Yesterday once again, 1984 India, 2009 Andhra

A news repot in the Times of India – September 17- claims that more than 75 percent of the Andhra deaths reported as those that were the result of the ‘massive shock’ of YSR Reddy’s death were exaggerated, concocted and in many cases ‘bought’. The Congress leaders owing allegiance to Jaggan- YSR’s son- actually paid certain families to tell the press that a death in their household was caused due to the immense love the man in question had for YSR. Of course several papers, loyal to the Congress rather than the profession of journalism, carried these deaths in order to bolster the chances of Jaggan becoming CM of Andhra Pradesh after the untimely death of his father. A first-time MP from Cuddapah, Jaggan according to reports is a bit of an upstart and was a perfect candidate for the ‘too big for his boots’ category when YSR was in power. Moreover Jaggan’s business background meant the ‘make Jaggan CM’ campaign had the backing of several moneybags.
It rang the alarm bells in the Congress High Command which at all times consists of just two people- Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and in case of the rare deadlock, Priyanka Gandhi as the casting vote.
The first family could definitely not allow another family enterprise in their party, especially in an important place like Andhra Pradesh, which, if the trend for smaller states continue, could end up as three different states- Andhra, Rayalseema and Telengana. Three states is a lot of bureaucrats, lots of middle-level governmental carrot postings and on a larger scale Rajya Sabha seats. Moreover with the Telugu Desam Party floundering and failing to capitalize even on the multi-crore Satyam fraud, especially when Satyam’s disgraced bosses were close to several top Congressmen, the Congress knows Andhra is theirs for some time to come.
So far the High Command has had its way and has very curtly told Jaggan to rein in his men who now go by the sobriquet Jaggan Sena but everyone knows that something is about to give there. MLAS have started openly defying stand-in CM Rosaiah, even his ministers and bureaucrats- those epitomes of servility to their political masters- not turning up for meetings chaired by the new CM. For how long the party can hold back Jaggan is a question no one is willing to answer now. If Jaggan gives in to the hot-bloodedness of youth, he might just walk out and take away a major chunk of the party with him. With him would go the sympathy wave that accompanies deaths like that of YSR. With him would go the Congress citadel of Andhra for sure.
I’m sure the main players in the drama- Sonia and Rahul- might be getting memories of a particular November in 1984 that started off with just such a dilemma for the grand old party.
Indira Gandhi had been assassinated, Sikhs were being butchered in several cities in India, the intelligence agencies were talking about a major mutiny in the India Army as restive Sikh soldiers had refused to attend duties in many cantonments in the country, Khalistani fringe elements were swearing bloody revenge and most of the Congress leaders leaving their work were busy trying to prove to the party and the powers-that-be that no one had been hurt and devastated more than them with the death of the ‘only man in the cabinet’.
In short it was one of the most painful phases for the country. A decapitated party was looking for someone to lead them through the labyrinthine mess. Some sane head who could go back to the drawing tables, keep his emotions in check, look around, and then lead.
The names that got bandied about for such a role included old fox VP Singh, loyalist Pranab Mukherjee, wily Narasimha Rao, Arjun Singh and SB Chavan. It is of course a matter of destiny how anyone of these would have fared. Only VP Singh and Narasimha Rao ultimately got to sit in the PM’s chair and while the former destroyed his chance by trying to be India’s foremost social reformer since Babasaheb Ambedkar, Rao lost it for trying to make the party from a Gandhi family enterprise to a Rao venture.

But loyalists in the party at the time, like the ones now who are rooting for Jaggan, played the same emotional blackmailing games and riding roughshod over all these experienced heads all the way to the PM’s chair was Rajiv Gandhi.

Of course five years down the line, in 1989, Rajiv Gandhi led his party to the biggest poll defeat ever which saw the Congress down from 410 seats to a humbling 140 seats. And VP Singh went on to become PM before Mandir and Mandal trapped him and brought him crashing down.

History has a strange way of coming back to enact the same scenes in the same old drama with a new set of actors. Andhra is nothing but India of 1984.