Ages ago, to
a question on whether he believes in fate, Cho (Thuglak Editor) replied drawing
elaborate reference to PV Narasimha Rao… Narasimha rao had been the CM and has
been a Parliamentarian… in 1984 elections held after assassination of Indira
Gandhi, Congress got 414 seats; 2nd was TDP; BJP got only 2 ……… one
was from South India (yes) – Hanamkonda, where Chandupatla Janga Reddy defeated
Rao by approx 55000 votes. In 1991, he
had almost retired when Rajiv was touted to return to power but lost life sadly
in that blast at Sriperumpudur … Narasimha Rao was to become the Prime Minister
becoming the first holder of this office from non-Hindi-speaking south India.
Microsoft PowerPoint is a slide show presentation
program developed by Microsoft. It was officially launched on May 22, 1990, as
a part of the Microsoft Office suite.
Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the initial release was
called "Presenter". Lengthy
slide presentations have been a substitute for meaningful communication before
ubiquitous PowerPoint software was invented. Cannot imagine what would happen
to Corporate World, if PPT & XL were not to exist !!!!.....
Today, Telugu
Desam Party (TDP) President Chandrababu Naidu was sworn in as the first Chief
Minister of new Andhra Pradesh; Governor
ESL Narasimhan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Naidu at a public
function held at Nagarjuna Nagar between Vijayawada and Guntur at 7.27 pm. A
host of dignitaries, including 15 Union ministers, veteran BJP leaders like LK
Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and film stars including Rajinikanth and Pawan
Kalyan, besides Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha,
Punjab and Goa are reportedly among the
audience. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao
and YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy did not attend the swearing-in
though Naidu had extended personal invitations to them. Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister J Jayalalithaa today extended her greetings to Naidu as well. Lakhs of
people, thousands of vehicles, hundreds of security men, scores of
industrialists, VIPs, bureaucrats, 27 aircraft, about 50 special trains,
hundreds of buses, 18 Union ministers, eight chief ministers, movie stars and
one Governor – Nara Chandrababu Naidu has spared no effort to make his
swearing-in as the first chief minister of the brand new Andhra Pradesh a mega,
memorable event. ~ and that also should
make one believe in fate………..
Among the three important
files he was expected to sign was one pertaining to the staggering Rs
80,000-crore farm loan waiver. This victory is a culmination of a 10-year-long
toil and an unrelenting fight. History will have it that the unquestioned
supremo of the 32-year-old Telugu Desam Party, Naidu, was close to Telugu Desam
patriarch NT Rama Rao, overswept him, was away from power for too long and now
has returned to become the first CM of divided Andhra. He personally called up his bête noire YS
Jaganmohan Reddy who will be the first Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly
of the newly carved state. That Jagan reacted like a typical Opposition leader
and pooh-poohed the extravagance is a different story. The farm loan waiver was
like a genie that granted electoral victory to TDP and whether he would be able to cap the genie or let it turn out
into a monster becomes interesting to watch. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao
promised waiver of farm loans up to a sum of Rs 1 lakh. But then, he has added
an asterisk with fine print reading that farm loans taken only between June
2013 and June 2014 would be covered under waiver. The farm loans in Telangana
amounted to Rs 40,994 crore, of which the loans that were up to Rs 1 lakh
accounted for Rs 26,020 crore. Already, three farmers committed suicide and
four of them died of heart attack on learning that they may not be covered
under the farm loan waiver scheme in Telangana.
Naidu was voted out of
power but yet to his credit, it must be recalled that Tony Blair and Bill
Clinton both visited him in Hyderabad. Governor of Illinois created a Naidu Day
in his honour. He also won numerous awards and held post of chairperson of the "National IT
Panel" under NDA government and he was described as one of the Hidden
Seven working wonders around the world, by Profit, a monthly magazine published
by Oracle Corporation, US. A devout Naidu survived a landmine blast on 1
October 2003; he could escape with a
fractured left collar bone and a hairline fracture to two of his right ribs.
