I rarely watch news channels. I’d rather go to a local car tinkering garage if I was that desperate for noise. I made an exception today because I fully wanted to experience the expected orgy of insanity that I was sure would be unleashed when a guy like YSR dies. The Congress party and its stooge, the media, continue to be busy trying to outdo each other: Andhra strongman! Leader of the masses! Irreplacable Loss! Mascot of good governance! Good Doctor! Healer-Chief Minister! Colossus!
The process of anointing YSR from Y S Rajashekhara Reddy to St. Samuel is underway with full steam.
The martyrdom frenzy that the media is whipping up is a worse epidemic than Swine Flu. Only, this time, the focus is a (dead) human being. The verdict is unanimous: St. Samuel, St. Samuel, St. Samuel! There’s absolutely no scope for an iota of dissent, no space to dissect this man’s past…but there are some unalterable universals like the evil that men do lives after them… Only, we fail to detect a trace of the public good that YSR did over his long political career.
This superbly-researched piece (link thanks: Ravikiran) written when he first became the CM of Andhra YSR’s reveals some drops of the blood he had on his hands. Just the bits that trace his bloody rise to power.
The man is anything but a vendor of humane visages. His rise in politics has been accompanied by more bloodshed than that of any other politician in this state. Not bloodshed for some avowed ‘higher cause’, but bloodshed for the narrowest possible cause: the rise of one individual to political power and prominence. The recent elections may very well have meant many things in terms of popular aspirations, and one has no desire to be cynical on that score. But in the matter of the change of helmsmen, it has merely replaced a man who would find nothing too crooked if it is in his political interest, with one who would find nothing too brutal…Today YSR wishes to be seen as a politician who has responded to the needs of farmers and is determined to do well by them, but in the nearly three decades of his political life, he has not been instrumental in adding one acre of assured irrigation to the parched lands of the constituency that has again and again returned him or his brother (when YSR chose to go to parliament instead) to the state sssembly.
But the foundation stone was laid by his father, Raja Reddy.
Cuddapah has deposits of the mineral barytes, which was once upon a time not a highly priced mineral. One of the mining leases was held by Venkatasubbaiah of the balija caste. Raja Reddy joined him as a junior partner/supervisor (it is not clear which), reportedly because Venkatasubbaiah believed he would be useful in controlling the workmen. Round about the mid-1970s, however, it was discovered that barytes has use in petroleum refining, and its price shot up. Raja Reddy wanted Venkatasubbaiah to hand over the mining lease to him and go. A prominent CPI leader and writer, Gajjela Malla Reddy, brokered a deal whereby Venkatasubbaiah would take Rs 11 lakh and leave the mining lease to Raja Reddy. Venkatasubbaiah refused, and was killed. The mining lease, passed into YSR’s hands.
For many years in the later half of the 1980s and the early half of the 1990s, YSR’s barytes mining operation was the subject of one scandal after another. Lease – or sub- lease, after barytes mining became formally the monopoly of the A P Mineral Development Corporation, only to be sub-leased to the same previous lessees – would be taken for a certain extent, but many times more land around would be mined…. a villager, Vivekanandam, whose private land of 1.8 acres was also sub-leased to YSR by the Corporation. Though that man went to court and obtained an injunction against the sub-lease, YSR continued with the mining and took away mineral worth Rs 5 crore. The maternal uncle of the said Vivekanandam, a retired government employee, Rajagopal, set out to Hyderabad, to express his protest to the then chief minister Janardhan Reddy, and to move the high court again. The old man was set upon by a gang in the middle of the state’s capital, and had his hands and legs broken. This was as recently as 1992.
The article piles detail upon detail of YSR’s atrocity-ridden rise in politics, which I recommend you read in full. “Swaminomics” Aiyar had also written a similar “profile” of YSR, drawing copiously from this same piece.
But today, this is how the Indian Express documents the “rise of YSR.” Perhaps the most barefaced lie lies in this paragraph that talks about his “achievements.”
