Andhra Pradesh: Pigs take center stage amid Reddy, Kamma feud

 

Caste tensions, which have been lying dormant for the past two years, erupted violently within Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party in Anantapur. This time around, the Reddys have raised their voices against their own ruling party's 'caste eczema'. 

 

Interestingly the flash point, centred in Anantapur, is attributed not to politics but to pigs, who would surely outnumber the households in the town of Anantapur if counted. 

 

Without taking any names, Anantapur Lok Sabha member JC Diwakar Reddy used the choicest of phrases against the major players of the Kamma caste in the district. 

 

Among other things, he said Anantapur town was going to the pigs because of the caste "eczema" of the three Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders - Prabhakar Chowdary (local MLA), Swaroopa (city mayor) and Challa Obulesu (municipal commissioner). 

 

All three belong to the Kamma caste, which is also the dominant caste of the Telugu Desam Party. 

 

The caste-war of words witnessed in Anantapur is an occasion to revisit the caste politics in the state. Previous Congress governments (in united Andhra Pradesh) have been dominated by the Reddys. The Kammas had held their sway under the TDP regime - both in current times and during the undivided days. 

 

A simple litmus test of the state of this form of politics is the caste composition of the All India Service (AIS) officers on deputation to Andhra Pradesh during the time of YS Rajasekhar and the current composition under CM Chandrababu Naidu. 

 

This is not confidential data. The data is publicly available here. Under any regime, the caste matrix of Andhra is blatantly revealing. 

 

JC Diwakar Reddy is the only leader in the state to have tasted defeat in his home constituency only once in his four-decade-long political career. After the formation of Telangana,  Reddy, who used to be a Congress strongman, chose to join the TDP for business rather than political reasons. . 

 

Diwakar Reddy shifted his base to the Anantapur Lok Sabha constituency, while his equally politically powerful brother, Prabhakar Reddy, contested from Tadipatri and won. But neither of them was made a minister either in the state or at the Centre, despite their muscle and money power. 

 

So the Reddy brothers remain out of power, despite their authority being writ large in the area for some four decades now. This has proved to be a common fate for all political Reddys, barring a couple who were born and brought up in the TDP. The migrant Reddys especially feel like square pegs in round holes, devoid of the primacy they had once enjoyed. 

 

This dissonance has become apparent in the form of a caste war in Anantapur, which even a decade ago was the arena of a bloodbath between the two castes. In the current scenario, the fighting has been restricted to words so far. JC Diwakar Reddy certainly held nothing back. 

 

"Pigs are destroying the city. Anantapur has become a hellhole in command of the triumvirate. Two children have died of Dengue fever, but they are not bothered. My objective is to transform Anantapur like Tadipatri. These three members, for their selfish goals, are scuttling my efforts. All the city's leaders belong to the same caste. Their caste 'eczema' is ruining Anantapur," Reddy roared in a press conference. 

 

"They are all corrupt.  They are even claiming the bills for the works done by others," he said, adding that 'even their grandfather' couldn't recreate Tadipatri in Anantapur.  

 

Pride over Tadipatri is high in the JC clan. The town credits the efforts of the JC brothers in making it one of the cleanest towns in the country.

 

Sources in the TDP say the rift between the two castes came to the fore over differences on a road widening project in the old town area of Anantapur. 

 

While JC Reddy is all for widening the road, Kamma leaders are against it. This gave the project a strong caste aspect, a fact endorsed by the general public in Anantapur. 

 

In retaliation, Anantapur mayor Swaroopa defended the TDP government, by citing how earlier Congress regimes had appointed 'same caste members' (Reddys) from the collector level to local officers. She warned that she would complain against JC Diwakar Reddy and insist on disciplinary action.