YSR - 1949-2009

If you have watched Maniratnam's classic Nayakan, you'd remember the famous dialogue, when don Velu Naicker's (played by Kamal Hassan) grandson asks him "Are you a good man or a bad man?"
Somehow, as I watched the funeral procession of YS Rajasekhara Reddy, I felt like asking him the same question. I studied in Hyderabad where several of my classmates were sons of TDP or Congress MLAs or had some political affiliation. I remember in the late 80s. political murders were rampant and some parts of Andhra were notorious for settling scores by brutal killings.
My early impression of YSR was that he was invincible in Cuddapah and that he spared no one who messed with his followers. I heard tales about how he had a factory that made country bombs, about how a marriage party of a former TDP MLA was blown to smithereens by YSR's men and so on. So that image of YSR stuck in my head.
Years later, I watched the embarrasing phase of the Congress in Andhra. A peculiar leadership crisis because there were one too many leaders. Chenna Reddy, Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy, Janardhan Reddy - all CMs at one point were in the race to power. Somehow YSR was not yet in this league. Well, he was much younger and if I remember right, he had become a parliamentarian by then. It was during this time that YSR's old pal, Chandrababu emerged from the ashes of NTR's death to take over the reins of the TDP and went on to rule the state for the next 10 years.
As Naidu was busy making powerpoint presentations and shmoozing with Bill Gates, YSR quietly took over the reins of the Congress, got together different factions, played his rural card to the hilt and recaptured the seat of power.
As Chief Minister, again, I heard several things about YSR. Stories of real estate scams, large-scale corruption all under his watchful eye, so I was told. Then Satyam happened, and one heard how YSR was shielding Ramalinga Raju. Publicly, he would argue that Raju was Naidu's pal but in Court his Govt's lawyers bungled (and some say deliberately) in nailing Raju. So was YSR keeping Raju in jail to save him? Some swore by this theory.
In the Nagarajuna Finance scam, YSR went after Nimesh Kampani, a former independent director who had quit years before the scandal happened. Why you ask? the real story in Hyderabad was how Kampani was paying a price for helping Ramoji Rao, the media baron, raise billions from the market. That Ramoji Rao was close to Naidu, YSR's bete noire was public knowledge.
So in the final analysis, YSR was a quintessential politician. He had a past. He had his friends and he had his foes. He made his money and he gave some away. He lived his life on the edge, he won a few battles and lost many. He managed his image of a champion of the rural masses yet ensured that he kept Banjara Hills happy. In his death, Andhra has lost a mass leader, someone who in the latter part of his political career had reached demi-god status.

But it is perhaps the circumstances of his death, that have made YSR leapfrog from being a demi-god politician to god. Last I heard, a temple is being built at Pulivendula, his village!