When YSR Congress Party president and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was in power over the last five years, he appointed more than 50 advisors (some estimates suggest over 80) to his government for various subjects.
Most of these advisors had virtually no work to do, apart from simply collecting their monthly salaries. There were hardly any instances of these advisors providing any meaningful advice to Jagan on any issue—a fact that some of them have openly admitted.
Jagan tended to rely on his own judgment and understanding of issues, rather than taking advice from his advisors or following their recommendations in the implementation of various policy decisions.
Many of these advisors resigned from their positions within hours of Jagan losing power to the Telugu Desam Party-led NDA in June, while others were removed through administrative orders.
However, it appears that Jagan—now in opposition—could actually benefit from having an advisor or two to brief him on various subjects before he addresses the public. Otherwise, his lack of knowledge on various topics may become glaringly apparent.
This was evident during Jagan’s visit to areas of Vijayawada, such as Singh Nagar and Krishnalanka, which were submerged in floodwaters.
As an opposition leader, it is understandable that he would criticize the current Chandrababu Naidu government, as it is his responsibility to highlight any lapses by officials in providing relief to flood victims.
However, before doing so, he should have done some homework by asking his party leaders or media managers to find out what exactly caused the floods and on what grounds he could criticize the Naidu government.
When Jagan visited Singh Nagar, which was completely submerged due to floods caused by the Budameru stream and waded through knee-deep water, it was evident that he did not understand what had led to the flooding of the Budameru.
It's unclear whether someone misinformed him, but Jagan claimed that Naidu had ordered the opening of the gates of the Budameru stream to release Krishna water into it, supposedly to ensure that his riverfront bungalow at Undavalli wouldn’t get submerged in Krishna water.
This statement surprised local reporters and people watching on television because there is absolutely no connection between the Budameru stream and the Krishna River, and there is no possibility of Krishna River water entering the Budameru.
Secondly, there are no gates on the Budameru stream, as it is not a reservoir or barrage; it is a stream that flows through Mylavaram and passes through Vijayawada.
Thirdly, while the Krishna River received an inflow of nearly 11.40 lakh cusecs of water at Prakasam Barrage, only about 6,000 cusecs flowed through Budameru.
Even if it were assumed that Krishna water was let out into Budameru, it would still have submerged Naidu’s bungalow at Undavalli.
What's worse, Jagan argued that if more water had been held back at Tungabhadra, Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar, and Pulichintala, such a severe situation would not have occurred.
“So, I am making a logical statement that these are man-made floods,” he asserted.
What he did not know was that water was only released downstream towards Prakasam Barrage after all these projects on the Krishna River were filled to capacity. If more water had been held in these projects, they would have collapsed!
Clearly, Jagan now requires a better scriptwriter and advisors than when he was in power!
