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Filled with naiveté, Pawan sounds war bugle against Delhi

Filled with naivete Pawan sounds war bugle against Delhi

 

In a move that is bound to raise doubts about intentions in the minds of political observers, Telugu movie star and president of Jana Sena party Pawan Kalyan today announced a program to mount pressure on the Centre to get special status accorded to Andhra Pradesh.

 

In a speech full of naiveté and cinematic emotion, Pawan announced that the first meeting of his three-phase agitation would take place in Kakinada on September 9.

 

The three phases are - district tours to explain the political stand on special status, mounting pressure on MPs of all parties from Andhra and hitting the roads in the final phase.  

 

To enthuse the mob, mostly youths and fans, he repeatedly used militant slogans like, “Let the head roll, I won’t turn my back on the fight,”.

 

Many in the crowd yelled slogans like, “Chief Minister Pawan Zindabad”.

 

He also sought to give a North-South flavour to the demand for special status, stating the North Indian government was not taking cognizance of the demand just because it was coming from South India.

 

“We will make you hear South’s voice,” he said in English and declared to the cheers that “Hum ladenge jeetne tak,” in Hindi (We will fight till we win).

 

Technically, Pawan was in Tirupati to console the parents of his fan Vinod Roy, who was killed in Karnataka’s Kolar town a couple of days ago in a brawl with fans of another Telugu hero. 

 

But, he chose the occasion to announce his political agenda even while admitting that his fan's death brought him to Tirupati.

 

This sudden decision surprised many, even his ardent senior admirers. 

 

Tirupati is important not just because of Lord Balaji. It is politically sensitive because of its demographic composition, which suits all political parties. 

 

Besides the existence of the Lord of the seven hills, the area is a stronghold of the Reddys, Kammas and Balijas in Rayalaseema and this suits everybody.

 

Pawan, who loves to talk about the state, people, poverty and youth from his safe haven of Twitter, used to say that he wanted to complete some movies before taking a serious plunge into political action.

 

“I need some money which I can earn only by completing two or three movies,” is a rough translation of what was his latest tweet on the issue.

 

Now, suddenly, cutting short that plan, Pawan chose to sound his war bugle for direct political action. 

 

“Now onwards, I will ride the two horses, politics and movies simultaneously. Politics for the youth and movies for some money,” he said, adding the poem of noted poet Gunturu Sheshendra Sarma, “Youth are  the  captains of this nation.”

 

Who will be benefited by his sudden burst of “emotion, anger, pain and agony?”

 

In fact, Pawan has been maintaining a stoic silence ever since he had a historic meeting with CM Chandrababu Naidu after his sit-in with farmers of the Capital region of Amaravati last year.

 

When Congress launched its “one crore signature campaign” and conducted padayatras or when the YSR Congress organised state bandhs successfully last month for special status,  Pawan did not utter a single word either in support of the bandh or against the centre.

 

Today, apparently overwhelmed by a sudden flood of emotion, without any justifying cause, Pawan lost sight of the self-contradiction in his own speech.

 

"Special status is people’s issue. Let it be the chief minister or opposition leader or other parties; we should all wage united battle till we achieve the special status,” he said and announced his own program of action without talking of joining hands with other parties that have been fighting for the same cause.

 

He didn’t say that he would meet leaders of all political parties to bring them under one umbrella to fight for special status.

 

This clearly shows he has a separate action plan behind this lightning attack, even though his actions are taking place at a time when environmentalists, the opposition YSR Congress, Congress Party and Left parties are raising their voice against large scale-scale misgovernance and abuse of power in Andhra Pradesh.

 

Noted retired bureaucrat EAS Sarma wrote to the CAG for a special audit into the construction expenditure of the new capital and irregularities being committed by the state government.  

 

The leader of opposition in the Council, C Ramachandraiah, is demanding a separate audit by CAG into the ₹4000 crore spent in the name of Godavari and Krishna Pushkaralu. The opposition YSR Congress is questioning the so-called Swiss–Challege contract being given to Singapore companies.  Left parties allege that land is being grabbed from farmers to be handed over to select companies.  

 

Senior Journalist P Sainath called the capital construction nothing more than a massive land grab.

 

Instead of joining the chorus of intellectuals, environmentalists and opposition parties, Pawan chose to announce his own separate program. This is bound to weaken the collective bargaining power of  Andhra Pradesh.   

 

Who will this help? Chief minister Naidu? Prime minister Modi? Or the people of the state?

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