The charismatic chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajashekhar Reddy’s tragic death in a helicopter crash exactly a year ago led to the crash landing of Andhra Pradesh state politics. The ruling congress is vertically divided with the warring camps locked in a do or die battle. The belligerent camps in the state congress are moving heaven and earth to disarm each other. In the process, the congress is sent into a state of suspended animation. The government functioning is derailed.

The politricks over YSR legacy are taking a heavy toll of governance. Every movement of Y S Jagan mohan Reddy and his rivals is treated by the media as the most significant news event on the Earth. Now, the AICC joined the fray. The high command in a frantic bid to cut to size Jagan phenomenon in the state congress has actually added to the ongoing cacophony. The internal rumblings within the state congress took an awkward turn. The congress party has now joined the race for installing the statues of YSR. The late leader’s son Jagan is already on this job. The internal competitive populism heralds an ugly spectacle of too many statues of Yajashekhar Reddy crowding the cities and towns of Andhra Pradesh.  These days , it has almost became an employment guarantee scheme for sculptors and metal works industry. Given the present statues syndrome, it looks inevitable for the state government to set up a separate ministry for maintenance of YSR statues. At least, there should be an exclusive corporation to look after these hundreds of statues in the future. There are other several problems with this madness.

There is no universally acceptable leader. Every political party has its own towering leaders. A statue in the village or town is obviously seen as a symbol of political supremacy. Thus, statues of leaders will not only be the symbols of political adulation, but also become centre of controversy. There will be incidents of desecration of these statues leading to conflicts and clashes. Public places are common property resources. Any attempt to monopolise these common property resources by a party would automatically invite a similar response from the rival parties. The party in power may have an undue advantage. But, no party has assured power for ever. Thus the statue mania will boomerang  resulting in disrespect for the leader whose memory is sought to be cherished. The importance of statues of national leaders is also undermined due to the statue mania emanating from political sycophancy. Today in Andhra Pradesh , the statues of YS Rajashekhar Reddy outnumber those of national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru or even Indira Gandhi on whose name YS Rajashekhar Reddy claimed to have brought in Indiramma Rajyam. There are innumerable ways of remembering a leader. The party or the followers of a leader should explore more purposeful and productive ways of perpetuating the memory of their beloved leader.

They could start a school or a hospital or even a park in honour of leader. If every proclaimed follower of YS Rajashekhar Reddy  plants a sapling on this occasion and pledges to grow it as a tree , they would be doing a great service to the society. It would be a real tribute to a leader who talked about Haritandhrapradish (Green state). Let every party leader observe an eco friendly way of remembering their leader. When we are talking of an eco friendly way of worshipping Lord Ganesha, why not try for an eco friendly method of remembering Y S Rajashekhar Reddy.

Y S Rajashekhar Reddy was the author of several welfare schemes. In fact, there were serious allegations on these schemes. However these populist schemes did attract large section of people who were hither to marginalized in the process of economic development. Jaganmohan Reddy and his supporters are precisely banking on the sympathy generated due to these schemes. But, it was a fact that even Y S Rajashekhar Reddy attempted for a partial roll back of these schemes in the post election period that too in the wake of falling revenues due to economic recession. Notwithstanding this reality, the YS Jagan lobby is trying hard to ascribe a prophetic character to these populist schemes. These schemes are shown as Holy Scriptures which cannot be changed with the changing times. Any suggestion to correct the distortions or check the malfunctioning of these schemes is portrayed as dumping the legacy of YS Rajashekhar Reddy .The politics of the state is robbed off any serious debate on crucial questions of governance. But, the revival of agriculture, revitalization of rural economy and revoking the welfare agenda is only one face of Y S R legacy.

The other side of it is swindling of public resources in a mind boggling manner, misuse of public office to build a huge politico-business empire for the personal benefit, large scale corruption , politicization of bureaucracy , crude display of political immorality by hatching out conspiracies to sabotage rival political parties . One would not require opposition to unravel these ignoble dimensions of YSR legacy. The internal bickering within the congress is revealing these shady aspects of YSR legacy. Both the loyalists and detractors of YSR are trying to play politricks with his legacy rather than attempting an incisive analysis of the life and contribution of the late leader to the politics of Andhra Pradesh. In fact such an impartial analysis would provide us with interesting inferences for politics and public administration.

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