Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that Visakhapatnam will soon be the capital of Andhra Pradesh. It is such a landmark statement politically and even otherwise. Naturally, every Telugu newspaper carried the CM’s disclousre in New Delhi on Tuesday as a banner story. But interestingly, Sakshi, the newspaper belonging to the CM’s family which is literally a mouthpiece for the ruling YSRCP, tucked such important information in a sub-heading.
However, the Vizag edition of the paper apparently published the announement as the lead story. It could only mean that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government wanted to please the north Andhra people, but was not willing to make the Vizag statement a big one as far as the other parts of the state are concerned.
Evidently, YS Jagan is treating the capital issue as a purely political and electoral one. He wants Amaravati Vs Vizag to be contentious, dividing different regions and sections in the state. This, he seems to think, will divert attention of the people from many other pressing issues and force everybody to take a stand for or against Vizag.
Sakshi’s selective publication of the annoucement thus is intended to serve this purpose.
Jagan’s statement on making Vizag the capital ‘very soon’ falls under contempt of court. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh declared in March last that Amaravati would be the sole capital of the state and that the state government did not have legislative power to change the location of the capital. The Supreme Court is presently hearing the appeal filed by the state government.
In the midst of this, Jagan announced his own decision on the issue. It is not clear how the Chief Minister could pronounce on an issue that is being adjudicated in the highest court of the land. It is also unclear as to how he is going to move the capital functions from Amaravati to Vizag, even while the case is being heard by the apex court.
Observers are puzzled as to what the source of his smugness is. It is most likely that the lawyers representing the farmers of Amaravati would raise this issue during the hearings and would press for contempt proceedings.