Reddy developed the Cuddapah region by pumping in funds and creating a solid infrastructure, making the constituency its neighbors’ envy.
The infrastructure is so solid that even after three decades of YSR rule there, not one acre of land can be irrigated and/or tilled in Cuddapah. Truly the subject of envy. It takes tremendous guts for the Indian Express to impute stupidity to its readers. But then, the Slimes can’t be far away. Although it hasn’t fudged facts as openly as the Spindian Express, it has honoured him with various epithets such as people’s leader, colossus of Andhra Pradesh, and so on. The less said about CNN-IBN, NDTV, and similar party organs, the better.
What exactly generated this rabid media mania is common knowledge: YSR was perhaps the favourite of HQ. He “revived” the Congress party’s fortunes and finances with the stunning 2004 victory and showed consistently high performance, enough to warrant a sufficiently orgasmic obituary. Andhra Pradesh holds the record for garnering maximum central funding ever received thanks to this tireless (recently deceased) leader of the masses. Even if you excuse the media for its sloppy reporting and complete ignorance and/or suppression of YSR’s violent past, why does it conceal his more recent transgressions? From corruptions too numerous to count to his son’s brazen usurping of land, the Satyam scandal (where his family was allegedly involved), mining scam, and his attempts to break the back of Ramoji Rao.
But monetary scams are pretty mild in YSR’s long list of evils. He was, true to the Congress tradition, a communal Chief Minister. Andhra Pradesh is one of the few states to still retain very strong Hindu ethos. As soon as YSR took over, he showed what Samuel Reddy was capable of. From undamming a flood of Evangelism across the state to trying to inject Evangelist poison in Tirupathi to successfully selling temple lands in the Godavari region to banning the Da Vinci Code to making Christian pilgrimages at taxpayer expense, Samuel Reddy displayed exemplary communal behaviour. I’m merely speculating, but perhaps this is also one of the reasons he earned the special graces of Our Lady from Rome living in Delhi. Which is why the entire apparatus of the Indian state was instantly summoned to frantically locate YSR the moment he went missing. Wish they had acted with even 10% of YSR-aroused speed, efficiency, and effectiveness when Bombay was besieged. An indicator of sorts that some mentalities will never change: post-YSR’s crash, our leaders want Satellite phones in the flight/chopper each time they embark on such “flying” visits. Again, at taxpayer expense.
On a personal note, a predictable but immediate retort I’ve received today for pointing out YSR’s past is this: even Narendra Modi is a murderer but you praise him for his achievements in Gujarat’s development. This argument is non-contextual, baseless, and hypocritical both factually and logically. As I’ve noted earlier in this blog, every investigation against Modi has actually yielded lesser and lesser chances of culpability in the 2002 riots. Even if he was culpable, how does it erase YSR’s bloody past? If you so easily close your eyes to judgments and reports showing Modi in positive light, why do you find it so tough to digest YSR’s record of brualities? While Gujarat’s remarkable economic achievements are well-documented and verifiable (see this solid post), YSR’s “development projects” are infected with mutations of the same Congress garibi hatao virus. Besides, compared with the central government aid that Modi and YSR have each garnered, Andhra Pradesh hasn’t attained growth remotely comparable to that of Gujarat. Blind hatred of Modi yields nothing except heads nodding in approval in charmed circles.
Hardly a few hours since YSR’s death was confirmed, the disgraceful but expected succession battle has begun. Again, entirely faithful to the Congress party’s culture. Family loyalists (not the First Family) have already decided to anoint his son, Jagan Mohan Reddy as the CM-in-waiting. Blood is waiting to be spilled. Also, the son is not even a member of the AP assembly. Exciting times await Andhra Pradesh.
