The ‘All Fools Day’ prank, covertly played by Chandrababu Naidu and company to get the doorstep distribution of old-age pensions stalled, has backfired big time in Andhra Pradesh. Realising the damage they had inflicted on themselves, the opposition party and its yellow media resorted to desperate damage-control tactics.

In a flurry of activity, TDP AP Working President released a lengthy video, trying to vilify the YSRCP over the Election Commission’s order to keep village volunteers away from the distribution of old-pensions. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu too wrote a letter in a hurry, demanding a status quo in delivering pensions to the elderly, widows and patients of some chronic diseases. Perhaps feeling this was not enough, the opposition party also dispatched its ‘motormouth’ leader Varla Ramaiah to meet state Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy.

All this, after realising the wave of anger and repugnance that the EC decision has created for the TDP. There has been an all-pervading perception among the public that this was nothing but the handiwork of Chandrababu Naidu, who had been trying hard to paint the village volunteers’ system in bad light for quite some time now. The unexpected development has also precipitated the opinion that voting for the TDP in the coming elections will only mean slamming the door shut on all the welfare schemes including pensions that are being implemented by the YS Jagan government over the last 58 months.

In his desperation to try and minimise the backlash from the public and deflect the blame onto the YSRCP, Varla Ramaiah ended up dishing out some serious comedy stuff. Speaking to the media after meeting Jawahar Reddy, Ramaiah assumed the role of a de facto government functionary to announce that the old-pension distribution will go on unhindered. He also said, in an outrageously authoritative tone, that they had asked the CS to continue the doorstep delivery of the pensions to the beneficiaries.

Ramaiah’s unwarranted assertions and the day-long political gymnastics played out by the TDP bandwagon was instantly criticised by the general public and heavily trolled on social media platforms. It sparked comments like “When was the TDP given the mandate to step into the shoes of the ruling YSRCP?”, “Are you serious, you had gone to the length of instructing the CS on what to do?”, “Why is the TDP running from pillar to post now if their claim that they had no role to play in the EC’s order is true?” and “By over-reacting, the TDP is revealing more than it can conceal on its tacit involvement in the mess created against the pensioners..”

On the flipside, the EC decision has also triggered a debate with political observers and intellectuals seeing some ‘double standards’. They feel that different yardsticks are being invoked in implementing a particular rule at two different times. A few politically-conscious journalists and observers are quick to recall how Chandrababu Naidu went on to distribute a couple of installments of his ‘Pasupu Kunkuma’ scheme even after the election notification was issued in Andhra Pradesh in 2019.

According to them, the election notification was issued on March 18, 2019 for both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state. Despite the code in place, the then TDP government was allowed to distribute the last installment of Rs 4,000 out of the Rs 10,000 promised to each of the 94 lakh DWCRA women in the state on April 5, they claim.

Ironically, Naidu launched the scheme only in February 2019, barely three months before the elections. And it is common knowledge in AP politics that it was a freebie planned only to entice the electorate to vote in TDP’s favour. However, Naidu’s designs came a cropper as the women beneficiaries were not ready to fall in his trap, something that became evident from the 2019 election results.

In contrast, the old-age pensions of the YS Jagan regime are a part of a welfare scheme that is being righteously and steadfastly implemented without a hitch over the last 58 months. In an admirable commitment to all the welfare schemes, the state government did not backtrack even during the crippling times of COVID-19 pandemic and ensured their fullest delivery.

For reasons that can be best deciphered by it, the Election Commission somehow did not pay heed to this reality while clamping the restrictions on the village/ward volunteers participating in this noble task over the next two months. It also draws flak for its hypocrisy, having allowed the previous TDP regime to brazenly influence the voters before the 2019 elections in the garb of a welfare measure.