YSR: Always surprising!

September 2, 2009 is a date that the people of Andhra Pradesh will always remember. Every year on this date, people of Andhra, rather the whole country will recall the memory of the biggest tragedies in the Indian politics, the sad demise of Yediguri Sandinti Rajshekhar Reddy, who is better recognised as YSR.

With the death of YSR in a copter crash on the hillock of Rudrakonda Hill on September 2, India has perhaps lost one of its most credible politicians. By designation, he was just the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, but his contribution to the Congress Party, the current ruler of the country is huge. It was because of his true dedication towards the welfare of the lower class people and rural development that YSR succeeded in toppling the chair of TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu in the 2004 Assembly election in Andhra. It was quite a surprise for Naidu, his party TDP and the NDA as they all were too confident about their victory for their ‘positive approach’ towards industrialization in the state. It was a time when Naidu preferred calling himself the CEO of Hyderabad instead of CM of Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad as ‘Cyberabad’. But still YSR managed to sweep votes by stressing on the state government’s reluctance towards the development of the rural society in his campaigns. It was due to his promises to the poor farmers of the state, that YSR surprisingly defeated Naidu and descended the throne, which was a huge achievement, not only for him, but for the Congress Party too.

The reason why the whole country considers him as one of the greatest leaders of India of all times is his true dedication. Ministers always make promises but never keep them, but YSR was an exception. He had proved his capabilities and will to work for the development of his state through his commendable performance. During his first five-year tenure as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, YSR has implemented the maximum number of NREGA and other schemes that brought smiles back to the faces of the poor farmers. He was a man who never rested on the shoulders of his deputies and departmental staff and used to pay surprise visits to the rural areas to check how things are going on. After his tragic death, a statistics was found which showed that in the last four months, the Andhra CM has made more than 100 of such surprise visits to monitor the progress of work in the projects that he undertook for the state and the implementation of various schemes.

Surprisingly, his last journey too was aimed towards a surprise visit to some villages to check the drought situation, availability of rations and reliefs and the project works. His sad demise has raised speculation that whether the copter crash was just a mishap or was their any evil intentions involved in it? There are several questions like’ why the copter was allowed to fly, was it airworthy, why the satellite telephone was not with the pilot? But there are no answers as yet. Yesterday the Andhra Pradesh government has announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will probe the case and hopefully people will come to know whether YSR’s death was a mishap or the outcome of a well-planned sabotage. But the hard truth is that it was a surprise for the whole nation, a really really sad surprise. It was a surprise that people of Andhra surely didn’t pray for. Probably with his untimely death, YSR has made a surprise entry through the gateway of heaven too. Perhaps, the Almighty too was surprised to see him at his place so early. Yes it is shocking, painful and surprising for the people of the country, but his demise has been perfect. His arrival as the chief minister of Andhra was a surprise and he had stayed by his tendency even while departing too. YSR is always surprising.