Perhaps the ugliest footnote on YSR’s death is the decision to rename the Kadapa (or Cuddapah) district as YSR district in his “honour.” Kadapa is a corruption of the Telugu word, Gadapa, meaning threshold. Geographically, Kadapa is surrounded on three sides by the Nallamala and Palakonda hills and acts like a gateway (or threshold) from the north to Tirupathi. This region, which witnessed spectacular prosperity under the Vijayanagar rule, abounds with spiritual richness, and is home to people like Mahayogi Vemana, Annamacharya, and Potuluri Veerabrahmam will now be renamed in the “honour” of a ruthless murderer who mowed down innocent people in his quest for personal power.
YSR isn’t worth our tears.
Incognito
Congratulations on taking your time out and demolishing that ‘unending non-sensical comment flood’ larissa.
That larissa = Darwin, White man/black man, my blue eyed-white skinned husband, native peoples/pirates, country peoples, civilised/uncivilised peoples, mountain/hill peoples, other india/real india, believers/unbelievers; without seeing dichotomy, one whose survival is difficult.
But again, we are throwing big stones on dung. Expect it to splatter.
Kumar,
You do not understand the process of ‘conversion’ and how it differentially impacts a believer/secular versus a heathen (you and me). Bush was an alcoholic and dissolute fratboy, psychologically abused by his father, but with enormous potential; subsequently, he discovered Jesus, and became a good *religious* man; and then he *further* proceeded to enact a nexus between state and evangelical groups which sought direct evangelization of Asia, enacted a neutering nuke deal meant to bring India under a strict inspections regime and to cap, eliminate, and rollback India’s nuclear deterrence. YSR is very similar to Bush; in fact, he liasioned with many of the same evangelist elements coming out of the US, and opened up the Indian “field” to their “harvest” of souls. In this, he was also fulfilling the Christian Congress’ agenda. This is the significance of YSR as he relates to the heathen society that is India; his dhoti style, his hearty accent are mere trivialites and not nuances as you deem. Please try to think in civilizational security terms rather than the petty terms of personality. Always India is first.
Evangelization is an essential component of monotheist imperialism as proved by 2000 years of monotheist history in which the natives are systematically deculturated and then dispossessed by the colonizer. Just look at converted populations in Africa, Phillipines, Boxer China, Native Americas, pre-mutiny India, post-nehru northeast and south, South Korea, Diem’s christianizing regime in Vietnam – the examples are legion.
Religions and their secularized variants (ie secular ideologies) are comprehensive *beliefs systems*; therefore, when a Christian converts after a rather formulaic “breakdown”, “crisis”, “revelation”, he adopts wholesale the tenets of the belief system. The tenets of Christianity are categorically anti-heathen, anti-idolatry, anti-native, and so on. It is very different than, as incognito pointed out, self-improvement (Abhyasa) that is common in India.
Lastly look up Swami Devananda on christian inculturation tactics. These tactics are used to lower the guard of the soul being harvested.
wow…kudos to you for such a wonderful piece of art ! I would rate your article as one of the best on YSR. I’ve been reading thousands of articles and listening to eulogizing views on YSR from my friends and relatives which has been driving me nuts. Common man and villagers can be excused for their ignorance on their opinions on him but educated citizens forming baseless opinions has always been so baffling and worrying to me. His recent schemes for poor man can best be described as “Why teach people how to catch a fish when you can just throw one at them”. He has made people so dependent on him with his useless schemes that no wonder we heard of hundreds of suicides. They are not going to provide any long-term solutions to the problems being faced by people in AP and God knows when people are going to realize it. Well i can go on and on but i’ve realized over time that its of no use unless people come to their senses and realize on their own
Thank you once again Sandeep for shedding light on few remaining facts that i needed to know on the so called ‘Messiah’
Wow Incognito, its simply amazing to see how you rip apart the rhetoric which tries to equate greatest tradition and dharma to heinous semetic political cults. Keep it up, we need such clarity to take on semetic , non pluralist fanatics and deracinated cowardly apes.
