The Hindu : Naidu in his elements

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Naidu in his elements

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI Jan. 11. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, was in high spirits at the 90-minute long gram sabha which he held at the Erikipenta village in Sodam mandal of his native Chittoor district on Friday marking the close of the 10-day long State-wide Janmabhoomi programme. A normally serious-looking Naidu was in a jovial mood and regaled everyone with his remarks laced with humour and sarcasm. He was at his humourous best when he was interacting with about half-a-dozen school dropouts all girls and with their parents who either refused to get sterilised and heed to his advice not to send the girls to rear buffallows in the village. He however took the MRO, MLO and the Village Secretary to task for the slip-shod manner in which they prepared for the Janmabhoomi programme.

Touching down at 3 p.m. at the dusty remote village on the arid western track of his native Chittoor district in his chopper, he quickly settled down to running the gram sabha with remarkably ease. For the first time he was seen using his lap-top at a gram sabha and that is what proved to be the villain for the three officials whom he grilled for taking things lightly about his `painstaking' Janmabhoomi programme.

What surprised the Chief Minister and everyone at the gram sabha was the ease with which the rustic looking drop-out girls interacted with the Chief Minister without any inhibitions. He was particularly impressed with a girl who replying to his question as to what she liked to become if he put her back in a residential school. "I will become a doctor", she said. "Do you know what you should study to become a doctor, Mr. Naidu asked a 4th standard drop-out thinking that she might not be knowing given her background. Pat came the reply within a moment of hesitation, "Science, of course'' amid a roaring applause from those on and off the stage. You see the level of enlightenment of late in the villages also and this is what I have been trying to achieve through the Janmabhoomi programme which is designed to activate and kindle their spirits.

When another equally country-looking girl said that she would like to become a Collector when she grew-up, Mr. Naidu asked the District Collector sitting on the dais to be careful about his `chair' and also to keep track of the girl's progress to find-out if she really had the spark.

But the three officials were unlucky to have got on to the wrong side of an otherwise jovial Chief Minister. The Village Secretary asked for trouble when he deliberately gave cooked-up figures which did not tally with the data stored by the CM in his lap-top and eventually saw his doom when he asked the Collector to suspend him for his casual attitude. The MDO and MLO were ordered to be transferred forthwith for telling lies that they were staying in the village which the villagers proved as a white lie the villages shouted in chorus against them.

One positive fallout of Mr. Naidu's visit to the village was that it would have a high school, more classrooms, a black-topped road, repairs to its dried-up tank, etc very shortly. Those on the dais during Mr. Naidu's lively interface with the villagers were the District Minister, B. Gopalakrishna Reddy, and the District Collector, P.V. Sathyanarayana Murthy.

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