Accusing Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Cabinet colleagues of ‘fudging’ growth figures, Opposition YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday warned that this might boomerang and take Andhra Pradesh farther from the much-needed Special Category Status (SCS).
Speaking in the State Assembly, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy said the State was trying to project fantastic Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), a measure, in monetary terms, of the volume of all goods and services produced within the boundaries of the State during the last two years. Seeking to remind the circumstances in which bifurcation of the State was done, he said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government’s claim on double digit growth did not add up. “Under these circumstances, achievement of such GSDP is possible only through divine intervention.”
The Opposition leader warned that this might send wrong signals to the Centre as it would give ample reason to the latter to deny SCS on the pretext that the State was self-sufficient.
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Jibes aplenty
Tuesday’s session saw both the ruling and the Opposition party leaders taking jibes at one another at every given opportunity.
Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, while referring to the IT sector, said: “Tamil Nadu has Chennai, Karnataka has Bangalore whereas Andhra Pradesh does not have any such place.”
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He said Mr. Naidu had made tall claims about Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “The CM had recently announced that Microsoft would open its development centre in Andhra Pradesh. But within hours, Mr. Nadella declared that there was no such plan,” he derided. “We only knew that Indians in the US are afraid of Trump. But it turns out that not only domestic but even international companies are afraid of coming to Mr. Naidu’s AP,” he said.
While he was quoting statistics to make his point that the Government’s claims on development were false, a few ruling party leaders said his ‘data’ did not make any sense. Mr. Jaganmohan used sarcasm to hit back at them: “Those who studied physics in B. Com will not understand what I am talking about.” He was referring to the ruling party MLA Jaleel Khan who was recently caught in a “Physics-in-B.Com’ controversy.
Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu paid the Opposition leader back in the same coin. “Mr. Jagan is desperate to contradict the development theory with statistics that make little impact. He doesn’t seem to have read economics. He should stop drawing comparison with the Chief Minister who is equipped with an MA in economics. Whoever has tutored him has taught wrong things to him,” he said in a soft but emphatic voice.