The advocate fisherman, village computer queen and their CM ‘babu’

Rama Rao and Shanthi are representatives of the voters of coastal Andhra today; they say they wouldn’t be anywhere if it wasn’t for their ‘‘babu’’. And Rama Rao and Shanthi are the reason why coastal Andhra stands like a rock with the TDP election after election. So much so that they don’t really care much about the TRS and demand for Telangana. Will they like it if Congress comes to power and cuts Andhra in two? Rama Rao shrugs, ‘‘It won’t make any difference to us. Vijaywada will be the capital. We’ll still have Babu.’’

As Jayaprakash Narayan of the Hyderabad-based civil rights group Loksatta says, ‘‘Most of TDP’s development work is centred in Hyderabad and hasn’t reached the north coast. But voters here stick to the TDP because the area is a bastion of the backward classes which have traditionally been anti-Congress. Also, even though many local TDP legislators are corrupt, there is loyalty to the party because it has been able to deliver at least the minimum.’’ On the beach of Guppidipeta village, Rama Rao takes off his cap, loosens his shirt and heads off in his catamaran into the water. He doesn’t go ‘‘fish hunting’’ anymore as he spends most of his time practising as an advocate in Kotabommali. ‘‘Mine is a case of upward mobility,’’ he smiles. ‘‘My father is still an illiterate fisherman. He wears bad clothes and goes into the water every night. But I wear shirt and pant.’’

How did it happen? He was a bright student in his village of Umilara where he went to primary school. Then he got a Backward Classes scholarship, then a room at the Backward Classes Hostel in Srikakulum and then several years of exams. ‘‘I continued to be a fisherman until the age of 24. Till my graduation I used to go into the sea. Then they started the scholarships, the hostels, many policies from NTR’s time. I benefitted.’’ He’s a member of the Executive Board of Andhra University and of the Fishermens’ Cell.

S. Shanthi is 15 and is studying in the 9th grade. She got excited when the first computer arrived in Neelampeta. There are nine computers in the school and she knows Word, Power Point, Ping Ball games and animation. ‘‘Shanthi is the brightest student in our school, in computers and maths,’’ says her teacher T. Tirumala Rao. She too likes her ‘‘babu’’. ‘‘He is a good man. He works 18 hours a day for the poor.’’

Shanthi wants to be a doctor when she grows up. In the OBC-dominated village, all children are from farmers’ families. Shanthi helps in the fields after returning home, grazes the animals and feeds the chickens. At night she reads Andhrabhoomi for employment news because ‘‘life’s very hard in the fishing villages.’’ Many fisherfolk migrate to Goa, Mumbai or to Ranchi to work as semi-skilled workers. But among the hardships, the success stories are enough to guarantee the TDP vote.

From Bandaruvanipeta village, there is a software engineer who now works in the US. From Guppidipeta, a young fisherman has become an employee with Infosys, another is a software engineer with Iflex Solutions, Chennai. G. Sandaiyah and M. Krishnarao, both fishermen, study for the Intermediate exams after staying up all night in their boat. ‘‘Its quiet there…You can think,’’ he says. What does he think? ‘‘We think Sonali Bendre is better looking than Aishwarya Rai.’’

They have several problems: No flat farms to dry the fish, trawlers from Australia taking away the best catch, only wooden boats, no land and no proper equipment. Why will they still vote for TDP? They shrug. ‘‘There are housing colonies, bus stops, residential schools. This place is bad but it could have been worse without the TDP.’’

In Neelampeta, 14-year-old S. Ramesh, son of a paddy farmer has created his own homepage called http://www.ramesh.com. ‘‘When I grow up I want to be a rich farmer,’’ he insists. Why does he like his CM so much? ‘‘Because he is the CM, that’s why.’’ The TDP swept the 1999 Assembly polls in coastal Andhra and once again the deep sea hunters from the coast, the Reddy farmers on the shore and the computer-tapping villagers are getting ready to bring back their babu.