Everybody Loves a Good Fast

Andhra politicians are only fasting to indulge in political feasting later

When it comes to fasting, nobody does it better than Andhra politicians. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Chief Chandrasekhara Rao went on a hunger strike earlier this year, which led the Centre to announce a separate Telangana state. But Rao was still at his glass of orange juice when the Centre did a complete U-turn. This month, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Chief Chandrababu Naidu went on a fast to highlight the plight of farmers. He broke it eight days later after intervention from his friends such as the CPM’s Prakash Karat.

Around the same time, Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, went on a 48-hour fast, again for the sake of farmers. He is scheduled to launch his own political party by mid-February. While they were at it, suicides of farmers in the state went on unabated. Till date, 50 farmers have committed suicide in Krishna district alone. In 2009, as many as 2,414 farmers committed suicide in the state.

As this is being written, 11 Congress MPs from Telangana have withdrawn their fast after the Centre agreed to drop cases against students involved in the Telangana agitation violence, which took place at the beginning of this year. The Srikrishna Committee report on the issue of a separate Telangana state is about to be tabled, and all political leaders are hoping to emerge as righteous on their respective political turfs.

It shouldn’t surprise us that all the politicians climbing on the farmers’ bandwagon now have taken very different positions in the past.