Hyderabad: Dr Sanjaya Baru, media advisor to Manmohan Singh when he was PM, said on Friday that PM Narendra Modi “miles ahead of his competitors though he is yet to fulfill many of his promises.” In another sensational disclosure, Mr Baru said late CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy stalled formation of TS in 2009.
“It’s true. I was present at the meeting between Dr Reddy and Manmohan Singh. He said “look, if we go to the polls announcing TS, we will neither win in coastal Andhra nor in TS,”” Dr Baru said, quoting YSR. ““In coastal Andhra, people will be angry with us and they will not vote. In Telangana, they will give credit to KCR and they will not vote for Congress””, he quoted YSR as saying, and said, “How true he has proven to be.” “I think YSR understood that the announcement will not benefit the Congress. That is true. Whether it benefits AP or TS is a different issue,” Dr Baru said at the “Modi and the media” talk show with Karri Sriram, jointly organised by Hyd Park and Press Club of Hyderabad.
Referring to the first 20 month of the Modi rule, Dr Baru said “He remains popular. The main reason for this is that there is still no alternative,” he said. Who was the best Prime Minister? He rated Nehru and Indira Gandhi high, called Rajiv Gandhi a disaster, Vajpayee reasonably good and Narasimha Rao hugely successful.
Was bifurcation of state good or bad from Delhi’s point of view? He said, “Yesterday evening I was watching television. I saw visuals of Chandrababu Naidu calling on Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley. I don’t know how many of you have seen it. Naidu was sitting at the edge of the chair while Arun Jaitely and Rajnath Singh were sitting cross- legged (with ease). I cannot recall it ever happening when Vajpayee was PM and Naidu was CM of united AP. Delhi respects power. Power comes from numbers. AP was the largest non-Hindi state.”
