| N. T. Rama Rao | |
| Birth Date: | 1923 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Madras Presidency, British India |
| Death Place: | Hyderabad, India |
| Party: | Telugu Desam Party |
| Office: | First Term |
| Term Start: | 9 January 1983 |
| Term End: | 16 August 1984 |
| Predecessor: | Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy |
| Successor: | N. Bhaskara Rao |
| Office1: | First Term (2) |
| Term Start1: | 16 September 1984 |
| Term End1: | 9 March 1985 |
| Predecessor1: | N. Bhaskara Rao |
| Successor1: | himself |
| Office2: | Second Term |
| Term Start2: | 9 March 1985 |
| Term End2: | 2 December 1989 |
| Predecessor2: | Himself |
| Successor2: | Marri Chenna Reddy |
| Office3: | Third Term |
| Term Start3: | 12 December 1994 |
| Term End3: | 1 September 1995 |
| Predecessor3: | Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy |
| Successor3: | N. Chandrababu Naidu |
| Occupation: | Actor, Politician |
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (also known as N.T.R[1] [2]) served as Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh for three terms, between 1983 and 1995. He was the first person to hold the office while not a member of the Indian National Congress, while representing the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which he himself founded in 1982.[3] [4] Rama Rao's time in office saw his ousting in an August 1984 coup after 1½ years in office, while he was abroad in the US undergoing coronary heart surgery.[5] He was removed by Thakur Ram Lal, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, and replaced with Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, the finance minister.[6] Having come back from surgery, Rama Rao regained his position through demonstrating his majority support from members of the Indian Legislative Assembly. He returned to office in September 1984.
He was re-elected for a second term in 1985, and served a full term without issue. He lost power, however, in the 1989 assembly elections, and returned in 1994 as chief minister for his third and final term, in alliance with the Left parties. However, in 1995 he was overthrown by his son-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who took over the TDP, and became Chief Minister. Rama Rao died of a heart attack the following year.[7]
The political priorities of N.T.R during all his three terms as Chief Minister were widely debated, with him receiving criticism from both the left and right wing.
He decided to divest non-performing state industries to the private sector in order to increase their performance. For example, Allwyn Motors, became Mahindra & Mahindra.[8] [9] Rama Rao believed in economic freedom and thought that if everyone worked hard and formed their own economic units that benefitted them, there would be no need for government regulation. He also believed that government corruption was damaging this economic freedom. In response, he passed the 1995 MACS (Mutually Aided Co-operative Societies) act.[10] The effect of the law was so successful in such a short period of time that it was made law at a national level. In 2001, the United Nations also aligned their guidelines with this law.[11]
The law detailed the rules around the formation and running of co-operatives, and ensured separation from the government, but also strong regulations on equality. For example, it made co-operatives democratic organisations, and forced them to divide profits equally.[12] It also saw the creation of a specific tribunal service for disputes. The law is cited as ground-breaking, and highly successful.
He was obsessed with competitiveness of Telugu population in the world. He created a broad direction and implemented it under the able leadership of an educator Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu. His direction was driven by considerations of a) future b) fairness c) economic competitiveness. On future he saw education is the vehicle for social transformation especially for the socially dis-advantaged and women. On fairness, expanding access to the best educational opportunities to the most deserving was seen as a vehicle for improving efficiency of the entire society. On Competitiveness, he observed that Telugu economy will one day be big and be mostly about serving Telugu population needs and in this economy a local advantage to local people will only happen if education was primarily in Telugu.[13]
Rama Rao also observed that wealth would need trade and uniquely Telugu products sold outside will be the most valuable trade hence, preserving unique Telugu cultural advantages need to be enhanced with education. He also observed that trading with the world will be important and learning other languages would have to be an essential part of primary education especially English and Hindi. He pushed back on the argument that the rich in Telugu lands are doing it right by sending their kids to private English medium schools by saying, this behavior is a symptom of our desperation and past failures not a path for future success. He proposed a three-point formula for addressing this issue: i) Make all local government jobs/educational institution entrances and business to be in Telugu and Urudu so local kids have an inherent advantage and local private schools will have to teach Telugu ii) invest and revamp Telugu academy to continuously translate all the latest knowledge from around the world into Telugu iii) improve government schools and introduce English and Hindi as additional compulsory subjects like the other non-English speaking European countries. He subscribed to the modern European educational concept that learning in mother tongue is always easier than in a language used solely at school. The only future in which being solely educated in a foreign language will be helpful is a future where Telugu people cannot create an economy that provides for Telugu needs.
