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‘People haven’t given Jagan the power to change capital,’ says Chandrababu Naidu
The decision is a blow to Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who visualised Amaravati as a world-class capital.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to shift the state’s administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam, making Amaravati the legislative capital and Kurnool the judicial capital, has snowballed into a major controversy.
The decision is a blow to Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who visualised Amaravati as a world-class capital. “It is a mad decision and Jagan will have to pay a heavy penalty [for it],” Naidu said in an interview to Hindustan Times. Excerpts:
Building a world class-capital at Amaravati has been your dream. Do you think your dream has been shattered?
Yes, my dream is completely shattered, because of a mad decision taken by an insane person, who senior journalist Shekhar Gupta referred to as Tughlaq. When I was the chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh, I had visualised a modern city in Hyderabad that would generate a knowledge economy. The result was the development of Cyberabad, which emerged as a hub of information technology.
It resulted in the development of a financial district and subsequent infrastructure facilities like the outer ring road, international airport etc. Nobody could dare make any changes in it, including my successor YS Rajasekhara Reddy. That should be the spirit. It is missing in Amaravati.
Jagan Mohan Reddy has come to power with huge mandate. Don’t you think he has the right to shift the capital?
No, he cannot do that. The people have not given him power to change the capital. We have chosen Amaravati not because we had the power. After bifurcation (of united AP to create Telangana state), we needed a capital city of our own and we selected Amaravati after studying all aspects. It was endorsed by everybody and it was a collective decision. Telugus from across the world had contributed to Amaravati. Holy waters from all rivers and soil from all parts of the country were brought to Amaravati to take a vow to develop it as the capital city. Now, how can you go back? What is the problem?
Visakhapatnam also has all the qualities of a capital city. What is your objection to it?
Visakhapatnam is naturally developed and it was the TDP government which had introduced major projects like international airport at Bhogapuram, Adani Data Centre, Convention Centre by Lulu group, IT companies etc. The issue here is Amaravati has already been chosen as the capital city and it has been functioning for the last four years. How can it be shifted now? If Jagan has so much love for Vizag, why did he cancel land allotment to Adani Data Centre and Lulu convention centre?
Do you think it is because Jagan Mohan Reddy is seeking personal vengeance against you?
Not just vengeance. It is because of his madness. Just because he has a grudge against me, why should he punish the people? Why should people travel for nearly 900 km from Anantapur to Visakhapatnam to get a work done by the government?
What will happen if Jagan Mohan Reddy goes ahead with his plan to shift the executive capital to Visakhapatnam?
It is not so easy. But if he is still adamant on doing so, it will be the end of his political career. You are going to see it happen.
The government says the three capital plan is essentially to bring about decentralisation of administration…
What we need is decentralised development, not decentralised administration. Nowhere is there such a concept of decentralised administration. The economy and employment have to be decentralised.
What kind of role you are going to play in preventing the shifting of the administrative capital?
I will continue to fight along with farmers for retaining Amaravati [as the capital]. I will see that the capital shift does not happen. Not only me, all the parties, except the YSR Congress Party, are with the farmers.
Don’t you think there will be a political backlash in north-coastal Andhra because of your stand on Amaravati?
I don’t think so. In fact, even people of north coastal Andhra had supported me when I chose Amaravati as the capital. If I change the stand now in favour of Visakhapatnam, they will question me.
The government has ordered a probe against you, saying you had resorted to insider trading in the land pooling in Amaravati. How do you respond to it?
It is sheer nonsense. They don’t know the meaning of insider trading, it happens in the stock market, not here. If somebody purchases land by paying money, how can it be called insider trading? Let them probe it. It will only expose their foolishness.
