Got Aadhaar card to criticise Andhra government?

One of the most controversial statements made by K Chandrasekhar Rao during the agitation for a separate Telangana was “Andhra waale bhaago”. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leader’s contention was that Telangana belonged to people from the region and those from Andhra – referred to in an insulting vein as “settlers” – had no business to be in Hyderabad. This led to considerable worry about whether bifurcation will lead to pressure on those from Andhra to move out of the state capital.

Thankfully, it has not happened for the last three years. There has not been any visible acrimony post-division and no Telangana politician, mercifully, has thought it necessary to stoke the regional sentiment.

Which is why Nara Lokesh’s jibe from Amaravati has taken many by surprise.

Lokesh is Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s son and is IT and Panchayati Raj minister in his father’s cabinet. His ire is directed at critics of the Andhra government who sit in Hyderabad and not in Amaravati or any other part of geographical Andhra.

These “Non-Resident Andhras” (NRA) in Lokesh’s book do not have the GPS locus standi to speak ill of the Andhra government. In effect, those from Andhra settled in Hyderabad, first got it from KCR and are now facing the music from Lokesh.

“People who don’t even have an Aadhaar card or voter ID in Andhra Pradesh are sitting in Hyderabad and criticising the AP government,” said Lokesh.

This is a rather peculiar argument because, technically, till May 31, 2024, Hyderabad is the joint capital of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Naidu, for political reasons, chose to move his administration to Andhra but he still retains blocks at the joint Telangana-Andhra state secretariat in Hyderabad.

Naidu could afford to settle down in the new capital zone because his residence is provided by the government but obviously all Andhra natives with a home in Hyderabad and EMIs to pay, do not get that luxury. And if being a resident of Hyderabad is such a crime for a person from Andhra, pray why did Naidu renovate his residence in the city?

Lokesh’s offensive shows that the criticism against his party and government is hurting. The provocation was the announcement of Nandi film awards and several of those who missed out on the recognition felt that the selection of winners was lopsided.

A look at the list of winners seemed to suggest a bias towards those who supported the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and were members of the Kamma community, which is seen to dominate the governing party. Naidu’s brother-in-law, actor Nandamuri Balakrishna, who is also a TDP MLA and Lokesh’s father-in-law, walked away with many of the honours.

Several filmmakers including biggies such as Ram Gopal Varma and Gunasekhar and producers such as Bandla Ganesh and Bunny Vyas slammed the jury. Even actor Posani Krishna Murali, who won the best supporting actor award, reacted sharply to Lokesh’s NRA potshot, admitting he was ashamed to receive the award as it would be construed that he got it only because he belonged to the Kamma community.

“Don’t treat us like Telugu Rohingyas,” Krishna Murali said, lamenting how the local versus non-local issue had been made part of the discourse.

It was significant that the criticism came the government and jury’s way despite a strange clause that is part of the awards process. The rulebook states: “The persons who have gone public with criticism and cast aspersions on the decisions of the jury members or the corporation or the government shall be disqualified from applying to any government awards for a consequent period of three years.”

But that none less than Lokesh brought this up is significant.

I suspect it is not merely about the film awards or the fact that the Telugu film industry, despite being dominated by people from Andhra, has stayed put in Hyderabad and not moved base to Visakhapatnam.

What Lokesh is serving is a regional variant of nationalism that labels you a lesser Andhraite if you do not reside in the state. And here Lokesh seems to have politics more than movies and the Nandi awards controversy on his mind.

His barb is directed at people like Pawan Kalyan and YS Jaganmohan Reddy. Both have slammed Naidu’s governance for its inability to secure special category status for Andhra Pradesh despite it being promised by Narendra Modi during the 2014 campaign. It may be noted that both Pawan and Jagan still stay in Hyderabad.

“There are also some people who fly from Hyderabad to stage protests in Andhra Pradesh, demanding that the Centre grant the state special status and fly back the same day. They should instead do all this in Delhi,” said Lokesh.

This domicile clause introduced by Lokesh as a pre-requisite to right to criticise is a mockery of the Telugu identity that his grandfather, the late NT Rama Rao, rode on to come to power in the 1980s. It is an attempt at taking away the right of any Telugu to question any decision of the government if he or she is not breathing the Andhra air.

Wonder if tomorrow US-based Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who hails from Anantapur in Rayalaseema and whose parents live in Hyderabad, was to say something uncharitable about Andhra. Would the young IT minister tick him off in a similar manner?