Kishkindhaa,
While I agree with you on the overall thesis about Christian evangelism, I feel Indian politicians like YSR don’t really fit into the same category as Bush.YSR would have encouraged Scientology if it meant more votes.His personal faith was political power.His dhoti and his idiomatic Telugu are cultural choices to portray himself as a son of the soil (which he was to a large extent).
Please read my post on YSR and evangelism in AP.
http://kumarsbol.blogspot.com/2009/09/ysr-1949-2009-born-again-politician-4.html
What I did not mention in my blog is my view that coastal AP would face a Khandhamal situation in a few years if not earlier.The Hindu intelligentsia is sitting around cursing the evangelists, and not working towards a solution for the problems in AP and TN.Kerala is a gone case, and coastal Karnataka is fast becoming like Kerala.
@kumar
Why is kerala a gone case ?. Its a genuine question. Whats hindu % of kerala ?. I thought new converts of TN,AP,KT states are more fanatics than those in kerala. Why do u say kerala is a gone case?..is it beco of muslims %?
Kumar:
Sure, YSR wears dhoti, and sure he talks in ‘idiomatic telugu’. These are again, as I mentioned signs that one doesnt have to wear suit and eat with fork and spoon and talk in english to be a Christian.
There is a sub-conscious appeal to the telugu people in the way YSR dresses himself and openly allows christian faith to prosper: “You can be like me– a telugu son of the soil, and still be a Christian”.
What I really wish is pamphlets distributed outside churches on how and why YSR died (refer my first comment in this article). There is a short time for us to use this incident before he is annointed as a saviour and a saint.
While no one will even know of Mr.Kumar’s painstakingly detailed neutral and nuanced transformational analysis, They will rememeber YSR as a bible-reading, church-attending protestant reddy-chritian who “went to heaven”:
http://news.rediff.com/special/2009/sep/07/dr-ysr-was-a-very-devoted-christian.htm
“Dr YSR, as he was affectionately known, was a member of the Protestant Church of South India. He was a committed Christian. His father Raja Reddy was also a Christian. They worshipped at the CSI church in their hometown, Pulivendula.
Dr YSR was a very devoted Christian, always attending church whenever they were in their hometown.
Incidentally, Dr Reddy and I studied at the Veerasaiva College in Bellary (eastern Karnataka bordering Andhra Pradesh). We were contemporaries in college.
I had the privilege of attending their (YSR’s family’s) last Christmas function. There were many family members there and also preachers. It is a very big family of more than 500 close relatives.
Dr YSR read the Bible and prayed every day with Christian discipline. His mother was a very devout lady. She prayed for his success in the first election. Dr YSR always acknowledged his mother’s prayers for his success.”
Kedar,
Agreed Rediff is more popular than my blog
But trust me on the pulse of the common man in AP.YSR is not seen as a Christian so much as a Congress mass leader with a violent past.
Rest assured Hinduism in AP is not in danger because of people reading that YSR was a devout Christian, and since they like his pro-poor policies and have sympathy due to his tragic demise, they would want to convert. Aisa nahin hone wala hai..people see him as a politician with a good heart.Religion doesn’t enter the picture at that level.
But I don’t mind if Hindutva activists see it that way and start a movement to preserve/protect the temples in AP, for starters.Good speed for such initiatives, if any.
Prachetas,
Having seen the minorities in all southern states, I think they are at their most aggressively anti-Hindu and economically dominant in Kerala (where they are not really minorities). In TN, the dravidian politics have weakened Hindu dharma to a large extent, and it needs a charismatic mass leader like Rajnikant (just giving an example) on the Hindu side. The focus of a dharmic revival should be on these two states.
Your question actually needs a long comment and detailed analysis.I assume there are people more qualified than I to speak about Kerala and TN.If not, I will revert to this topic at a later time.Have to rush now. Thanks.
Indians long back held a different view. They considered life to be a spiritual experience. And the purpose of their lives were directed towards experiencing their spirituality.
Deracinated indians now hold different views.
