Misleading special status promise

With elections barely a couple of months away, the ruling and opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh are competing with one another in promising the moon to the voters. It is nothing unusual but what is unacceptable is their deliberate obfuscation in addressing the main issue confronting the state: special category status.

The status was promised to the state at the time of the passage of the AP Reorganisation Bill in Parliament by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Modi sarkar subsequently claimed it had done away with categorising states and announced a special package instead. Barring the BJP, which has gone back on its word, the rest of the parties, be it the ruling TDP, its new-found ally the Congress, the main opposition party, the YSRC, or the latest entrant into the poll fray, the Jana Sena, have all made special status their main poll agenda.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was on a visit to Tirupati on Friday, asserted that his party won’t rest until special status was granted to the state, echoing his friend Nara Chandrababu Naidu and YSRC president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. In fact, he has vowed that the first file he would sign on after assuming the mantle of prime minister would be that on special status. His words are supposed to be reassuring to the people.

Except that they are not. To understand why, we need to rewind to 2014, to Manmohan’s statement. He had assured special status to the state sans the crucial industrial incentives given to states that fall under that category. In effect, his promise was limited to extending Central assistance on a par with special category states.

This raises the question as to what exactly Rahul is promising, and what Naidu and Jagan are demanding. Special status without industrial incentives like 100 per cent tax exemption is of little use. If the incentives are given, there is no way Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and other states will keep quiet. Unfortunately, Rahul and co are tight-lipped on this issue. It amounts to misleading the public with an eye on votes.