If you keep on appointing people to key positions just because they are from your community or the kith and kin of someone from your community, rather than making merit as the criteria, you are bound to run into trouble sooner or later.
This is exactly what has happened to Chandrababu Naidu.
He appointed a fellow Kamma, Ramudu as the DGP. Next, Naidu needed to appoint the ‘Intelligence Chief’ of Andhra Pradesh and he decided against the frontrunner, Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao and preferred N V Surendra Babu who was also a Kamma.
But Naidu’s advisers told him that having the CM, DGP and Intelligence Chief all from the same community would send out the wrong signals. So, reluctantly Naidu decided to drop Surendra Babu’s name. Instead, who did he appoint? AR Anuradha, a Tamilian to become the first woman intelligence chief!
So, what’s wrong in that? Nothing, except that Anuradha happens to be the wife of Surendra Babu. But Chandrababu is now paying dearly for this policy of ‘favoritism’.
The ‘cash-for-vote’ scandal involving Revanth Reddy is a colossal failure of the ‘intelligence department’ AP government.
Naidu chaired a meeting in which Anuradha participated and he was very upset with her capabilities. At the meeting, Naidu wanted to know from the intelligence chief as to why the visit of Elvis Stephenson to KCR's residence along with minister T Harish Rao on May 27 did not come to her knowledge.
Also, the AP intelligence department was reportedly in the dark about the phone conversation between Stephenson and Harry Sebastian, TDP Christian cell leader, on the same day, in which the former insisted on dealing only with Revanth.
They were clueless even when ACB installed four cameras in the residence of Stephenson's son in ‘Pushpa Colony’ on May 30 where Revanth met Stephenson for the first time.
When such a big operation was being planned by the TRS camp, the AP intelligence department was clueless.
Naidu was also reportedly pained over the lack of information about the Telangana government's request to private telecom companies seeking call data of TDP leaders including his son Lokesh.
The net result of all this is that Chandrababu has decided to sack Anuradha as the ‘intelligence’ chief of AP. She will go down in history as not only the first woman intelligence chief but probably one with the shortest tenure.
Meanwhile, will Naidu look for a replacement from his own community or has he learnt his lesson? He definitely can’t afford another goof-up?
