Let us dive into history..! Before 1983, mostly Reddys ruled the united Andhra Pradesh. Of course, the Kamma leaders have shown their importance in Telangana’s Khammam district and few parts of AP. However after the Seemandhra was formed as a separate state, Kamma leader Chandra Babu Naidu took over the reins, and now AP CM belongs to the Reddy community. In the meanwhile, NTR and YS Rajasekhar Reddy who ruled the Andhra Pradesh belong to these two castes.
So, it so quite common for one caste to suppress the other in the hunger for dominance. However, the people who belong to other communities are mostly considered as vote banks. If we observe, Chandra Babu has turned ‘BC sympathetic’ these days and YS Jagan wants the support of the Kapu community to fulfill his three capital dream and the Dalits were harassed a lot in the ruling of these two leaders. Head tonsuring incidents and making Dalit leader contest the polls where the defeat is inevitable have been deeply criticized all these days.
Coming to the past, there is an alternative political approach adopted by the governments when YS Raja Sekhar Reddy was ruling the state. He gave enough importance to the Kamma leaders. He took good care of the Galla in Chittoor and the Maganti in the West Godavari. In Krishna, Devineni Nehru had been unanimous. The atmosphere was good for Rayapati in Guntur, Lagadipati in Vijayawada, Daggubati in Parchur, and Gottipati in Martur.
Chandra Babu also followed YS Raja Sekhar Reddy as Srinivas Reddy, Madhav Reddy, Somireddy, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, and Ramasubbareddy were given priority in Kadapa. In contrast, both these leaders tried to prove that they don’t owe anything to their own castes but the equality is the thing that lacked all the time. The leaders of the other castes were not given prominent posts in the party. They have all been given tickets and ministries under the reserved quota and there ain’t a major part of them in administration.
Which BC, SC, or ST leader has a prominent post in TDP and YSRCP where the entire membership of one party really care about his/her word? No youth from the castes other than Kamma and Reddy are choosing to serve the state people by entering the politics. They are aware that they will be the least recognized in the party. Even rivals lie in good terms for political sake but these reserved and backward people are being made scapegoats at times.
Decades are passing by, pandemics evolved, economic system collapsed but the dominance of one or two castes in the state hasn’t been brought to an end. Of course, it successfully bought democracy to an end. Hence the judges are turning out as common people commenting on every petty issue as people failed to give a reliable verdict all the time.