Kiran has reasons to smile and worry

Hyderabad: As one travels on the Hyderabad- Bangalore four-lane highway, one can't miss the wayside hoardings and posters on the back of public buses: Kiran Kumar Reddy beams from them, crowing about his his pet scheme Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu and signing off with the promise of a 'brighter and better future.'

Forty km out on the highway is the town of Shadnagar where a public meeting was organised on Friday to mark the completion of Kiran Kumar's one year in office -- a period during which he weathered trials and tribulations arising out of a resurgent Telangana stir and the incursions of the Congress bete noir, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

But at the end of a difficult year, as the poster showed, the chief minister is allowing himself to smile a bit although quite a few concerns remain to be addressed. By any measure, the turnout at Shadnagar was impressive, a majority of them women who came from all parts of Mahbubnagar district.

This was a carefully chosen location, a place in the near vicinity of Hyderabad where everyday concerns keep the Telangana sentiment at a low. All the same, a large mobilisation of policemen minded the streets of Shadnagar.

One policeman said potential troublemakers were rounded up the previous night and kept engaged in custody until the meeting was over. As it happened, the pink tinge of Telangana was nowhere in evidence in Shadnagar, just the kind of message Kiran Kumar wanted to send out.

Aside from the desire for a separate state, there is need in Telangana for the goods a government can bring. Perhaps the large mobilisation was meant to dispel the notion that Congressmen in the region are not in a position to visit their constituencies.

People in general did not appear as emotional as they were a year ago. If one quipped that a T state might not happen, another complained that the local MP, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, has not been sighted much in the constituency.

In any case, they seemed weary of waiting for a promise that has some hurdles to cross.

Not one to put up pomp and show, Kiran Kumar chose the occasion to unveil yet another welfare scheme of his own: interest-free loans to members of self-help groups, to top up the promise of over one lakh government jobs by December with which he hopes to lure the Telangana youth away from the agitation.

Roughly, SHG groups in the state obtain loans totalling Rs 10,000 crore annually. By slashing the interest rate to zero from 25 paise, Kiran Kumar intends to signal that Y S Rajasekhara Reddy can be out-welfared.

Clearly, his selfgiven political mandate is to slip the Congress party out of the shadow of the late welfare czar without making it too obvious.

Adding symbolism to the new announcement at Shadnagar was the presence of A Lakshmi Siva Kumar, once an SHG member, who was chosen as the Congress nominee to the Legislative Council by Kiran Kumar.

Also on the dais was actress-turned-MLA Jayasudha -- till recently a Jagan camper -- showering praise on Kiran's youth jobs scheme, Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu. Yet, despite the effort, the mood in the gathering on the afternoon, was one of midterm listlessness.

The price rise is making them unhappy, and the memory of YSR invites them to be wistful about what might have been. All the same, they would like to see how the Kiran Reddy government performs in the next two years, how Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy shapes up as a political leader and whether the TDP is an alternative worth considering again.

No complaints about loans to SHGs or pensions for the aged but then there are always those who are not covered.

Even as the Mahboobnagar collector announced at the meeting that there are now five lakh pensioners in the district, 64-year-old Phula Naik of Chenchudu village complained that he was not among them.

But what of the `1-a-kg rice scheme, the better-than-thou sop announced by Kiran Kumar Reddy recently? The response is mixed.

A farmer from a village near Shadnagar complains bitterly about the price rise and also moans about the poor quality of rice available at Re 1: Not fit to consume.

However, another from Nagarkurnool feels the Rice is fine. The universal factor of distress among people is the price rise, particularly of farm inputs. 'The price of each bag of fertiliser has gone up from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000. Likewise, urea price went up by Rs 200.

After tilling five acres, all I was left with was Rs 1,000,' rued one farmer at the Shadnagar gathering. Kiran Kumar may have little to do in checking inflation but it is a ghost that knows no justice