On 24 April, Andhra Pradesh Agriculture minister S Chandramohan Reddy had announced that he will hold discussions on natural calamities, drought situation and procurement of seeds ahead of the sowing season with senior officials of his ministry on 30 April. But when he arrived for the meeting at the appointed hour on Tuesday morning, he found that neither Special Chief Secretary (Agriculture) nor the Special Commissioner (Agriculture) were present. Both had chosen to travel to Chittoor district without informing Reddy. In the corridors of power in Amaravati, it is being interpreted as a deliberate snub to the minister.
Yet Reddy chose to wait for three hours, perhaps to drive home the point that he was being prevented from doing his job. The minister had reason to be miffed since he had given advance notice for the meeting. Subsequently, the two bureaucrats had also written to the Election Commission seeking permission to attend the meeting. The EC reportedly did not say yes or no but merely asked them to proceed according to EC guidelines.
“A minister till he demits office is a minister. If the EC says I cannot do my duty, what is the point of my being here?” fumes Reddy.
According to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that stays in force till 23 May, while no policy decisions can be taken or any new beneficiaries of a programme identified, the political leadership can take decisions on sanctions with the prior approval of the EC. With Cyclone Fani looming large over the Andhra coast, Reddy was well within his rights and in fact, duty bound to take stock of the situation as far as the farming sector along the coast was concerned.
Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and Chief Secretary LV Subrahmanyam, who was appointed by the EC less than a week before Andhra went to polls on 11 April, have been at loggerheads all of last month. Subrahmanyam in a media interview described Naidu as a “CM without powers” and in response, the latter shot off a nine-page letter to the EC.
The snubs have been delivered without a break. Last week, when Naidu reviewed the ongoing work at Polavaram project and the Amaravati capital city project and the departments dealing with drinking water and disaster management, the Chief Electoral Officer stepped in. He pointed out that Naidu did not have the powers to review the departments.
Not only that. The Intelligence chief of Andhra Pradesh police was instructed not to report to Naidu. Subrahmanyam too does not attend any review meetings called by Naidu.
Rule 19.6.1 of the MCC says : “During the period of operation of the Model Code, no video conferencing shall take place between the Chief Minister / ministers / political functionaries of the Union and state governments with the government officials.”
In neighbouring Odisha, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has written to the EC to set aside the MCC to allow the ministers to take charge of the situation to tackle Cyclone Fani, that has now been categorised as a very severe cyclonic storm. How the EC responds to Patnaik’s plea will be cited as a precedent by Andhra since both states are in the same boat.
Reddy meanwhile plans to gauge the attitude of his ministry’s officials and decide how to discharge his ministerial responsibilities. He had thrown a challenge a few days back saying “If anyone objects, we will move the Supreme court. Our constitution has given us all the powers to rule the state.”
But from a citizen point of view, what the EC, the bureaucrats and the politicians need to bear in mind is that the primary duty of the dramatis personae is to ensure politicking and lack of efficient decision-making does not put people in Andhra to risk when the cyclone hits the coast.
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