“I won’t sleep and won’t let you, too, sleep,” – used to be the oft repeated statement of Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu during his earlier stint as the Chief Minister before 2004.
He used to virtually torture the government employees and bureaucrats round-the-clock with his non-stop review meetings, video conferences, teleconferences and surprise visits.
A call from the CMO used to send shiver down the spines of the employees from top to bottom those days.
And that had cost him heavily in 2004 Assembly elections. The employees voted against him en masse and breathed easy when Naidu lost power to the Congress in 2004.
In the next 10 years, much water had flown under the Chaderghat bridge and the TDP supremo had realised how important the employees are in getting back to power.
He apologised to the employees for his highhanded behaviour before 2004 and assured them that if the TDP comes to power in AP in 2014, he would adopt a completely employee-friendly approach. And he returned to power, with the support of employees.
Now, after two years, Naidu is back to his old style of administration. In the last two years, he could hardly achieve anything and the employees also had hardly anything to do due to confusion in division of staff and their posting and uncertainty in functioning from the new capital region.
Realising that the administration has become dull and the people are angry with his non-performance, Naidu sought to blame the employees again.
On Ugadi day, the Chief Minister said he would adopt a harsh approach towards employees to make them work.
“Hereafter I will not allow you to sleep; nor do I sleep, until we achieve results,” he thundered.
Well, bad days have started again for Naidu!