Overhauled the entire state's education syllabus for schools. He instituted statewide entrance examinations for all disciplines of higher education vis-à-vis Engineering and Medicine to name a few called EAMCET (Engineering and Medical Common Entrance Test). Students, based on the merit of their ranks obtained in these tests, could join any state college of their choice. He banned capitation fee based admissions in higher education.[14]
Rama Rao believed learning as life long pursuit and wanted to create an opportunity for women to get back into workforce post child rearing, wanted educational opportunity for working professionals whose education was interrupted for financial reasons. He founded Open University with excellent distance learning capabilities.[15] The university became the most popular university measured by attendance.
Rama Rao banned government school teachers from running private tuition institutions on the side. State government teachers union called for a strike and threatened to ruin an entire academic year for the students. Rama Rao used NGO (Non-Gazetted Officers) core to conduct exams on time across the state and did not budge on his ban.His term was the first term since independence where exams were always on time and there were never any grace marks for failing students.
Andhra Pradesh Residential Education Institutions Society founded in 1972 with two institutes was revamped under Rama Rao's government in 1988 with the passing of "G.O.Ms.No.363, Education (SSE.I) Department". The institutions were founded to provide exemplary Rural and Socially disadvantaged youth with good primary education. Rama Rao reforms to this institution expanded the number of facilities to 220, made them directly administered by Minister of Education, with a 22-member board to guide the institution.[16] The institution especially APRJC(Andhra Pradesh Residential Junior Colleges) flourished and ended up sending five times more students to elite institutions such as IITs and BITS, making Andhra the only state that produces so many elite experts with Rural and Disadvantaged backgrounds.[17]
Rama Rao founded the Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam in Tirupati with the charter of expanding primary education for women in the state.[18]
After getting elected in 1983 his first legislation was the passing of Andhra Pradesh upa lok pal (civil society OMBUDSMAN) bill inspired by Scandinavian laws. The A.P. Lokayukta Act 11 of 1983 came into force with effect on 1 November 1983[19] The law allows any citizen to start an investigation of any person in power (including chief minister himself) with the help of Judiciary, lawyers, community leaders and independent investigators.
He also successfully modified the Hindu-Succession-Act to give equal default property inheritance rights for women.[20]
1983 DWCRA Law for rural women empowerment: Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas was a 1983 pilot project in 50 districts across India. It was mostly a failure every where except Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh it caught the imagination of Rama Rao and he tasked his political party cadre to recruit and organize small business women. This activity was completely neglected every where except in Andhra Pradesh it was just one more task assigned to the collector's office without any accountability. It was a big hit in Andhra. It lack of success every where except in Andhra made the program slowly vanish at national level only to be revived by Rama Rao again in 1995. The key component of encouraging NGOs to be the organizer of rural women into 10 -20 group economic units was the lesson from Andhra that became a national model. The programs success inspired his successor Nara Chandra Babu Naidu to make this program one of his pet programs. He regularly checks the economic health of these micro units and waives any debt burden that is making them in-effective. The program got super charged under Y.S. Rajashekar reddy with his subsidized interest program pavala vaddi (3% interest loans). It is now a standard non-partisan part of Andhra's rural upliftment plans.[21] [22]
Passed Prohibition Legislation and dissolved government manufacture of cheap alcohol aimed at the mass market segment.[23]
Rama Rao reduced the retirement age for government employees to 55 from 58. He used the National Security Act (NSA) to successfully crack down on the general strike called by government employee unions demanding bringing state government employees to central government employee pay levels. He furloughed the entire work force of Housing Construction Corporation a state government organization will fully pay till retirement claiming they did absolutely no work and that closing that organization would save money even if the state gave the employees free salaries. He claimed the secretariat employees got in the way of doing people's business and moved his office to a private ashram outside the city.[24]
He successfully audited and brought the actual implementation of local body reservations program (for women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes) compliant with the law. Even though the law was passed 15 years before he came to office, it was never fully implemented. He successfully passed 55% reservations for backward castes in professional educational institutes but was rebuked by the High Court and was forced to withdraw the legislation.
