YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s government in Andhra Pradesh is only six months old, but it’s introducing changes at breakneck speed. Scrubbing former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s name from an award and replacing it with his late father YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s, flip-flopping on the development of Amaravati as Andhra’s new capital, deciding to sue media houses for “defamatory” news — Reddy’s announcements are seen as “revenge politics” by critics.

Reddy has hinted at not following through with the projects and policies introduced by his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu. In May, he held a press conference saying there was a “big land scam” in Amaravati and that he would cancel all projects where “scams have taken place”.

Here’s a recap of some of Reddy’s recent political moves and manoeuvres.

Reddy’s rise

Reddy started his political career in 2004, campaigning for the Congress in Kadapa. He’s come a long way since, from a novice politician to a mass leader. His political stature now rivals that of his father, former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash in 2009. 

A year after his father’s death, Reddy fell out with the Congress. In March 2011, he floated his own party, the YSR Congress, named for his father. The same year, the party won all Assembly seats and the parliamentary seat of Kadapa in byelections. Reddy himself won with a margin of around five lakh votes.

This success was quickly followed by controversy. In 2012, the Central Bureau of Investigation booked Reddy in a disproportionate assets case. He spent over a year in jail and, once released, lost the 2014 Assembly election. 

His comeback happened in 2017. He undertook a 3,000-km Praja Sankalp Yatra, marching on foot across 13 districts, gaining momentum in state politics. In the 2019 Assembly election, the YSR Congress won 151 of the 175 seats, securing Reddy the post of chief minister. In the Lok Sabha election held simultaneously, it won 22 of the 25 seats.

Cancelling projects

Within a month of taking office, Reddy’s government cancelled infrastructure projects worth nearly Rs 50,000 crore across the state. All these projects had been sanctioned before April 1, 2019, mostly by the Naidu government for the Amaravati region. These projects included roads, buildings and irrigation systems spread over 217.23 sq km area across Mangalagiri, Thullur and Tadepalli in Guntur district.

In November, the state government cancelled an Amaravati Capital City Startup Area project, which had been given in 2017 to a consortium of Singapore-based companies, Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp Development Ltd. The consortium had been tasked with developing 6.8 sq km in Amaravati.

The government issued an order cancelling the project on November 11. A day later, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry issued an official statement about the closure of the project. It concluded: “Companies recognise such risks when venturing into any overseas market and factor them into their investment decisions. In this instance, the Singapore Consortium companies have stated that the project has cost them a few million dollars, and that its closure does not impact their investment plans in India.”

On October 31, Reddy cancelled a land allotment of 13.83 acres to the UAE-based LuLu Group, intended to develop a shopping mall and convention hall in Visakhapatnam. LuLu Group had already laid the foundation stone for the Rs 2,200-crore project in February 2018. The company subsequently issued a statement saying it had decided “not to invest in any new projects in the state of Andhra Pradesh”.

In September, the government cancelled the contract for the Rs 3,216-crore Polavaram Hydel project, citing “allegations of irregularities” in the tendering process. 

In July, Reddy decided to review power purchase agreements made by the previous government. These are agreements between the state government and companies generating electricity. The Centre questioned the move, saying it would be “detrimental to investors’ interests” and against the law. The state high court passed an order preventing the government from revising or renegotiating the PPAs, but the Reddy government has challenged the order.

Yet, what’s really stirring the pot is what’s happening — or not happening — with Amaravati. 

What ails Amaravati?

Amaravati, the ancient capital of the Satavahana dynasty, came into the limelight after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Hyderabad now being in Telangana, Naidu proposed a capital city in Amaravati, citing its strategic location and geographic favourability. 

The proposed city is in Guntur district. Located between Vijayawada and the city of Guntur, its covers the tehsils of Mangalagiri, Thulluru and Tadepalli. On October 22, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Amaravati at a function in Uddhandrayunipalem, Guntur.

According to the 2017 report of the Capital Region Development Authority, the capital city region is spread over 53,478 acres of land. About 33,208 acres were acquired from farmers through a land pooling system. More than 23,000 farmers have been allotted returnable plots in the vicinity of the villages where their farms were located. 

The 2017 report says Amaravati was designed to have nine thematic cities — Justice City, Media City, Knowledge City, Electronics City, Sports City, Tourism City, Education City, Government City and Finance City — each with their own designated area. Its social infrastructure was designed to include over 160 primary schools, 100 secondary schools, 27 junior colleges, two-three engineering colleges and as many universities and medical colleges, 10 general hospitals, over 25 multi-speciality hospitals, and 100 health centres. 

The “world class” city of Naidu’s dreams would include 134 km of metrorail network, 1,998 acres of industrial area, a 30-km-long river front, power supply of 2,170 MW, and 27 townships. 

The TDP government’s officials visited Japan, Singapore, the UK and other countries seeking investment. Four Memoranda of Understanding worth Rs 78,000 crore were signed with these countries for Amaravati’s economic and industrial growth. 

The project was expected to be developed in three phases, with an estimated budget plan of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Rs 41,235 crore was allocated for Phase 1, and Rs 7,763 has been spent so far. 

Naidu’s ambitious plans seem to have come crashing down. When Reddy took over as chief minister, there was rampant speculation that his government would move the proposed capital from Amaravati to Kurnool in Rayalaseema — a region considered to be Reddy’s stronghold. 

Even if such rumours aren’t believed, all is not well for Amaravati. In July, after Reddy’s party came to power, the World Bank withdrew its funding of $300 million for the city. A week later, Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank withdrew its funding of $200 million. 