Oh yeah. and ignorant indians like you think themselves soooo spiritual and others not? Tell me what is your occupation and what have you done that makes you so spiritual in comparison with others? How are you different from those Christians in that you think those who do not agree with you are not “spiritual”? As for calling people “low class” –this does describe most of the East Indian Company people who were just out to make a buck–Warren Hastings came from a very humble background and one can just imagine such a unscrupulous person getting hold of the wealth of Bengal suddenly–he was “low class’ because he was unscrupulous and enlightened people like Edmund Burke put him on trial in England for corruption. And any Indian who exploits Africans is also “low class”–Don’t know why its wrong to use this phrase…anyone who behaves in a nasty fasion is “low class”–does not have to do with if they are rich, or wealthy or educated or not.
Moreover, all cultures were tribal at one point. When one reads about the crudades, just read the descriptions of the Northmen by people in the Middle East–how they did not shower and such and how unvicilized they were in the eyes of the Syrians and Lebanese, the Northmen became civilized in three generations in the Middle East. I do not believe that anyone is “inferior” but reather people are in different stages of development–some like the aborigines in Australia lived in the Stone Age, there are also a lot of tribals in India, who are content to live in the forest as tribals and do not want to be disturbed. Now cultures interact and people adopt different forms of life and stop being tribals–in the case of American Indians, their way of life was wiped out. In the case of Tibetans, cultural assimilation and change was gradual and did not destroy their way of life–this is a result of Buddhist culture which spread peacefully everywhere. However, it is insane to argue that a hunting gathering culture is the same as a highly literate one–and by saying “not the same” I am saying in different stages, and not accusing one of being inferior. The “tribal” when presented with the same opportunity for culture develops–this has been the case everywhere in human history–the Greeks and Romans gave civilization to other Europeans at one point who also were not civilized in the way Greeks and Romans were–The Romans thought they were bringing civilization into Britian. Sometimes, culture does not spread peacefully through gradual cultural syncretism but through force–this happened in the Americas–Regardless there is not reason not to accept qualitative differences amongst peoples and cultures–just as an “educated” man is “different” from an “uneducated” one–one is not saying that the man without “education” is inferior as a human, but that he has not had the set of opportunities to be educated, and given the right set of opportunities he will be educated. And no Incognito, I do not think you are “spiritual”–a “spiritual” person is at peace with his surroundings and is not full of venom and jealously like you, nor do they think they are know it alls.
And Incognito your kind of arguments are often used to argue that “anything” is as good as anything else, and to replace the classics in Universities with new age garbage in universities. You gave me the example of some “guru” who is not educated—now if “knowldege” were so simple, why do we even bother to be educated and disciple yourselves through education? In terms of moral qualities, the uneducated person can often display superior qualities, but you can hardly argue that such a person is the “same” as one who has developed himself in a literate way–and “same” it is not a question of “inferior/superior” (that you are always obsessed with in saying I call people “inferior”–a result of your own complexes) but a question of qualitative differences–you certainly cannot
destroy qualitative differences in the name of “egalitarianism”…And your “guru”might not be a “guru” to others, but a charlatan.
And Incognito your kind of arguments are often used to argue that “anything” is as good as anything else, and to replace the classics in Universities with new age garbage. You gave me the example of some “guru” who is not educated—now if “knowldege” were so simple, why do we even bother to be educated and disciple ourselves through education? In terms of moral qualities, the uneducated person can often display superior qualities(no one denies that and to be “educated” does not mean one is a perfect human morally–and even this depends on the definition of “moral”), but you can hardly argue that such a person is the “same” as one who has developed himself in a literate way–and “same” is not a question of “inferior/superior” ( you are always obsessed with in saying I call people “inferior”– this is a result of your own complexes and does not respresent what I think) but a question of qualitative differences–you certainly cannot destroy qualitative differences in the name of “egalitarianism”…And your “guru” might not be a “guru” at all to others, but simply a charlatan.
