NT Ramarao On DHARMAPEETHAM

[Govindu]

 

[Govindu]

Donga kukka CBN ni eppudu champutamu?

[Govindu]

NTR's film Brahmarishi Viswamitra sparks off tussle between Telugu Desam and Congress(I)

N.T. Rama Rao's film Brahmarishi Viswamitra has sparked off a stiff legal and political tussle between the Telugu Desam and the Congress (I). Faced with allegations of corruption and litigation, the chief minister is waging a bitter battle.

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Amarnath K Menon

July 15, 1989

ISSUE DATE: July 15, 1989

UPDATED: October 30, 2013 15:05 IST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rama Rao on film set

It was a strange setting for raising the curtain on a tortuous national election campaign. Far from the dust and the thronging crowds, ringed by cardboard sets and arc-lights, the smell of greasepaint in the air, sat the stalwarts of the national opposition. The object of their attention, predictably, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.T.Rama Rao.

As V.P. Singh, M. Karunanidhi, Devi Lal and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta looked on, Rama Rao, dressed as a sage, faced the camera for the first shot of his much tom-tomed film, Brahmarishi Viswamitra.

It was yet one more outlandish stroke of strategy from the maverick Rama Rao, who knows full well that perhaps more than the rhetoric of realpolitik it is celluloid fantasies that go a long way in capturing the imagination of the electorate. And he made it clear that beneath all the paint and the glitter there was a political message.

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi knew it well too. And even as the cameras were whirring in the fantastic sets put up in the Nacharam farm of the chief minister, Rajiv flew down to Tirupati, Cuddapah and Nizamabad and launched a blistering attack on "Viswamitra who is dancing with Menaka when the people of Andhra Pradesh are facing the most serious law and order problems, severe drought and acute shortage of drinking water".

Rama Rao, who plays the role of the mythological sage Viswamitra, has said that the film has a political message.

With the sounding of the bugles of battle, it was obvious that the Congress(I) had decided to convince the people that Rama Rao was not the sage or the sanyasi he made himself out to be.

Rajiv wanted Rama Rao to quit office, for what he termed the deteriorating conditions in the state. But in gunning for him, neither the prime minister nor the Congress(I) did its home-work properly. At his meetings, Rajiv declared: "We will not allow Rama Raoji to cheat the people of the state by selling rice given at Rs 1.80 for Rs 2 a kilo." He threatened to make it available to tribals directly through village panchayats.

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The fact is that 1 kg of coarse rice costs Rs 2.19, including transportation, and hence the Government is subsidising it. Rajiv also declared that Rama Rao opposed 30 per cent reservation of government jobs for women, wilfully ignoring the fact that the Telugu Desam announced it over three years ago and faced delays in carrying it out because of stays imposed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Rajiv was wrong on his facts and had been briefed poorly.

He seemed overwhelmed by the remarkably good turnout, bigger than at most Congress(I) rallies since its shocking defeat in the 1983 assembly elections. And it was this, perhaps, that prompted him to launch the scathing attack.

The turnout did worry Rama Rao too. So, at hurriedly called press conferences he retorted angrily to Rajiv's charges. Said the chief minister:' 'He should not indulge in bazaar talk. What he spoke is slanderous, cheap, false, baseless, concocted, undignified and unbecoming of the office of the prime minister."

 

Rajiv in Andhra Pradesh

Reacting to Rajiv's snide remarks on his film, he remarked: "I am an artiste of long standing. Tomorrow a rickshaw puller or a cobbler could occupy the chair of the chief minister or prime minister.

Therefore, no person in office should be ridiculed." Regarding Rajiv's accusation that he was' 'cheating the people", Rama Rao said sarcastically: "The prime minister should not talk for fun."

It was obvious, however, that for the Telugu Desam and Rama Rao it is not the best of times. The film has become the subject of litigation, with many Congress(I) leaders questioning the constitutional validity of a chief minister acting in a film while holding office. S. Ramachandra Rao, the lawyer who appears for the Congress(I) cases against Rama Rao, says the state had in 1984 and 1985 accepted the Union Home Ministry's code of conduct which prohibits ministers from joining any business.

When the petitions came up before Justice A. Lakshmana Rao On June 5, he directed a division bench to hear the arguments for admission. But the first bench comprising Justices K. Jayachandra Reddy and N.D. Patnaik suggested it be posted before another bench as one of the lawyers appearing in court, P. Chengal Reddy, was related to Jayachandra Reddy.

Later, another bench comprising Chief Justice Yogeswar Dayal and Upendralal Waghray, after hearing the arguments, decided to refer the question of admission of the petitions before a full bench on June 26.

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Rajiv has attacked Rama Rao for dancing with Menaka while the state is faced with serious law and order problems.

"The creation of the trust and his acting in a film in an election year is a ruse to add to Rama Rao's personal wealth," argues S. Ramachandra Rao, the lawyer in most cases filed by Congress(I).

