Birthday greetings to Naidu; Hypocrisy or Statesmanship?

Care-taker Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who is fuming and fretting over his right to hold review meetings, apart celebrating his birthday in a somber manner with family members, received surprise greetings from his sworn political enemies as well others.

Those greeted Naidu on his birthday yesterday (April 20), are the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the YSRCP Chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, the TRS Working President K T Ramarao, and the controversial film maker Ram Gopal Verma.

It is no secret that Naidu locked horns with all these people.  While he is fighting to unseat Modi-led BJP at the Centre, then he got into bitterest-ever battles back home with YSRCP, where many feel the results of the polls to the state assembly and Lok Sabha may go either way.  Naidu’s differences with the TRS is known over the state division and also he cannot forget the challenge thrown at him by none other than Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao that he would give ‘return gift’ for his efforts to the conspiracy the former hatched to unseat him in December election polls.  That’s TDP joining hands with the Congress to form ‘grand alliance’ to defeat KCR-led TRS.

But, the so called arithmetic failed of the Grand Alliance resulting in the electorate of Telangana yet again reposing their faith in the ruling TRS to return to power with a landslide victory – 80 of the 117 seats.

KTR son of KCR also vowed along with his father to teach Naidu a lesson by extending their support to YSRCP in the recently concluded assembly and LS polls.

In that backdrop, many were taken aback with the ‘sweet’ tweets of these leaders wishing the AP CM on his birthday and wonder, whether it should be construed as ‘Hypocrisy’ of these leaders or ‘statesmanship’ that they want to exhibit?

In his tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said; “Greetings to Andhra Pradesh CM, @ncbn Garu on his birthday.  Praying for his long and healthy life.”  This contrary to his bitterest remarks not so long ago in an election rally; “People of AP know whose coffers are being filled.  U-turn Babu took a U-turn from AP’s growth and walked out of NDA”.

Similarly, the KTR’s tweet also raised many eyebrows.  In his tweet, he said; “Many happy returns of the day to Hon’ble CM AP Sri @ncbn Garu on his birthday.  May you be blessed with a long, healthy & peaceful life and many more years in public service, Sir.”  This is in contrary to his early remarks against Naidu, where he said; “The people of Andhra Pradesh are planning to give him a retirement.” This was in continuation of his father KCR calling Naidu a ‘liar’ and ‘dirty’ politician.

Controversial film-maker Ram Gopal Verma, who is known for his hatred towards Naidu by producing the film “Lakshmi’s NTR” in which he portrayed Naidu as a mean villain, who backstabbed NTR and ultimately lead to his downfall and ill-health.  Verma also took great pride during his film promotion ‘how he characterized the real face of Naidu in his film.  However, he maintained the same ‘hatred warmth’ in his greetings too with greatest element of acerbic. His tweet says “A very very happy birthday to @ncn the most loyal and honest person that ever lived on this earth.

Interestingly, the YSRCP chief’s treat was indeed simple and informal too, gauged from any angle. “Warm birthday greetings to @mcbn garu.”  As an Opposition leader and also as aspiring party to come to power, he did say; “There are many problems that people of AP are facing under the Monster called Naidu.  He is giving false information about EVMs.  How can a claimant of tech-savvy can stooped to such levels.”