Scam Andhra - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality - page 256

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy became a member of the Andhra Pradesh state assembly in 1978
when he was just 29 and, after a spell as a minister, was made Congress state chief in
1984 by Rajiv Gandhi, then the Congress prime minister and party leader. He fell out of
favour when Narasimha Rao was prime minister (1991-96), but later bounced back. When
he defeated Naidu and led the Congress party to victory in May 2004, he took over a state
that had developed markedly during Naidu's nine years in terms of industrial and high
technology. Economic growth was around 9 per cent in 2003-04, up from 5.6 per cent in
1994-95, 18 but the rural and agricultural economy was suffering badly. 19 Learning from
Naidu's failures, YSR introduced programmes to help the poor and boosted growth to a
peak of around 12 per cent in 2007-08, falling to near 7 per cent in 2008-09.
He proved himself to be one of India's most skilful regional politicians, seemingly work-
ing for the good of the state and the rural poor, while building himself an unassailable Con-
gress power base by providing the Gandhi family with strong loyalty and support. That
won him a comfortable re-election victory five months before he was killed, despite reports
of widespread corruption and corporate cronyism that had been circulating about him and
his son Jagan for some time. There were allegations of nepotism, with friends and relatives
being allotted land far below market prices and also being informed about infrastructure
projects in advance so that they could buy the land at low prices 20 (a frequent ploy in many
states).
YSR's significance was demonstrated by the huge mass of mourners - from Sonia
Gandhi and Manmohan Singh to the rural poor - who gathered to pay their last respects at
his funeral. 21 Large crowds are often assembled in India by political parties and other in-
terests, so it can be difficult to assess the extent of real grief on such occasions. There were,
for example, vastly exaggerated reports of suicides and heart attacks around the state just
after YSR was killed - some party officials were reported to be claiming, almost certainly
bogusly, that a total of over 400 people had died. 22 Families were paid Rs 5,000 by local
Congress politicians to hide the real cause of their relatives' deaths, according to local re-
ports. 23 Temples were quickly erected to honour YSR. 'Some see the temples as desperate
measures of sycophants keen to score brownie points with YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy
- others say the temples immortalise the man they worshipped,' said the Mail Today . 24
There were two distinct views of YSR's time as chief minister. Admirers are typified by
'Shanti S', who wrote a comment on my blog in December 2009, saying: 'Every time I
return to visit my relatives in Kurnool, I am touched by the programs YSR put in place for
the poor. People can allege all they want, they have to also rationalize that progress at the
very poor segments cannot come about just driven by greed - the leaders have to have some
vision, which YSR had. The state was on a decent growth trajectory & I would take that
over politicians who hoarded their coffers, paving the roads to their homes with gold and
leaving absolutely no trace of the benefits of their power on the poor & neglected. I despair