YSR’s Demise – A One Year Perspective

YSR died on September 2 of 2009. News of his death became known to the world on September 3, 2009. As can be expected, YS Jagan and his immediate family were plunged into an abyss of grief and of course several hundred people around the state chose to stop living in a world void of their leader, their hero.

YSR’s closest friend ‘atma snehitudu’ to use YSR’s own term to describe KVP Ramachander Rao, worked frantically behind the scenes in the hours and days immediately following YSR’s death to install YS Jagan into his father’s newly vacated seat. The slew of signatures that came in from MLAs standing firmly by Jagan’s right to the Chief Minister’s position was predictable. What most people don’t seem to understand is that Jagan did not at any time take it upon himself to initiate that initial signature campaign to uphold his candidacy for any post. Those days were too tragic for him and he wouldn’t have had recourse to meet with MLAs by the dozens and convince them to position him in his father’s shoes.  The person who had the greatest access to the AP MLAs and the one with the most at stake at the time was the advisor to the Chief Minister, KVP Ramachander Rao. In the initial days following YSR’s death, KVP acted in a frenzy shedding all caution in his haste and compromised Jagan’s reputation by acting on his behalf in Delhi and at the state level, projecting that Jagan’s candidature to the Chief Minister’s post.

Come to think of it now, it is likely that Sonia Gandhi had perhaps entertained the idea of having YS Vivekananda Reddy become some sort of interim Chief Minister who would potentially keep the seat warm for Jagan to grow into. This idea would have been anathema to KVP Ramachander Rao as he had never been close to YS Vivekanand Reddy and Rao realized that Sonia Gandhi would likely use the ‘experience’ card to get Jagan sidelined.  He quickly jumped ship to Rosaiah’s camp and cut a deal with Rosaiah rather than enable YSVivekanand Reddy to become the CM of AP. This double crossing coming from KVP, the man whose survival these past three decades or so was entirely due to YSR’s generosity was an act of treason that it was a body blow to YSR’s wife and son.

In light of KVP’s diabolical behavior which threw the bigwigs in Delhi off-kilter in their attempt to understand AP politics they acted out of desperation and misinformation. Desperation because they hired one of the most ineffective people to fill the shoes of one of the most effective campaigners and administrators in the country, Rosaiah.  Misinformation because they set the bugle call for a parade of politicians that started with Keshav Rao, Hanumantha Rao, D. Srinivas, Jaipal Reddy, Renuka Chowdary, Puradeswari, etc. to feel entitled to spin stories about happenings in AP over tea with Mrs. Gandhi and release the same conveniently to the media as and when they needed to. Only the folks in Delhi are naïve enough to trust any of Daggubati Purandeswari’s moves, people in AP know better than to put their trust in her, they are aware of her wink-wink, nod-nod relationship with her brother-in-law Chandrababu. Of course the ensuing mayhem is familiar if unpalatable news to us all by now.

In this same vein of high irresponsibility, the ‘eminent’ Home Minister, Chidambaram made that reckless comment on Telangana, not realizing that you don’t open Pandora’s Box with no clue as to how to close it.  So now, they’ve allowed sleeping dogs to awake. KCR and most others who were considered history have emerged from their graves to stake a claim in a highly confused, deteriorating and fragmented State.

Now, with the confusion that’s been unleashed in the aftermath of the ‘leak’ of YS Vivekananda Reddy’s letter to Andhra Jyothy paper, it is time for those who have considered YSR as a leader of mythic proportions to step back and look at the events immediately following YSR’s death to get some clarity on this story. It is important to understand that YS Jagan had little or nothing to do with ‘pursuing’ the CM’s seat, it was the doing of others who felt completely threatened at not having access to the power they had gotten used to.

YS Jagan, after being given the run around by the Ahmed Patels, Moilys and Sonia Gandhis of the world has perhaps decided that he is better off taking his father’s legacy and blending it with his own goals to serve the poor and extend his father’s aspirations for the state on his terms. YS Jagan has found no reason to trust anyone in the Congress party. He has been shown the extreme discourtesy of being treated with dishonesty and unfairness from every angle. With amazing maturity he has understood that truth has a way of prevailing. Now Jagan’s ‘belligerent’ attitude can only be justified and upheld.  In due course when people start to realize the facts about what instigated Jagan’s actions and the colossal betrayal he’s had to deal with, the public will once again see the light and recognize that their leader YSR is not dead after all, they will realize that their beloved leader YSR lives on in his son, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. And I am sure, they will support him as they supported Jananetha Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

Gurava Reddy (Atlanta, GA)
CelebrateYSR.org