The Conversion To Intolerance: How the Missionaries are… by Raju Peddada
I will give just one instance of the ways in which the conversion game is being carried on by the Christian church.
In a recent issue of ‘Kumudam Jodidam’ a Tamil astrological and spiritual weekly, a lady from Kanyakumari has written to say that her marriage is delayed by the activities of the christians.
She says that even astrologers have been converted by the church.
Whenever she approaches an astrologer he tries to brainwash her into getting converted to christianity and tells her that he will arrange her marriage immediately.
She has also described the vile propaganda of the evangelists rubbishing Hindu Gods and Goddesses amongst the unlettered people and sowing seeds of doubts and hate in their minds to make them ripe for conversion.
Some time back some one had written about one of the most ingenious games of the church of converting ‘Sthapathis’ or experts in Temple building and ‘Aagama Sastra’ with a view to put a spoke in temple construction!
If this is not diabolical what else is?
R.Sridharan
“Warren Hastings came from a very humble background and one can just imagine such a unscrupulous person … ”
humble background = unscrupulous person.
This ‘ass’ seems to be full of sh#t
very very eye opening article to the indian masses,,
Now he is making money the illegal way , from Bellary,karnataka state through his community partner gali janardhan reddy in iron ore business. His son JAGAN MOHAN REDDY is instructing gali janardhan reddy the same ways as his grand father ys raja reddy had adopted in accquiring byrates mines illegaly.
some of his victims are,
1.BIOP MINES–MR.MODI,BELLARY
2.BALDOTA MINE (MSPL) @ HOSPET
3. TUMUTI MINE,BELLARY
4. SREE KUMARSWAMY MINES,SANDUR
5.HM MINES, BELLARY
THE LIST GOES ON
AS GALI JANARDHAN REDDY HAS FUNDED FOR AROUND 20-30MLA”s
the karnataka cm is helpless in taking any action against him, as he is more concerned with his cm post.
there is more my friend
nr mine ,bellary,
ht mine, bellary
hotur traders ,bellary
vs lad and sons,sandur
veerabadrappa and sons,sandur,
goga mine sandur,
some mine owners have yeilded to him as they have personal finincal commitments to pay to banks,investments,
tey have to pay him around 200-300 rs per ton
he has robbing huge quantities of ore from neighbouring mines and trucks without permits are lined up near hagri bridge, border to
there is more my friend
nr mine ,bellary,
ht mine, bellary
hotur traders ,bellary
vs lad and sons,sandur
veerabadrappa and sons,sandur,
goga mine sandur,
some mine owners have yeilded to him as they have personal finincal commitments to pay to banks,investments,
tey have to pay him around 200-300 rs per ton
he has robbing huge quantities of ore from neighbouring mines and trucks without permits are lined up near hagri bridge, border to AP to krishnapatnam port, his illegal activities r not taken into action by either the karnataka mines and geology officials, dc,rto,police or the AP authorities {AP AUTHORITIES FEAR JAGAN MOHAN REDDY WARTH}
EVERYONE IN BELLARY ARE FED UP WITH THESE GUYS ESPECIALLY THERE WAS A GREAT RELIEF WHEN THE NEWS OF YSR DEATH WAS HEARD, NOW PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR GODS ACTION ON THE THES REMAINING CULPRITS,
ACTUALLY GALI JANARDHAN REDDY HAD BLASTED THE AGE OLD TEMPLE LOCATED AT THE TOP OF THE MINING HILLOCK{GRR MIINE}LOCATED IN AP REGION, WHERE AS HE WAS PROTECTED FROM LAWFUL ACTION BY YSR, SO ULTIMATELY GOD TOOK ACTION ON YSR FOR HIS DEEDS, SHORTLY IN THE LIST THE REMAINING CRIMINALS AND THEIR ASSOCIATES
Anyway, this Samuel is a guy who has to die, and he died, just leave this topic and work for the unity of India which at stake…