The YSR Congress has squarely blamed the TDP government, saying it had “embarrassed the nation” and “completely ignored the adverse environmental, social, economic and financial implications” of setting up a new capital. 

However, the World Bank said the Indian government “withdrew its request to the World Bank for financing the proposed Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project”. It added that it had been “informed that the proposed project is no longer under preparation following the government’s decision”. Curiously, an RTI reply revealed the World Bank had pulled out because it received no response or reply from the Reddy government. 

‘Political vendetta’ or focus on welfare?

Kodali Shrinivas Rao, a professor who has written extensively on the Amaravati project, thinks Reddy is engaged in “political vendetta”.

“He’s from Rayalaseema and he’s pushing a wrong narrative to people there, that development will be concentrated only in Amaravati,” Rao explains. “Before the election, he said if he’s made chief minister, he’ll shift the capital and development to Rayalaseema. These promises won him 95 per cent of the seats in Rayalaseema.”

Rao says Reddy also claimed that Amaravati was being made the capital to provide maximum benefits to the majority Kammas — Naidu’s community – in the region. “This is totally untrue. There are eight Assembly constituencies in Amaravati capital region. Four seats are dominated by Scheduled Castes and Muslims. The remaining four have equal distribution of Brahmins, Kammas, Reddys and OBCs.”

Rao says out of 29 villages that contributed land to Amaravati region, seven belong to the Reddy community and most of the rest to the Khamma community. This is important because, Rao says, Reddy knows any development seen in these areas will be credited to Naidu — and there will be a lot of development. 

“This is why, to downsize Naidu politically, Reddy’s stalling most of the projects,” Rao says. “He was initially considering shifting the capital to Kurnool — though he never said so publicly — but his MLAs from Guntur opposed the idea. So now, he’ll keep Amaravati a low-key affair instead of a world class city.”

Rao adds: “There are also some misconceptions that Amaravati is a delta area and cannot hold infrastructure. I’ve studied these projects. The bearing capacity of the land there is excellent. Out of 29 villages, 10 have wetland areas and the remaining are dry land. So those arguments don’t stand.”

A source in the Andhra Pradesh government told Newslaundry, on the condition of anonymity, that there isn’t enough money in the exchequer to fulfil the promises Reddy had made during his election campaign. 

“The government is dependent on the Centre in a big way for the formulation of policies,” the source says. “He [Reddy] cancelled the Amaravati and other projects so he can cancel tenders given by the TDP. During his election, he alleged corruption by the TDP at various levels, so calling for re-tendering might have helped him save some money. But this backfired as the Centre said no corruption had taken place when the TDP handed over the tenders.”

The source says the state’s image has taken a hit because of the cancelling of such high-level projects. “In fact, the Singapore government has registered a complaint against the Andhra Pradesh government with the Ministry of External Affairs,” the source claims. Singapore had signed an MoU to draw up Amaravati’s masterplan. 

“He cancelled projects in Amaravati because he doesn’t want Chandrababu Naidu’s name to become immortal, the way it has become in the case of development in Hyderabad,” the source says. “But because of his actions, investors are cautious about investing in Andhra Pradesh. Real estate prices in Amaravati which had skyrocketed — from Rs 5 lakh per acre on average to Rs 1-1.5 crore per acre — have now been slashed by 50 per cent. If he’d followed the previous government, it would have brought revenue to the state…However, despite all this, he’s doing well with welfare schemes.” 

Raghav Palvai, a Hyderabad-based political analyst, also believes Reddy’s focus is on welfare schemes and not building a high-tech city, which may not be feasible in a struggling global economy. 

Palvai points at Reddy’s “political legacy”. “He’s the son of YSR, who started welfare schemes in a big way, and was known for their effective implementation,” he says. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that every village in undivided Andhra Pradesh was a beneficiary of his schemes. When you belong to such a legacy, you have to maintain a certain reputation. That’s what Jagan is doing.”

Palvai says Reddy hasn’t cancelled projects that have already taken shape. “He’s only cancelled projects for which land was allocated, but nothing has been done, or projects which had irregularities.” He adds, “He is not going to change the capital.”

Action against ‘defamatory’ news

On October 30, the Andhra government authorised its top bureaucrats to sue media organisations for “baseless, false and defamatory news”. Its order said, “Instances have come to the notice of government that certain print, electronic and social media are deliberately trying to tarnish the image of government and government officials by spreading false, baseless and defamatory news with malafide interest. In order to see the true and correct information reaches people, government…has empowered special commissioner, information and public relations to file cases under appropriate sections of the law.”

According to the order, department secretaries now have the power to issue rejoinders, file complaints, and lodge appropriate cases against news items deemed “defamatory”. They can also order enquiries to establish the veracity of news reports.

In February 2007, the YSR government had ordered a legal case to be registered over media reports criticising the government. However, the order was revoked two days later following a public outcry. 

U Laxmana, a journalist and former member of the Press Council of India, has filed a petition against the government order. Talking to Newslaundry, he says, “What the Jaganmohan Reddy government is doing is totally unconstitutional. I can understand if they send a notice for non-factual reporting, but they can’t threaten the media for reporting against them with legal notices. Journalists in small towns and rural areas of the state are afraid to report on the flaws of the government. This is totally undemocratic.”

Lawyer Mamidi Venu Madhav, who is Laxmana’s counsel, says in Andhra Pradesh, the governing party has a tradition of targeting news channels that oppose or criticise them. “In the previous government, channels opposing the TDP were targeted by Chandrababu Naidu,” he says. “But Jaganmohan Reddy has crossed all limits. They’ve issued a diktat that no one can report against them. Such behaviour is not acceptable in a democracy.”