It has been 12 years since Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh, passed away in a tragic helicopter crash in the Nallamala forests on his way to Chittoor to launch Racha Banda programme.
YSR was the only chief minister, perhaps after N T Rama Rao, who earned a permanent place in the hearts of millions of Telugu people across the world.
He was not a showman like NTR, but still he could attract the people with his typical Telugu attire of white dhoti and full-handed-kurta and of course, an indelible smile on his face.
Nobody can deny the fact that there was not a single family in the erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh state, which was not benefitted by the various schemes introduced by YSR.
Even after 12 years of his death, people of Telangana and Andhra are still enjoying the fruits of his schemes.
Whether it was free power supply to farmers, fee reimbursement scheme for the poor students aspiring for higher studies, Arogya Sri for the poor patients, Abhaya Hastham pension scheme for women of self-help groups, Jalayagnam (a mission to construct various irrigation projects), infrastructure development, international airport and Outer Ring Road for Hyderabad, Pharma City for Visakhapatnam – the list is endless and YSR’s contribution to Andhra Pradesh was tremendous.
Unlike other Congress chief ministers who ruled the state before him, YSR ruled the state for a full five-year term and would have continued for another five years, had he not met with untimely death.
YSR always remained accessible to the people. Every day, there used to be a Praja Darbar at his bungalow, where people from all parts of the state gather to give representations to him. He used to accept them with a smiling face and get them resolved within no time.
Though YSR had differences with his political rivals, particularly, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, they were confined only to politics. There were hardly any instances of political witch-hunt.
Cases were filed against Naidu for various acts of omission and commission during the TDP regime, but YSR allowed the law to take its own course and never misused the powers to target the rivals.
In the assembly, YSR used to attack the TDP in general and Naidu in particular in strongest words, but he never used to make personal attacks against anybody.
There were several instances of YSR entertaining the requests of the TDP leaders – whether it was contracts of various works or release of funds for developmental works in their constituencies or even grants from the CM Relief Fund.
YSR was media friendly. Media persons used to have direct access to him and get his appointments frequently. They used to get easy entry into his chambers in the Secretariat and he used to treat them with a lot of courtesy. Press conferences with YSR were always jovial.
Unlike the present rulers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, he had never shown discrimination between pro-establishment and anti-establishment dailies.
Of course, he used to be critical of “those two newspapers” (read: Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy) for adopting pro-TDP and anti-establishment stand, he did not ill-treat the reporters of these two dailies.
Surprisingly, YSR used to give interviews to Eenadu daily regularly, because it was the largest circulated daily and his stand on various issues would reach the maximum number of people. Many journalists from Eenadu were also beneficiaries of YSR’s magnanimity.
YSR’s premature death in the chopper crash completely changed the political dynamics of Andhra Pradesh.
It is an undeniable fact that the formation of Telangana would not have been happened had he been alive, because he had firmly put his foot down on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
The Congress party would have been strongly rooted in the state and that would have had its impact on many other states in the country.
Maybe, YSR would have played a bigger role in the national politics as well. But with YSR’s death, the glory of the Congress across the country, has disappeared!
