Likening the demand for Special Category Status (SCS) to ‘life insurance’ for the people of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Jai Bharat National Party founder president V.V. Lakshminarayana said that it would have been conceded had the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) not been submissive to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
Both parties had thrown their weight behind the candidates fielded by the NDA government for the posts of President of India and Vice-President, apart from endorsing the Citizenship Amendment and Delhi Services Bills among other things without much persuasion. The two parties could have been firm about the State’s legitimate demand for the SCS at that time but they did not mount pressure for it. “The SCS issue is only a piece of election rhetoric for the YSRCP and the TDP,” Mr. Lakshminarayana told th media here on December 29 (Friday).
Mr. Lakshminarayana said that the State would not be in such dire straits if the promise of SCS was fulfilled by the NDA government. “No political party except for the CPI and CPI(M) has put up a genuine fight for it,” he said.
He pointed out that the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had promised special status for Puducherry during the elections there, even though the Centre had described A.P.’s demand for SCS as a “closed chapter” on the pretext that the 14th Finance Commission (FC) did not make any distinction between general and special category States.
In contrast, 15th Finance Commission Chairman N.K. Singh stated in his autobiography Portraits of Power that granting SCS to a State was within the discretion of the Central government, Mr. Lakshminarayana said and called upon the people to take a pledge for it to be administered by him on January 26, 2024.
