Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
personal wealth was rocketing. Income-tax returns before the 2004 elections showed he
had assets of Rs 9.18 lakh and the total value of family assets declared by YSR during the
2004 elections was only Rs 50 lakh. Jagan's declared wealth shot up to Rs 77 crore at the
2009 election, and a massive Rs 365 crore in 2011.
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Opponents' views have been evocatively summarized by Kancha Ilaiah, a social activist,
writer and political science professor at Hyderabad's Osmania University. 'Money was mo-
bilised like water and was distributed through various channels like water,' he told me,
echoing the banker that Anvar Alikhan had mentioned. During YSR's rule in Andhra, Ilai-
ah wrote: 'Private palaces were built for the family use. Thousands of acres of land were
given to private industrialists. His [YSR's] family started various industries, media net-
works and money was mobilised into those companies from the industrialists who took
land, minerals, water, power, etc. from the state without giving anything to the state. The
state resources were just plundered ... No dissent and difference of opinion was allowed to
relocating the French experience of Proudhon's time (1840s). When Proudhon wrote his
book,
What Is Property?
the French monarchs were robbing the state resources for palace
building and luxury living.'
Congress Benefits
The allegations of corruption, along with reports suggesting there were handsome pay-
ments to the Congress party nationally, were secondary to YSR's mass popularity. Indeed,
if YSR had lived, it is reasonable to assume that the projects, corruption, kickbacks and
funding would still be continuing today, with grateful Congress party leaders in Delhi dot-
ing on their loyal and valuable friend. No doubt there would have been more corruption
allegations against him, and some deals would have been the subject of inquiries and could
have come unstuck, but it is unlikely there would have been any major police investig-
ations. Taking that a stage further, if Jagan had not tried immediately after his father's
death to become the chief minister, the subsequent crisis might have been averted and he
Gandhi and the Congress party had handled his succession bid more adeptly, it would not
have suffered the drubbing from Jagan's breakaway YSR Congress party in June 2012, and
the official moves to form a Telangana state might not have been needed in 2013.
Sonia Gandhi and her fellow national party leaders appear to have done nothing during
YSR's rule to stop the corrupt deals, even though they would have been fully aware of
them. There were reports that YSR was 'sending huge sums of money for the Congress in