Rama Rao abolished Patel-Patwari system which was based on inheritance that dominated Telangana.[25]
Rama Rao successfully repealed the Andhra Safe Road Transport Act that nationalized private bus services saying he wanted to encourage small business allowing for private buses to compete with government road transport. He changed the mandate of government transportation to provide road service for under-served markets (villages). Every village got road service during his tenure. He was however unable to deliver on his promise to relax the 1976 Urban Land Ceiling Act and 1975 Agricultural Land Ceiling Act. He argued that the land ceiling act interfered with small local entrepreneurs but was providing case by case exemptions to the politically connected and multi-national-corporations.
Rama Rao abolished the legislative council calling it an un-productive expense to the exchequer, an un-elected un-representative body used to distribute political favors to out-of-work politicians.[26]
Rama Rao set a cap of /kg of rice for agricultural labourers who earn less than per month.[27] He introduced a mid-day-meal program for primary school children from families earning less than per month,[28] also ensuring that each household had at least one lightbulb, in order to ensure educational opportunities for the poor of rural Andhra Pradesh.[29] In 1983, Rama Rao started a low-income housing project as well, building 500,000 houses in five years to replace kutcha housing with pukka housing. This would come at a cost of per house.[30] The program continued for nine more years under his successor Chandrababu Naidu, and his finance minister Yanamala Rama Krishnudu. This saw the building of a million more homes.
Rama Rao also offered subsidized electricity to peasants (farmers earning less than /yr) at /year.[31] Additionally, he subsidized clothing for women with household incomes less than /month and procured the needed clothing from APCO (Andhra Pradesh Co-Operative), a society of traditional weavers.
Rama Rao initiated the largest investment into irrigation systems in Andhra Pradesh since independence with the Telugu Ganga Project designed to turn Rayalaseema fertile and green and provide drinking water to Chennai.[32] The Indian spiritual guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba supported and provided assistance to this project.[33] While the state resources of the time did not support a large scale irrigation revolution, Rama Rao personally met with and invited the legendary Mr.Kanuri Lakshmana Rao to revive a comprehensive thought process that went into national water management. While Mr.Kanuri Lakshmana Rao was a very ill octogenarian at the time, still created the blue print for the irrigation revolution that followed in the Telugu land. The key points of the comprehensive thought around irrigation were a) Southern rain fed rivers need to be linked with northern glacier fed rivers. This point was the core of Rama Rao's contribution to irrigation, he unified the southern states around this idea and got Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee to declare Indian Rivers Inter-link his legacy project. The core of the ideas relevant to the Telugu people here are i) Two medium scale projects be built to link western tributaries of Ganga to Godavari and Godavari to Krishna in Maharastra. These would allow the transfer of about 1500 TMC of water per year from glacier fed river to peninsular rivers north of the Telugu states so that Maharastra and Karnataka can leave the natural flows of Krishna and Godavari to Telugu lands. ii) Linking eastern tributaries of Ganga/Brahmaputra to Manahandi and Mahanandi to Godavari to transfer 700 TMC of water in the east from glacier fed rivers to peninsular rivers. b) This transfer of water will allow ancillary small projects (no major burden to Telugu exchequer) of linking Godavari to Krishna, Krishna to Penna and Penna to Cauvery along the eastern border all the way to Tamil Nadu. As preexisting coastal deltas get stabilized, additionally linking of Godavari to Krishna at Dummugudam will allow arid Telugu lands to get reliably irrigated. This will put an end to all water sharing issues between all states. With the natural flow of Godavari unimpeded, no reverse pumping projects will be needed in northern Telangana, with eastern Godavari, Krishna, Penna and Cauvery deltas stabilized via the coastal linking of Godavari and Mahanadi, Rayalseema and south/west Telangana will be well irrigated by natural flows of Krishna with small scale irrigation projects. Eastern and Central Telangana will benefit from Dummugudam project. The politics of water sharing will be replaced with the productive work of water planning.
He reformed water distribution system from major reservoirs in the state by giving farmer organizations (raitu sangam) a say in planning.
