Jagan yatra on,Rosaiah softens his stand

The Congress appeared to have softened its approach towards late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddys son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy...

The Congress appeared to have softened its approach towards late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddys son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday evening,a day before the partys Kadapa MP looked all set to resume his Odarpu Yatra.

Back-tracking from the tough stance he had taken in the morning,Chief Minister K Rosaiah released a letter to the media stating that the Congress never opposed Jaganmohans Odarpu Yatra but merely asked him to change its format.

In the morning,Rosaiah had said that Jaganmohan was going ahead with the yatra in defiance of the Congress high commands directive. He even said that since the high command was opposed to it he had advised several MLAs and Cabinet colleagues not to participate in Jaganmohans tour as it would amount to indiscipline.

Whether or not to take part in the yatra is an individual choice but if any minister,MLA or MLC indeed takes part in the yatra,it will be a clear violation of the high command, Rosaiah told reporters here. He said some of his Cabinet colleagues,MLAs and MLCs,had approached him seeking his counsel on their participation in the yatra. I told them clearly that they should not participate in the yatra as it did not have the Congress high commands approval… If anyone violates this and takes part in the yatra,the party will deal with them appropriately, he said.

However,the CM changed his tune in the evening. In a letter released to the media,he said,The Congress has never opposed Jaganmohans Odarpu Yatra. Sonia Gandhi has made it clear to him that his odarpu yatra shouldnt be like a danda yatra (revolt or war) or jaitra yatra (victory procession) with huge people gathering all over.

This is an indirect hint by the high command to Jagan only to change the format of his Odarpu Yatra. There is no loss for either central Congress or state Congress with this yatra. The late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had conducted this kind of Odarpu in 2001-02 by uniting nearly 89 agricultural families (who lost their family heads in suicides) at one place and Sonia Gandhi distributed nearly Rs 22,000 to each family. Same can be even done by Jagan in his Odarpu but not the one that Jagan is doing now, Rosaiahs letter said.

On April 27,2002,Y S Rajasekhara Reddy,who was the Opposition leader at that time,had invited the families of 89 farmers who committed suicide allegedly due to crop failure in Anantapur and Kadapa districts. YSR and other Congress leaders raised Rs 25 lakh through donations. This gathering of farmers families was also named by YSR as Odarpu and the meeting was organised in Anantapur town. On YSRs insistence,Sonia Gandhi had flown down and distributed the money to the bereaved families.