Telangana’s champion

On September 18, 140km from Hyderabad, Telangana’s first chief minister, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, was whipping the crowds gathered at Addakal village into a frenzy. Just three months after the creation of the new state, he was inaugurating a ₹200-crore glass factory and accepting farmers’ memorandums, while reminding them that he was responsible for the statehood. He declared he would end the migration of labour, promising a much-needed turnaround for the district. People from neighbouring states like Karnataka would come to Telangana, not the other way round, he told the village, whose workforce frequently migrates for menial labour. Drought-prone Mahabubnagar would turn into an oasis; its arid lands would transform into verdant forests. On that day, assured by their leader, the people of Addakal went back home with a new dream — economic prosperity.

Sixty-year-old KCR, as he is popularly known in the region, is a merchant who peddles dreams to the common man of Telangana. Well-versed in both Telugu and Urdu, he can connect quickly with the masses, hold forth on immediate challenges and paint a picture of ‘Bangaru Telangana’ (golden land). Laced with satire and anti-Andhra rhetoric, his speeches have forced people to sit up and take notice. He has seen the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the party he founded with a handful of individuals 15 years ago, through several ups and downs before finally coming to power. It is this trait with which he single-handedly built the ‘last phase’ of the statehood movement that led to the eventual formation of the 29th state of the Indian Union.

A great orator since his college days, he has the knack of turning the tables on opponents at the slightest of provocations. Known to be a voracious reader, he is also said to possess a photographic memory, reeling out numbers with ease and using timely idioms and phrases to elicit laughter.

KCR, who holds a post-graduate degree in Telugu, once nursed an ambition to be a lyricist in Tollywood, the local film industry, says Nandini Sidha Reddy, his batchmate in college. An early entrant in politics, he has never lost an election since 1985. Changing constituencies for every election — he currently holds the assembly seat from Gajwel, Medak — he has been elected to the Lok Sabha thrice. A part of Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, he resigned in 2001 when Naidu, his former mentor, refused to give him a Cabinet berth. A few months later, KCR founded the TRS and summoned his son Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) and daughter Kavitha back from the US to galvanise the movement for a separate State. In fact, KTR, the IT and Panchayat Raj minister, has become the most recognisable face of the state government now. While KCR prefers to sit in for hours-long — sometimes even day-long — review meetings at the Telangana Secretariat, son KTR represents him at national and international conferences, launches and even inaugural meetings.

Political commentators have compared him to Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee, for his iron-fisted control of the party and administration. The opposition has often alleged that the state government is run solely by the family — KCR, KTR and nephew Harish Rao. A few others have likened him to Bal Thackeray for his tirade against Seemandhra people, who have increasingly felt insecure.

Disliked in the 13 districts of residual Andhra Pradesh for his ‘hate speeches’, and admired in Telangana for the same, KCR minces no words and has no room for diplomacy. While supporters have emboldened, he is quick to label his critics anti-Telangana. When TV channel TV9 aired a satire on newly-elected Telangana legislators, he hit out at mediapersons, threatening to “bury the media 10km under the earth if it insults Telangana”. The shrewd politician that he is, KCR knows well that most of the Andhra media has political affiliations, controlled by Seemandhra entrepreneurs and politicians. Using local cable operator muscle, he has curtailed the airtime of such broadcast channels; TV9 and ABN Andhra Jyothi have been banned for over three months now for their anti-Telangana stance.

Weeks before the Intensive Household Survey was held in Telangana this August, speculation was rife that the survey was a thinly veiled attempt at profiling people from Seemandhra. The controversial clauses were subsequently removed from the questionnaire but that didn’t stop KCR from sending more such messages. While the High Court has questioned the government’s motives behind the cancellation of fee reimbursement for students and forcing vehicle owners to change number plates (to reflect Telangana or TS), the chief minister has made it known that there are no sops for people from Seemandhra.

Since both chief ministers took oath in June, there has been no love lost between the two. If KCR reserves the best of the Telangana idiom to criticise, even heckle Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh CM too doesn’t lose an opportunity to patronise his former colleague. More than the lost cabinet berth, it was Naidu’s staunch opposition to statehood that still irks KCR. That it took 75 days after assuming office, and the insistence of Governor ESL Narsimhan, for them to meet — despite working out of a common capital — reveals the bitterness in their relationship.

The biggest challenge KCR faces now is to restore confidence of the industry and to deal with a serious power crisis. With Larsen & Toubro threatening to back out of the metro project and hundreds of firms shifting base to Andhra, he has his work cut out to deliver on his promises. Even as there is an admission of little progress in the first 100 days, he says the prospect of achhe din lies after Dussehra festivities. Yet, his statement that it is possible to earn an income of ₹1 crore per acre of farmland has struck a sour note. At his 60-acre farmhouse in Eravalli village in Medak district, one of the most backward in the state, KCR has claimed a bumper yield on potato and capsicum crops. Civil rights activists such as G Haragopal and revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, who have supported the struggle for four decades, see the signs of an intolerant regime taking roots. The former was placed under house-arrest, and the latter detained at a police station for a day to stop them from holding a meeting on alternative politics. It seems that KCR is sending a clear message — if you are not with me, you are not a well-wisher of the state of Telangana.

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