The Hindu : Intelligentsia cool to Naidu's overtures

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 09, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Intelligentsia cool to Naidu's overtures

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Dec. 8. No big guns figured among the 500-odd professionals who enrolled as TDP members here on Sunday in response to the invitation by the party supremo, N. Chandrababu Naidu, to the intelligentsia to join the ranks of the ruling party.

Prominent among those who joined were the former High Court Judge, Sriramulu, and the ex-president of TNGOs Union, B. Swaminatham, besides some doctors, scientists, retired bureaucrats and dozens of advocates. Last time round in 1999, the party could rope in several important personalities like the ex-CBI Director, K. Vijayarama Rao.

Welcoming the new entrants into the TDP fold, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu disclosed that at the end of the 15-day-long membership campaign on Saturday, the party could enrol 74 lakh members, including 55 lakh ordinary and 19 lakh members. This represents an increase in membership by 16 lakhs but falls short of the party's target of 80 lakhs.

The party president said he would interact with a section of the intelligentsia during his district tours from this month. He would spend two hours with them to seek their views about the quality of governance and steps to improve it.

Mr. Naidu said politicians always tended to speak politics. Congressmen, for instance, criticised him ceaselessly, quite often in abusive terms. But, he restrained himself from reacting to their harsh language, a technique he had learned through constant meditation. The TDP, he said, attached high importance to clean politics by attracting educated persons into the organisation. In the first-ever elections that the party contested in 1983, NTR fielded 125 graduates, 22 post-graduates, 20 doctors, 47 advocates and eight engineers. Singapore, though a nation with 3.5 lakh population, could make giant economic strides mainly because the intelligentsia was involved in policy-framing.

Recalling the party's `praja deevena' programme in 1999, he said about 25-30 `neutrals' who joined the party became MLAs and some even Ministers. He, however, regretted the indifference of the middle classes in this year's MCH polls when only 40 per cent voters turned up while the rest chose to stay at home and watch a cricket match.

Mr. Naidu said that he was into his eighth year as Chief Minister. "Unlike many people who get opportunities at a late age, God gave me a chance at a relatively young age. I, therefore, work hard from morning to night with the sole motive of making Andhra Pradesh the number one State. I have always shunned ostentation.''

Referring to some of his achievements, he said he had turned Hyderabad into an important destination which was a `must visit' place for every foreign VIP. People would realise the extent of Hyderabad's transformation if they saw the condition of other metropolitan cities.

Earlier, Justice Sriramulu, describing his entry into TDP as a turning point in his career, flayed the Congress leaders. He said the Government was providing all facilities to judicial officers like houses, subsidised power and water besides allotting new cars to High Court judges. Ummareddy Venkateswarlu, Convenor of the TDP's State Election Committee, welcomed the gathering.

A senior advocate, Subba Reddy, evoked laughter when he repeatedly addressed the gathering as `my lord', a hangover of his long years in courts. However, he admitted that this was his maiden speech.

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