is prevailing in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and now Karnataka, the three other south Indian states.
Will the actions by Telugu-land parties end up taking the edge off the INDIA coalition, or will the momentum created by the united opposition force these parties to change tack?
G. Naveen is a Telugu physician by profession and rationalist by passion. His articles are devoted towards voicing the concerns of downtrodden and marginalised communities.