N. T. Rama Rao's administration initiated the construction and upgradation of airports in Tirupati, Vishakapatanam, Vijayawada and Warangal. Rao initiated the investment study for three ports in Nellore, Machilipatnam and Kakinada. He funded the construction of a rural road network, the total miles of road laid (22,000 miles) is more than half of all the state roads in existence till date.[34]
Rama Rao's upgradation of the road network and air connectivity to Tirupati and his key role in the National Front Government helped him push the funding of Radar Research Center in Tirupati with the mandate to provide outer atmospheric forecasting to significantly accelerate the weather forecasting capabilities of Andhra. Its three objectives were supporting Sriharikota into accelerating the launching of education satellites for rural education, enhancing water resource planning capability to reduce wastage of river water while providing reliable agricultural water supply and enhancing rural primary education with long-distance learning programs using edusat and televisions is primary schools across rural Andhra.[35]
NFCL (National Fertilizer corporation of India) and GFCL (Godavari Fertilizer Corporation of India), were initiated and very rapidly went online during is first and second terms of Rama Rao respectively. K. V. K. Raju made repeated references to Rama Rao's support in creating a non-bureaucratic environment for the development of NFCL. Andhra's use of fertilizers went from being 71% of Indian National Average per hectare to 191% of Indian Average (which was also growing) during Mr. Rao's term.[36] This tripling of technology use in the state's agriculture resulted in over 30% agricultural Productivity gains during his three terms. Such agricultural productivity gains were never observed since independence except during the period when Nagarjuna Sagar was commissioned.[37]
He built the largest bus station in Asia at the time in Hyderabad, the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) and commissioned the largest Buddha statue in the world at the time in Hyderabad to highlight the Buddhist heritage and history of Andhra Pradesh.
He adorned the Tank Bund road in Hyderabad with the statues of great Telugu personalities creating a sense of heritage and pride among Telugu people. It was part of his plan to make Hyderabad a destination for private corporate headquarters. Dredging and cleaning Hussain sagar was the first step, surrounding this beautified lake with public recreational spaces was the second step. Surrounding the public spaces with world class roads was the next step and finally providing for high rise urban offices, restaurants and cultural organizations was the plan. He accomplished it without much fanfare.
A new commando force was created in 1989 in the state of United Andhra Pradesh which was successful in combating naxalism both ideologically and militarily.[38] [39] N. T. Rama Rao's governance also ensured to put an end to the annual communal rioting in Hyderabad during Ganesh immersion.[40] [41] [42]
Visakhapatnam steel plant, which had been struggling since its foundation went online during his term, in no small part, due to his active lobbying with the central government.
He recruited worldwide medical talent and improved higher end medical capabilities of the capital city and founded a medical university in Vijayawada.
He reformed the administration of Tirupati and converted it into a modern tourist attraction. (Computerised registration and transparent board to run financial system.)
Complete computerization of TDP's organisation structure and building an organisational structure village by village to form a stable second party. He built a stable coalition of non-Congress parties at the state to give a clear two-party choice for the Telugu voter.[43]
He did away with the feudal munusobu and karanam system to empower elected leaders of the local government. He introduced entrance exams for Vedic subjects and opened up priest positions in temples to non-Brahmins.
NTR founded a national political coalition of non-Congress parties called The National Front in 1989 and was elected its founding president. The National Front came to power at the centre the same year. His brain child of a highly federal party formed by a coalition of all the locally popular secular regional parties was successful and signalled the end of single-party domination at the centre.
NTR earned a seat for the poor in Andhra Pradesh at the centre via well-thought out political decisions. NTR extended un-qualified support (cleared an MP seat and did not field a TDP candidate) to Congress leader P. V. Narasimha Rao resulting in the latter winning from the state for the first time in his long career with a record majority. While the Congress wanted Rao to be a powerless un-elected (Rajya Sabha member) yes-man of the Nehru-Gandhi family, NTR actively made sure Rao had independent power. This earned Telugu people some influence even when Congress was in power at the centre. NTR formed an alliance with MP's from Tamil Nadu claiming that his Telugu Ganga Project will give Chennai water, making the Telugu Ganga project an interstate centrally funded project. His personal rapport with Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP also helped his influence at the central level. Hence, irrespective of who was in power at the centre, NTR and TDP were very influential in making sure the poor in Andhra Pradesh had representation during his tenure.
