YSR: Always surprising!

September 2, 2009 is a date that the people of Andhra Pradesh will always remember.
Every year on this date, people of Andhra, rather the whole country will recall the
memory of the biggest tragedies in the Indian politics, the sad demise of Yediguri
Sandinti Rajshekhar Reddy, who is better recognised as YSR.

With the death of YSR in a copter crash on the hillock of Rudrakonda Hill on September
2, India has perhaps lost one of its most credible politicians. By designation, he was just
the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, but his contribution to the Congress Party, the
current ruler of the country is huge. It was because of his true dedication towards the
welfare of the lower class people and rural development that YSR succeeded in toppling
the chair of TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu in the 2004 Assembly election in Andhra. It was
quite a surprise for Naidu, his party TDP and the NDA as they all were too confident
about their victory for their ‘positive approach’ towards industrialization in the state. It
was a time when Naidu preferred calling himself the CEO of Hyderabad instead of CM
of Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad as ‘Cyberabad’. But still YSR managed to sweep votes
by stressing on the state government’s reluctance towards the development of the rural
society in his campaigns. It was due to his promises to the poor farmers of the state, that
YSR surprisingly defeated Naidu and descended the throne, which was a huge
achievement, not only for him, but for the Congress Party too.

The reason why the whole country considers him as one of the greatest leaders of India of
all times is his true dedication. Ministers always make promises but never keep them, but
YSR was an exception. He had proved his capabilities and will to work for the
development of his state through his commendable performance. During his first five-
year tenure as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, YSR has implemented the maximum
number of NREGA and other schemes that brought smiles back to the faces of the poor
farmers. He was a man who never rested on the shoulders of his deputies and
departmental staff and used to pay surprise visits to the rural areas to check how things
are going on. After his tragic death, a statistics was found which showed that in the last
four months, the Andhra CM has made more than 100 of such surprise visits to monitor
the progress of work in the projects that he undertook for the state and the
implementation of various schemes.

Surprisingly, his last journey too was aimed towards a surprise visit to some villages to
check the drought situation, availability of rations and reliefs and the project works. His
sad demise has raised speculation that whether the copter crash was just a mishap or was
their any evil intentions involved in it? There are several questions like’ why the copter
was allowed to fly, was it airworthy, why the satellite telephone was not with the pilot?
But there are no answers as yet. Yesterday the Andhra Pradesh government has
announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will probe the case and
hopefully people will come to know whether YSR’s death was a mishap or the outcome
of a well-planned sabotage. But the hard truth is that it was a surprise for the whole
nation, a really really sad surprise. It was a surprise that people of Andhra surely didn’t
pray for. Probably with his untimely death, YSR has made a surprise entry through the
gateway of heaven too. Perhaps, the Almighty too was surprised to see him at his place so
early. Yes it is shocking, painful and surprising for the people of the country, but his
demise has been perfect. His arrival as the chief minister of Andhra was a surprise and he
had stayed by his tendency even while departing too. YSR is always surprising.