It was his maiden speech in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the leader of opposition Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, tried to pin the government down on many points.
In his hour long talk during the debate on motion of thanks to the Governor’s address on Monday, he went all out to pick holes in the Governor’s address to show how the Chandrababu Naidu government was crying hoarse about ‘injustice’ done to the State when his party itself was responsible for the division.
There were sharp reactions from the treasury benches when Mr. Reddy cited figures to show how the State’s economy was robust during the decade after Telugu Desam government rule ended in 2004. At one stage, Finance Minister, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, accused him of quoting selective figures and wondered whether the YSRC leader was holding a brief for the Kiran Kumar government since the figures pertained to that period. This was in contrast to Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy’s statement that his party contested against the Congress.
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Speaker, Kodela Sivaprasad, too intervened to point out this anomaly. Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, dubbed Mr. Jagan’s speech as an example of his inexperience. “It’s your first speech. You have to learn a lot”, he said.
Despite several interruptions, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy tried to put the government on the mat. For a change there was no bitterness in the House though there were occasional exchange of words between the ruling party and the opposition members.
Mr. Jagan obviously did a thorough homework. He quoted figures from Central Statistical Organisation besides RBI and Socio-Economic Survey of A.P reports to show how the per capita income rose from Rs. 25,325 in 2004-05 to Rs. 89,214 in 2013-14. He also reeled out other parameters like growth rate, asset liability ratio and human development indexes to point out that there was no downslide in development after 2004 as explained in the Governor’s address.
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“Did the State march ahead or slid behind you have to decide”, Mr. Jagan threw the question at the treasury benches. He tried to corner the government on the discrepancy in the Governor’s address which spoke of Rs. 15,000 crore revenue deficit while calling the united A.P being a revenue surplus State. He wanted to know how this figure was arrived at and whether this deficit was after waiver of the crop loan.
The YSRC leader disagreed with the gloomy picture painted in the Governor’s address and said all was not lost for Seemandhra. The 13 districts of A.P had GSDP of 58.97 percent while it was 41 per cent in Telangana State. “We may not have Hyderabad but we have industries and agriculture. We have to harness our strengths and move on”, he said.
This drew sharp reaction from the Chief Minister. “Don’t make a political speech”, Mr. Naidu said. He criticised the leader of opposition for giving an impression that there was nothing wrong with Seemandhra. “If Central assistance doesn’t come as a result of your wrong assessment your party will go into history,” the Chief Minister remarked.