Brahmarishi Viswamitra is being produced by an organisation called NTR's Trust, formed on December 12,1988, with a small corpus of Rs 1,116 - with the aim of working for the poor and publishing political thoughts.

A supplemental deed dated June 6, a day after the petitions against the film were filed in the high court, changed the scope of the trust's work to shooting documentary and feature films to raise resources.

Significantly, the trustees are Rama Rao's sons -  Jayakrishna, Saikrishna and Harekrishna. His lawyers, led by E. Ayyappu Reddy, a Telugu Desam MP, argue that it is his fundamental right to work in films. While the film faces legal problems, the situation on the law and order front is not encouraging either. Naxalites have been creating havoc in districts like Karimnagar.

They recently kidnapped and killed Malhar Rao, president, Tadicherla Mandal Praja Parishad, in Karimnagar as the Government "failed to give a convincing reply on the whereabouts of two other Naxalites". Rama Rao's attempt to dangle the carrot of amnesty for Naxalites who surrendered within 30 days evoked no response. The Naxalites retorted with more threats of violence.

Not to be outdone, the chief minister announced that the rewards going to policemen and those who tipped them off would now be given to those Naxalites who carried a prize on their head and who surrendered before July 13. And to prove that he had every intention of sticking to his word, Rama Rao gave Naxalite Muku Subba Reddy, who surrendered earlier, Rs 1 lakh - the prize announced for his arrest - and a house as a bonus. Quipped one police official: "Crime is more paying in Andhra Pradesh."

The Centre has also been playing its part in sullying his image. The Union Home Ministry has been working overtime to leak unsubstantiated allegations against Rama Rao to the press. For this they have a dossier of about 120 charges contained in about 50 letters sent to the President and the prime minister by Rama Rao's former colleague N. Srinivasulu Reddy.

He has been sending them since January 1988. The ministry in turn redrafts them and sends it to Hyderabad for the chief minister's explanations. These memos are duly filed, but ignored by Rama Rao. Said an official of the chief minister's office: "Neither the home minister or the minister of state for home affairs is competent to ask for explanations from the chief minister according to the Constitution."

Adding to the chief minister's difficulties was his move to grant rifle licences to villagers so that they could defend themselves against gun-toting extremists. During his tour the prime minister accused him of promoting a "rifle raj". "When a chief minister cannot ensure law and order he has no right to continue in office. Even elected representatives are no longer safe in Andhra Pradesh," said Rajiv.

Predictably, the Congress(I) has taken the rifle issue to court. On June 23, Justice M.N. Rao of the high court, after hearing a writ filed by K. Lakshminarayana, president of the Guntur district Youth Congress(I) committee, directed that licences for arms should not be issued to village defence committees even though other measures to form these committees could be taken up in the districts.

There are other Congress(I) petitions against the chief minister. One wide-ranging petition filed by Dr Namraju Satyanarayana, MP, listing a number of allegations, is pending because Rama Rao questioned the petitioner's writ and the high court's view in taking up some of the specific allegations. The issue is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court when it reopens after the summer vacation in July.

Faced with this avalanche of litigation and allegations, the latest one being a scandal related to a World Bank aided scheme (see box), Rama Rao struck a familar posture. "I must thank the prime minister for the opportunity to explain the progress we have achieved under the Telugu Desam Government," he said. But even as he draws upon his astounding acting acumen to breathe life to a mythological sage and his own sagging image, Rama Rao faces his toughest political battle yet.

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CANAL SCAM: STRANGE TWIST

The beginning was innocuous enough. A contractor from Nellore, R. Venkatramaiah, was awarded the contract for a World Bank aided project to line 18 km of the Kakatiya canal of the Sriramsagar project last August.

His bid of Rs 7.91 crore was by far the lowest. But when the superintending engineer presented the evaluation report, Venkatramaiah's rates had gone up to Rs 8.39 crore, still the lowest.

According to the chief engineer of the project, K. Ramakrishna Rao, the superintending engineer was in collusion with the contractor. So the superintending engineer and three others were then suspended on the instructions of the chief minister.

The director-general of vigilance and enforcement later found no evidence of collusion between the contractor and the official, but recommended action on "procedural irregularities". The World Bank recommended disqualification and seizure of his property while Rama Rao suggested that the clause allowing modified bids be deleted.

At this point Venkatramaiah took the matter to court. Then Rama Rao did a volte-face and said no action be taken against the contractor and asked why he should not be given the contract.

Inquiries by India Today reveal that Rama Rao's volte-face came after the contractor approached him through Telugu Desam MP K. Narayanaswamy. Soon afterwards, Rama Rao called for a fresh look into the matter.

The incident also led to much bureaucratic jugglery. Irrigation Secretary T.R. Prasad and Additional Secretary H.K. Babu who had suggested that Venkatramaiah should not given the contract were strangely accused of misleading the chief minister and transferred. The U-turns that the deal has been through makes one thing clear: not all procedures were above board.