People are supremos, not party bosses

V V Balakrishna
First Published : 31 Dec 2009 03:56:00 AM IST
Last Updated :

HYDERABAD: The people have spoken -- they are determined to have Telangana.

So what are the supremos of various political parties doing now that their constituents have stated their preferences loud and clear? They have taken the easy way out -- confining themselves to their homes and keeping away from the TV channels.

Now, it is the people who are the supremos, not the party bosses.

The masses have taken centrestage and the leaders are watching from the sidelines.

For instance, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu has scarcely been available to the media for the last several days, clearly shying away from demands that he state his stand clearly on the bifurcation of the State.

Those who closely follow the functioning of the TDP know that the backroom boys of the TDP daily compute the space given to the party in the media.

Sometimes they complain that the Congress got 50 cm coverage in a particular paper and the TDP only 49 cm, or that a particular channel showed TDP's press meet for 4 minutes and 59 seconds whereas the Congress got a full five-minutes coverage.

But in these difficult times when not being seen or heard from would be advantageous it is no wonder that Naidu has made just three media appearances, and that too not on the T problem as such but to condemn the attack on party MLAs or to demand a CBI probe into the controversy surrounding the Raj Bhavan.

On the burning question of bifurcation, Naidu has merely said that he had given a freehand to party leaders to choose their course of action in their respective regions.

PCC president D Srinivas too has not voiced opinions with candour, beyond saying that the ``prevailing hostile situation was not good''. He has, instead, tried to busy himself in the Congress' membership drive.

As for PRP president Chiranjeevi, following his flip-flop it is doubtful that he will now be able to move in the T-region at all.

And at Kukatpally here, Telangana agitators disturbed the meeting of the Lok Satta Party (LSP) intended to take the pulse of the people. Party bosses are taking the backseat for now and it is the people who are in the position of leadership.

Says a TDP activist from Telangana: ``Our president has given us a free hand to select our course of action locally, in accordance with popular sentiment.'' So it does seem that in a democracy there are times when the people are supreme after all.

vvbalakrishna@expressbuzz.com