YSR’s legacy: Andhra as a lab for policy experiments

This blog is a die-hard fan (see here, here, and here) of the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy:  he delivered both development and electoral success for the Congress in Andhra Pradesh.  India Today has published an interesting piece analyzing the state of his legacy, in particular the numerous social programs he launched for the state’s farmers, women, and the poor.

The new chief minister, K. Rosaiah, has pruned these programs’ budgets but the cuts are not severe enough to dilute YSR’s legacy.  A more interesting insight from this article is the following:

The pioneering cashless health cover for the poor, the Rajiv Arogyasri Scheme, provides domiciliary health care, including expensive surgeries at state expense. Nearly 2.4 crore families have received medical benefits but given the nature of health problems and the expense, whatever is done remains inadequate.  While extending quality health care through the extended referral system, Rajiv Aryogyasri has inadvertently helped revive what seemed a dysfunctional primary health care system and raised some hope of deliverance from an increasingly unaffordable health regime for the poor.

The article goes on to highlight the cost control issues with the health policy but it is heartening to see the network effects of some of these policies.  Primary health care in India is in a dismal state and if Andhra’s experiment shows a way to revive it, YSR’s legacy will in time include the transformation of Andhra from a state known for its paddy fields, software engineers, and movie-crazed masses to the laboratory for policy experiments.  This is also a great story why politics is fascinating: it enables the creation and delivery of new ideas and YSR certainly had many of them.

On YSR again

When P. Sainath — the only hack truly covering agriculture and poverty in India — writes, I read with attention. In his obit of YSR, Sainath catalogues the Chief Minister’s contributions. One knows that YSR was something when a journo like Sainath laments his passing.

Several readers have been surprised — given the country’s growing cynicism of politics — with the widespread grief, deep anguish, and mass turnout in Andhra Pradesh following YSR’s death.  This blog’s readers have asked why because such adulation has, in the past, been reserved for the Gandhi family or movie stars-turned-politicians.  Three reasons why YSR was so popular:

1.  YSR made governance inclusive …

When the urban media was portraying the laptop-toting, World Bank report-reading Chandrababu Naidu as the country’s model Chief Minister, YSR embarked on a 1,500-kilometre padayatra to understand the pain, needs, and aspirations of Andhra’s poor and reminded the world that India continued to live in its villages.  In his first term, YSR delivered free power to farmers for five years; subsidized rice, oil, lentils, and LPG cylinders for families below the poverty line; constructed free houses under the Indiramma program; implemented a state-wide microfinance program for women self-help groups (pavala vaddi); provided state-funded health insurance up to Rs. 2 lakh (arogyasri), enabled the “Dial 104″ rural mobile health units, and introduced a state-wide “Dial 108″ ambulance service (YSR would often begin his 2009 campaign meetings by mimicking the siren); and vigorously implemented the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (the UPA government’s singular achievement in its first term) and created the Rajiv Udyogasri plan to create 25 lakh jobs by 2013.  To continue this governance-focused agenda, YSR was on his way to Chittoor to launch his new Racchabanda program, when his helicopter crashed.

2.  … invested in infrastructure … 

Without the media hype so common during Naidu’s tenure, YSR enabled seminal public-private infrastructure projects.  These include the metro in Hyderabad; state-wide power and irrigation projects; ports at Vadarevu, Nizampatnam, Gangavaram, and Krishnapatnam; airports at Hyderabad and Vizag; over a 100 SEZ projects; the real estate boom across the state; and numerous other private investments totaling collectively Rs 225,000 crores (or $55 billion).  YSR achieved all these without resorting to any of Naidu’s gimmicky video conferences, World Bank meetings, and high-profile advisors.  There is an interesting anecdote in this regard.  Apparently Sam Pitroda was invited for a prestigious lecture in Andhra Pradesh and YSR was invited to preside and benefit from the technocrat’s advice.  YSR graciously offered the use of a helicopter to ferry Pitroda back and forth but politely refused the tête-à-tête saying something to the effect that facilitating development was not “rocket science.”

3.  … and retained touch with people. 

Following YSR’s death, the media is replete with stories of his smile, confidence, and desire to visit people and identify ways to meet their needs.  Several other tributes have talked about how hard he worked throughout his tenure.  Of greater significance was his principle-based political vision, in particular his steadfast refusal to support Telengana as a separate state.  We need to distinguish his statements, often driven by realpolitik and pressure from Delhi, from his actions which clearly marginalized the separatist movement.  Finally, he eliminated dissidence within the Congress party, developed a new generation of young leaders, and contributed to the party’s national success in the 2009 election as I have discussed elsewhere.