Released on the 1st of every month, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) brings forth a spectacle called Praja Vedika (People’s Platform), featuring the “Great Political Actor,” Nara Chandrababu Naidu. Ready, one, two, three, Action! Cut! No directors are needed to call the shots here. Chandrababu takes charge of action, direction, and over-the-top theatrics, charging forward with his performance.
The visuals are tirelessly promoted by yellow media and TDP’s social media machinery. Wondering why all this fuss? Well, here’s the deal: in one year of governance, Chandrababu’s government has achieved next to nothing. No wealth creation, a half-baked “Super Six” scheme, a failed law-and-order system, no fair prices for farmers’ crops, and a surge in murders and atrocities against women. To divert attention from these failures, Chandrababu has chosen Praja Vedika as his stage. Every month, he visits a village, drops by a shop or a house, asks trivial questions, poses for photos, and creates a spectacle. As part of this, on July 1, some of Chandrababu’s acting scenes unfolded in Malakapalli, Kovvur constituency.
Scene 1: Malakapalli is a small village. Chandrababu’s interaction at a tiny general store there would leave anyone astonished. He asked the store owner, “How many brands do you stock? How many varieties of each product do you have?” These are the kind of questions one might ask at a big mall, not a small village shop! It’s laughable, isn’t it? In the end, he took a photo with the shopkeeper and moved on to the next scene.
Scene 2: In the same village, Chandrababu met a person who earns a living by making slippers and playing traditional drums (dappu). He invited the man into his car, visited his home, and made a show of playing the drums and dappu. “Does each one produce a different sound?” he asked, posing an odd question. Then, moving to the slipper-making process, he inquired about the details of production, asking, “How many orders do you get for dappu? How many for slippers?” Looking at the slippers, he asked, “Is there still room to learn more? What should be done to develop your family?”, questions directed at the very person he was interrogating. Later, he took photos with the family and villagers.
Attending pension distribution events under Praja Vedika and spending an hour in a village for photo and video promotions has become a fixed part of Chandrababu’s schedule. If he truly respected the poor and had a genuine intent to eradicate poverty, he would have continued the welfare schemes of the previous government and implemented the “Super Six” promises. Instead, meeting one or two people in a village, making vague promises, taking photos, and recording videos for publicity is nothing but a promotional gimmick. Intellectuals opine that such programs do little to benefit the poor.
