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Journalism of Courage
From January 24 to mid-February,the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh plans to run a mass contact prog-ramme called Rachcha banda,which its leaders hope will be an opportunity for the beneficiaries of the states many welfare programmes to give a bit of direct feedback. The programme was closely associated with Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy; indeed,the helicopter crash in which he died happened as he was en route from Hyderabad to Chittoor district to participate in several village-level meetings as part of the campaign. Its not surprising that the Congresss priority is to recapture some of the magic of the YSR brand; whats surprising
is that it has taken so long. For over a year,it has passively allowed the late leaders son,Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy,to monopolise his legacy,with the result that the state Congress is demoralised and dispirited.
has further divided and paralysed its state unit.
Seen in this context,an attempt to associate the current government in Hyderabad with the implementation and improvement of schemes for which YSRs son hopes to get credit,is an unsurprising political move. Yet the bane of Andhra politics,and a trap that the Congress is capable of falling into,is competitive populism. To beat Jagan and Chandrababu Naidus Telugu Desam Party the Congress should remember that YSR got ahead by smartly reworking social-sector governance. More of that is what is needed.
