Once there lived a king who cared more about his attire than the welfare of the people. One day some swindlers present him some new "clothes" (or no clothes) whom they describe as divine clothes and invisible to stupid. King cannot see any clothes, but he pretends that he can see for the fear of appearing stupid. King wears the new "clothes" and goes for possession. All the people around him also pretends that they can see the clothes to not to appear as stupid, except one little boy.
The state Congress government's welfare schemes have now become like those King's new clothes. Though the popular schemes like Free Power, Two rupees Kg rice, Arogya Sree etc are making dents to the state economy, state congress leaders are pretending as though they are good for the state just like the King in the story. YSR has started those schemes to grab the power from the hands of TDP and in five years managed to empty state government's Khazana. First five years he did run the show by selling valuable government lands in the real estate boom. Now that the boom is down and world economy is in crisis, no one knows how YSR would have managed now had he been alive.
The YS Jagan lobbyists are trying to get oversmart than the associates of the King in the story. They give the argument..only YS Jagan is capable of continuing all the schemes initiated by YSR, so he should become CM. Where would YS Jagan get funds to continue those schemes? Will he sell his assets acquired illegally under his father's regime to continue the schemes?
TDP and PRP too managed to pretend not to be stupid. They never criticise any of those welfare schemes which have become overhead for the Government and they added more schemes in their election manifestos. Chandra Babu did face YSR's free power scheme boldly in 1998 election and successfully retained his power. But after losing 2003 election, Chandra Babu went in defence and promised more free schemes including free colour TVs, but still lost. It was the result of wrong analysis about the defeat in 2004 election and changing the party's direction. Just like King's associates in the story he tried not to be stupid and ended up being stupid.
We need a little boy with courage to point out the naked fact of the popular schemes. Who can do that?
Written By Giri Dornala, FINLAND
The views expressed in the article are the author's and not of greatandhra.com.
