Fact Sheet: Cong, TD let loose women power

Men politicians have taken a back seat for the time being, or so it appears. For the first time in the history of politics in Hyderabad, women groups have come forward to take on face-to-face in a bid to settle score. There have been wordy duels time and again but physical attacks have been quite rare, almost nil.

On centrestage are two women, ambitious and want to make it big in the political arena of the State. On one side is AP Mahila Congress chief Ganga Bhavani and on the other is the former Telugu Mahila chief Nannapaneni Rajakumari. Rajakumari had been a legislator and now Ganga Bhavani is also a legislator. But both are aiming at still bigger, may be ministership or at least a berth in the Rajya Sabha.

It was just a small issue but Rajakumari unnecessary opened her mouth to dish out foul words against Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy. Apparently with the RS polls just four months away, she wants to please party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.

On the other hand, Ganga Bhavani led a sort of physical attack on Rajakumari. The TD leader lodged a complaint with the city police commissioner.

so far, so good.

But a leading Telugu daily, known for its Telugu Desam leanings, took advantage of the fight and devoted much space to the event, which otherwise could have been dismissed in a single column. The newspaper apparently wants to present the Congress in a bad image to benefit the Telugu Desam.

Behind The Scene: Babu and his 'welfare' patent

This is the intellectual property rights and patents regime. And former chief minister and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu, who took pride in being called the chief executive officer of Andhra Pradesh when he was in power, is adept in issues relating to patents and intellectual property rights. Though Chandrababu Naidu is a poor reader, his advisers keep him abreast of latest developments from time to time.

When Chandrababu Naidu comes to know of a new word, he uses it quite often. Perhaps he has a penchant for new words. And the word we are talking about now is patent.

The Telugu Desam leadership claims that it alone had the patent on welfare schemes and no political party in the country had introduced any welfare programme before the birth of the Telugu Desam 25 years ago. It means in other words, India had no welfare programmes from 1947 or earlier till 1983. The Congress leadership, the TD argues, has no right to claim right or patent on welfare schemes. The TD leadership has forgotten that it was the Congress which had declared India a welfare state while framing the Constitution on the country.

Chandrababu Naidu now claims that the Congress is copying his ideas and violating the patent Act by taking up welfare schemes.