YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s speech at the Diplomatic Outreach Programme held in Vijayawada on Friday was a bit surprise for many.
The meeting was hosted by the state government in association with Economic Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in which delegates from over 30 nations participated.
Naturally, everybody would expect that Jagan would highlight the positive aspects of the state, the healthy investment climate available in the state and ease of doing business with AP.
In fact, Jagan started off well with his speech and explained his priorities and the investment opportunities in the state.
He explained about the vast coast line for development of ports, setting up of oil refineries, steel plants etc. He also highlighted the prospects of giving a boost to maritime economy where the opportunities are wide open for investment.
So far so good. But, in a bid to project himself as a sincere, honest and committed leader, he started talking about corruption in the previous regime.
When he was expected to highlight the infrastructure facilities like power, water and land available in the state, Jagan started giving an explanation as to why he had to go in for review of power purchase agreements entered into by the previous TDP government.
He had to talk about corruption in the administration and high power tariffs, causing losses to distribution companies.
At the same time, Jagan also sought to defend his move to provide 75 per cent reservations for locals in private industries. And he claimed that it would encourage industries!
Analysts say such a talk would send a wrong message among the foreign delegates.
“Blaming the previous government for its corruption is purely an internal matter. Jagan should not have raised the issues of PPAs to expose the TDP, which is totally unwarranted. It may give an impression that the government is rigid in its policies,” an analyst said.
Secondly, the talk of 75 per cent quota for locals is also something Jagan should have avoided.
“Nobody raised any issue about it at the meeting, but it appears as if Jagan is giving an explanation for his decision. It led to a lot of hush talk at the meeting,” a journalist who attended the meeting said.
