"My ideology and mindset matches with that of Jana Sena Party and its founder Pawan Kalyan and that is why I have joined the party," said former Joint Director of CBI V.V. Lakshminarayana, who is popularly known as JD (acronym for his last held post in CBI). He is the JSP’s candidate for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency.
In an interview with The Hindu here on Saturday, the former police official said the transformation from "khakee to khaddar" was not a difficult one for him . "It is true that I served as an officer, but there is no word called ‘officer’. We are called ‘public servants’ and the job of a public servant is to serve the public, which I had done honestly as an IPS officer, and now I would continue to do so as a politician," he said. According to him, politics is the ultimate form of public service, especially in a democratic country like India.
Focus on farming
After quitting his IPS career, he toured the entire State and identified a few key areas that need to be addressed such as the agricultural sector, youth empowerment, women's safety and unemployment. According Mr. Lakshminarayana, according to a survey, every day about 2,320 farmers are quitting the farming sector and migrating to cities to work as daily labourers.
"The economy of our country and State has always been dependent on agriculture and not on the service sector, as projected. This sector has been neglected, and we need to address the issue by linking the agri sector to the youth. The mindset of the youth should be changed from that of job-seekers to job-
givers and there is a huge scope in the agriculture sector," said Mr. Lakshminarayana.
According to him, the government schemes are faulty, as still a farmer has to go to the local MLA for getting his signature for sanction of seeds worth ₹3,000. "We should think of making every village a self-sustaining republic, which was also the vision of Mahatma Gandhi. But we failed, and bureaucracy, caste system, local and non-local factors and ruling party and non-ruling party aspects have divided society. It’s time we adopted A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s idea of Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas (PURA)," he said.
On safety of women, he said
that all cases related to atrocities against women should be addressed by fast track courts and settled within six months.
Leave it to the courts
On the comments made by N. Chandrababu Naidu that JD should now disclose everything about YSRCP leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, as he had investigated the case, he said, "Mr. Naidu cannot instigate me or try to gain political mileage through me. I have completed my investigation in all honesty and sincerity, and let the courts decide the matter."
On allegations levelled by YSRCP leaders that JD was a covert member of Naidu’s team and Jana Sena is only the B team of the TDP, he said, "I cannot stop people from talking, as it is their right in a democracy. But my conscience is clear and clean."
A believer in zero budget politics, Mr. Lakshminarayana said, "We do not
distribute cash, we distribute happiness and love and that has been my philosophy."