YSR-JC rift: Babu opens old wounds for political gains

May 16, 2005
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, May 15: Opening old wounds in an attempt to create a rift in the Congress leadership, former chief minister and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu has come out with a booklet containing the choicest epithets exchanged by Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy and Panchayat Raj Minister JC Diwakar Reddy way back in 1993.
Though 12 years have passed since YSR and JC indulged in the political diatribe and patched up subsequently, the Telugu Desam supremo quoted both the Congress leaders verbatim in the booklet. On Chandrababu Naidu's instructions, NTR Bhavan staff has done considerable research to pull out the quotes from old newspaper clippings.
Chandrababu Naidu, who is apparently unhappy with the strong words of criticism used against him by Rajasekhar Reddy at the "Rededication Day" meeting held on Saturday, hurriedly got published a booklet on the "failures" of the Congress government on various fronts. Though out of context, the TD supremo included a chapter on the old feud between Rajasekhar Reddy and Diwakar Reddy.
According to NTR Bhavan sources, the TD supremo's strategy is to reopen old wounds so that he could cause a rift in the cordial relations between the two senior Rayalaseema leaders. Chandrababu Naidu has been devising strategies to put the YSR government in the dock and the TD booklet is the latest in the series. Earlier, the TD leadership used the same strategy, though unsuccessfully, against TRS president and Union Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the APCC before the Assembly elections.
Just gloss over this. Rajahmundry, October 19, 1993: Diwakar Reddy: "Out of power YS has lost mental balance". Hyderabad, November 24, 1993: "YS is a drunkard, full of vices and perpetual dissident. He grazes grass for money".
November 25, 1993: Rajasekhar Reddy: "Diwakar Reddy is a big illicit liquor dealer in the State. There's no law and order because of him and his brother in Anantapur. He runs 12 buses by paying tax for one bus".
Senior TD leaders MV Mysoora Reddy, Ummareddy Venkateswarlu, Kadiam Srihari and Kambhampati Ramamohan Rao released the TD's booklet.
They accused the YSR government of turning the State into a "desert" during the past 12 months. "It is not yedadi palana but yedari palana - not one year's rule but desert rule", Mysoora Reddy said.