If a government gives pensions to the people, waives loans of farmers, lays roads and takes up other developmental programmes, it is purely public money.
Neither the chief minister of the state nor his cabinet colleagues spend money on the schemes from their own pockets.
So, when Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu asked the people not to take pensions given by him and not to travel on the roads laid by his government if they don’t like to vote for his party, it kicked up a major controversy across the nation.
Not just his political rivals, but even the political analysts in the media and outside have slammed him for making such statements.
It is not that being a senior politician Naidu doesn’t know the difference between the head of the government and head of a political party.
“He knows pretty well that a government is only a trustee of people’s money and that people have given him mandate to spend on their welfare. No political party will get 100 per cent mandate of the people to come to power; it gets only majority seats. So, it is wrong to say that a government would work only for those who voted for the ruling party. It has to work for the entire state,” a political observer said.
“After all, Naidu is spending public money on public welfare; and not from his own pockets. If he says he won’t take up works in any village that doesn’t vote for his party, it is against the constitution. He has clearly violated the Election Commission guidelines,” another leader said.
