Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu turns to Hindutva to stay relevant

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has of late turned quite vocal in backing the cause of Hindus amid rising attacks on temples in Andhra Pradesh, in an attempt that political analysts attributed to his efforts to stay afloat in state politics.

The former chief minister has in fact accused the government led by chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of spearheading the attacks on Hindu temples, while his party has alleged an increase in religious conversions ever since the devout Christian came to power in May 2019.

The change in Naidu’s approach – the first in his four-decade-long political career -- could be due to political compulsions since staying away from the Hindutva plank could leave the door wide open to the BJP to consolidate in the state, said political analyst Manchala Srinivasa Rao.

“An aggressive stand being adopted by Naidu to emerge as the champion of Hindutva could also help him gain significantly from the emerging religious polarization in the state for the first time and even look at teaming up with the BJP going forward if an opportunity arises,” Rao said.

The TDP had severed ties with the BJP and exited the NDA government at the Centre in March 2018 after sharing power with the saffron party both at the Centre and state for nearly four years.

“Naidu appears to have reached a conclusion that the votes of minorities are mostly consolidated by the ruling YSR Congress and that sticking to the secular platform may not fetch him much politically,” political analyst Kandula Ramesh said.

The Opposition TDP has been highlighting vandalism across hundreds of temples since May 2019 - involving idol thefts, idol desecrations, digging in the temple premises and setting idol chariots ablaze.

Countering the charges, the ruling YSR Congress has accused the Opposition of conspiring to create unrest in the State and inciting religious hatred whenever the government launches large welfare schemes.

“Targeting the Hindu temples to malign the Jagan Mohan Reddy government seems to be the only way left for Chandrababu Naidu to stay ahead of BJP for political survival,” said civil supplies minister Kodali Nani.

Accusing the Opposition of conspiracy to gain from religious polarization, the government ordered a probe by a special investigation team into the temple attacks. It also ordered installation of 44,451 CCTV cameras in 13,296 Hindu temples across the state for better surveillance, apart from announcing plans to restore the demolished temples.

Last week, Andhra director general of police Goutam Savang said some people belonging to certain political factions were behind the attacks. He said 17 of the accused with known ties to the TDP and four accused affiliated to the BJP have been identified in nine cases of temple vandalism.

Both TDP and the BJP took serious objection to the DGP’s statement and BJP’s Andhra unit president Somu Veerraju also demanded the removal of Savang as DGP for making baseless allegations. TDP demanded a CBI probe into the series of attacks.

“Hindutva appears to be the only space left for Chandrababu Naidu to fight out Jagan in Andhra,” said Andhra BJP’s chief spokesperson Sudhish Rambhotla.

“Naidu also seems to be worried that BJP could relegate him to the background if he doesn’t go aggressive against temple vandalism and religious conversions. He never showed any love for the Hindutva cause all these years and now seems to have changed stand only eyeing the Hindu votebank,” he added.

At the same time, BJP cadres in Andhra have been largely disappointed with the soft stance of the state leadership, which was helping the TDP emerge as the champion of Hindutva, said a senior BJP leader who did not want to be named.

“While the earlier Andhra BJP leadership mostly sailed with the then ruling TDP leadership, the current leadership is not going aggressive against the ruling YSR Congress. The result is that BJP is still not making any serious inroads into Andhra, despite very clear signs of religious polarization for the first time in the state,” the leader said.