Now that the former chief minister and TDP president, Mr Nara Chandrababu Naidu, has made public the details of assets owned by him and his family members, people are eagerly waiting as to what action the Congress leaders will adopt to prove their allegations of Mr Naidu amassing thousands of crores worth assets during his nine years of regime.
Mr Naidu has not only declared his assets but also threw a challenge saying that if anybody proves that he owned more than the assets announced by him, he could take away the same. This is certainly a poser that requires a response from all those who were leveling allegations against Mr Naidu. Apart from the Congress and YSR Congress leaders who were targeting Mr Naidu and accusing him of amassing huge quantities of wealth, the CPI-M also owes an explanation in the issue.
When Mr Chandrababu Naidu came out in support of the campaign of the Gandhian Anna Hazare against corruption recently, the Congress and YSR Congress Party leaders ridiculed him and questioned as to with what face he could talk of corruption having amassed thousands of crores worth wealth through corrupt practices. As though to nail their charges, Mr Naidu has declared his assets, showing that he and his family members owned assets worth Rs 39.88 crores; his wife had debts amounting to Rs 12.39 crores, his house was under mortgage of Vijaya Bank and the Estate was mortgaged to Uco Bank. Sharply reacting to it, the senior Congress leader, Mr J C Diwakar Reddy, has said that the assets declared by Mr Naidu was a bundle of lies and could not be trusted.
The Congress reaction was, of course, on expected lines. But, one wonders why the Congress leaders and the YSR Congress leaders were keeping quiet in regard to their charges of Mr Naidu’s ill-gotten wealth. On the eve of the last Assembly elections in 2009, the then Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Secretaries, Mr Erasu Pratap Reddy, Ms Konda Surekha and Mr S Gangaram, had dashed off a letter to the President of India, requesting for a probe into the affairs of Heritage Foods Limited promoted by Mr Naidu and his wife; Mr Naidu amassing illegal and disproportionate assets worth Rs 3,000 crores from a meager beginning of just two acres of family property; and his involvement in scandals worth Rs 50,000 crores in his nine years rule. They requested the President to order immediate inquiry into the above issues by the CBI, Serious Fraud Investigation Office and SEBI and impress upon the Centre to probe into the allegations against Mr Naidu.
Ms Konda Surekha is in the YSR Congress now and she misses no opportunity to castigate the TDP leader, Mr Chandrababu Naidu. It is well-known that her leader, Mr Y S Jagan, is in deep trouble now as a result of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the senior TDP leader, Mr K Yerrannaidu (obviuosly at the behest of Mr Chandrababu Naidu). Even after this, Ms Surekha not showing interest in pursuing the allegations against Mr Naidu, as a follow-up action of the earlier CLP’s letter to the President) was quite surprising. There was absolutely no indication about the President acting on the representation sent by the CLP Secretaries in 2009 and it is ironical that those who leveled the allegations were keeping quiet. This creates an impression among the people that the action of the then CLP leaders was politically motivated and there was not much substance in their allegations. The Congress leaders owe an explanation in this regard to the people.
Same is the case with the CPI-M and its State leadership. It may be recalled that the CPI-M had brought out a booklet in September 2003 (on the eve of the 2004 general elections) leveling a series of serious corruption charges against Mr Naidu. The CPI-M State Committee, under the leadership of Mr B V Raghavulu had accused that during the TDP regime, the government had made corruption all pervasive, and the TDP leaders had become experts in turning hostile people into their fold through corruption. In the book, it was alleged that the TDP government was involved in scam amounting to Rs 12,367 crores. But, the CPI-M too was not pursuing the matter and the reasons for this should be known to the people.