After the incident, security at Tirumala was improved – and now the very spot
of that accident is no longer a hill – if you frequent Tirumala, you sure would
have stopped your vehicle for security check-up just as you start ascending the
holy hills. It is to the right of that
spot, where the blast occurred.
In 2004, his decline
started – his party was voted out of power and Congress has been at the helm
since. TDP could secure only 47/294
constituencies in the state assembly and 5/42 in the Lok Sabha segment. While
many of his ministers lost, Naidu himself won by a huge margin in Kuppam.
Severe drought conditions in the State were attributed to be one of reasons for
the debacle. It was also stated that
Naidu was a city man and failed to reach out to the rural areas. During the severe drought, many farmers were
driven to commit suicide. Some critics were to state that Naidu's loss was
in effect Mr.Tony Blair's loss, since it was Mr.Blair's policies that Naidu was
seeking to implement. He claimed that the loss may have successfully destroyed
the world's most dangerous economic experiment the McKinsey formula or Vision
2020. Here is something interesting read
in Hindu of date.
Mr. Naidu was a man in a hurry; he was not just a Chief Minister but
also a CEO who wanted to go beyond economic casuistry. Before Narendra Modi
there was N. Chandrababu Naidu. And he was on the right side of history. There
was never a reason for the United States to deny him a visa. So Mr. Naidu went,
and when he returned, he brought along Bill Gates and Bill Clinton. He took
help from McKinsey; he did not shy away from asking the World Bank what
policies to implement and how to do it. They all approved. Mr. Naidu became the
new PowerPoint showman. He knew what would impress the world. When Mr. Clinton
left Hyderabad, he had a new driving licence in his pocket — a feat achieved in
a flat 15 minutes. He was impressed. Everyone was. The CNN and the Time
magazine sang praises about Mr. Naidu. In Illinois, U.S., they even proclaimed
a Naidu Day in his honour. Hyderabad now had a Cyberabad that was becoming the
Takshila of Information and Technology. The who’s who of the IT industry had
set shop there — from IBM to Microsoft.
Mr. Naidu had made them say ‘Bye-bye’ to Bangalore and ‘Hello’ to
Hyderabad. But beyond the feel-good Shangri-La that Mr. Naidu created in
Hyderabad, there were concerns in the rest of Andhra Pradesh that he paid no
heed to. It was as if he had come to believe he was only Hyderabad’s Chief
Minister. The industry loved Mr. Naidu. They, in the words of the English
political activist George Monbiot, loved him “because he did what he was told.”
So, while Formula 1 would be given subsidy, subsidies on food were slashed. The
farmers suffered. Reeling under debt, they took to consuming pesticide to end
their suffering. In 2004, nine years after Mr. Naidu had become the Chief
Minister, the people of Andhra Pradesh voted him out of power. They forced him
to be the longest serving leader of the Opposition in the State.
Ten years
later, history has given Mr. Naidu another chance- so the man who knows
powerpoint well returns …………. About a fortnight back, there was this column
that Prime minister-designate Narendra Modi has asked the Cabinet Secretary to
get secretaries of all key economic ministries to give him details of what
incorrect policy decisions have been taken in their domain over the past few
years — this could be in the form of specific decisions or in terms of the
major policy decisions that did not get taken for one reason or another. He has
also asked bureaucrats to explain how, if they were given a free hand, they
would fix this. The ministries were asked
to send a PowerPoint presentation to the Cabinet Secretary — 10-12 slides on
the outside; a move in keeping with
Modi’s running of Gujarat where, once a year, each secretary is asked to make a
presentation on the key achievements in the year as well as plans for the next
one.
Suddenly the Nation has changed gears and we optimistically look
forward to a Bright Growth and development for the Nation
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
8th June 2014.
With inputs taken from Firstpost and The Hindu.
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