Hunger for change

TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu has undertaken a gruelling fast until the government responds fairly to the plight of rain-washed regions in Andhra Pradesh,where farmers have lost their entire crop. The Congresss latest adversary on the make,Jaganmohan Reddy,has also taken on a 48-hour fast for the same ends. And finally,the Centre has doled out Rs 400 crore in relief measures. In part,all these political forces are rushing to fill the void left by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy,whose great strength was his attention to rural issues. YSRs famous padhyatras,his freebies to farmers,and his slew of welfare schemes won him immense popularity and firmly secured the Congress in Andhra. Now,his rival Naidu and his own son are trying to claim a hold on the same constituency. For Naidu,this move is an act of political positioning,an attempt to escape his own image as someone who concentrated all his energies on Hyderabad and didnt give a toss about rural misery. For Jagan,whos decided to call his yet-to-be-floated party YSR party,its an attempt to consolidate his political patrimony.Hunger strikes are an old form of protest across the world but they have been wielded with a special force in India. From Gandhi and Bhagat Singh to Irom Sharmila,the idea of denying your body sustenance until it turns on itself has been put in service of a larger political goal. In Andhra,hunger strikes have an even greater resonance. Potti Sreeramulu,who was a key figure in linguistic reorganisation,militantly fasted for a Telugu-speaking state,and died in the attempt. Even TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao wrested a conditional okay to the possibility of a separate Telangana state after a dangerous and prolonged hunger strike. So Naidu and Jagan have only seized on an old and powerful method of getting their point across.While these are areas of acute agrarian challenges,and also a Naxal bastion,this political brinkmanship over distress can be dangerous and self-serving. Of course,these moves are also significant because of the inevitable confrontation that may accompany the Justice Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana,expected later this month. YSRs consistent attention to the backward region may have put a temporary lid on the discontent,but Telangana is a political tinderbox,and one that the state and Central governments should be rightly wary about.