He was known for distinguishing Andhra Pradesh from its parent, the erstwhile Madras state, and gave it a distinct identity. Under his tenure, he shifted the Telugu film industry from Chennai to Hyderabad, giving it a distinct identity from Tamil cinema and benefiting Telugu film producers and distributors and theater owners in Andhra Pradesh.[44]
NTR followed in the foot steps of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (Who passed GO 36 and resigned voluntarily to make way for P.V.Narasimha Rao – a Telanganite) and passed G.O 610 (requiring an audit and implementation of local reservations for telenganites) in December 1985 to be fully implemented by March 1986.[45] He further fought a case against GO 610 in the high court and won!! the right for the chief minister to implement G.0 610. He followed up the court ruling with GO 674 (requiring repatriation of non-local government employees) to conform to GO 610. His support for P.V Narasimha Rao, as Prime Minister by helping him win outside Telangana as an MP were very instrumental is furthering his United Andhra Stand.
NTR initiated large scale decentralization of governance and accountability with his Mandal Praja Parishads (M.P.P).The Mandal Praja Parishad as a democratically elected body at Mandal level was introduced by NTR (NTR re-coined a Mughal era term "Tehsil" or revenue district into Mandal). Tehsils which were run by bureaucrats with the sole responsibility of tax collections till that point were now bringing political empowerment to groups who had difficulty aspiring to hold state level political office (MLA, MP, ZPTC Chairman etc.,). The extensive 50% reservations for SC/ST/BCs in MPPs and the fact that MPP presidents were directly elected by people living in the Mandal made local govt responsive to local needs.[46]
Pay cheques of category 3 or lower employees can be cashed only with a spousal signature, thus creating an explicit legal right for women in their spouse's earnings. (To avoid gambling and drinking away the check before the wife sees any money.) In addition, he modified the assigned lands act in 1987 to make it mandatory for all assigned lands to be on the name of the woman in the house and only in cases where there is no female in the household, it can be assigned to a male.[47]
The coup in which Rama Rao was temporarily deposed backfired so badly that it resulted in the end of the political system in which the central government could dismiss democratically elected state governments.
The coup began when Rama Rao left India for the US, in order to have triple bypass heart surgery. NTR had taken power barely 18 months ago winning an election by defeating the opposition Congress party. The Congress party was led by Mrs. Gandi at the national level. He became the first non-congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh delivering the first defeat for Congress in Andhra Pradesh.
Upon NTR's hasty return from his surgery from the US on the 14th of August 1984, he informed Ram Lal, the state governor, about a coup brewing and recommended that his finance minister, Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, be sacked. Ram Lal, the centre nominated Governor of Andhra Pradesh agreed.
The next day (Indian Independence Day), with a coup now fully in progress, Rama Rao asked the governor, Mr. Ram Lal to call the legislative assembly into session to prove his strength. This request was denied. On the 16th, the Indian National Congress (R) Party declared their support for Bhaskara Rao, and Ram Lal dissolved Rama Rao's government and replaced him with Bhaskara Rao.[48] This was despite Rama Rao publicly parading 168 members(out of 294) of the legislature (MLAs) as his supporters. Ram Lal's reasoning was the supposed loss of Rama Rao's parliamentary majority, which was widely disputed. Ram Lal never officially released any proof of Bhaskara Rao having any kind of majority.
Rama Rao tried to resist his deposition, and was arrested, along with 175 MLAs who were supporting him. They were released from arrest shortly after. The event caused wide spread protests and riots, in which at least 27 were killed, and over 100 injured. Indira Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Party, was blamed for the events. International press especially in the west were criticizing Mrs. Gandhi for her non-democratic behavior. Ram Lal relented and restored NTR to power giving him a chance to prove his majority. NTR proved his majority in the Assembly and was the Chief Minister again. He however dissolved the assembly and called for new elections in Andhra Pradesh giving Congress an opportunity to face him elections. NTR won a landslide and came back to power.
Indira Gandhi was assassinated later that year - in an matter unrelated to this episode. After her assassination, in the next national elections, Congress swept the nation with a three fourth majority in the Parliament. However, Congress lost the elections badly to NTR in Andhra Pradesh. NTR's party became the largest opposition party and the leader of the opposition in the National Parliament despite contesting only in one state.
In the elections that followed five years later, the opposition united under NTR's leadership by unanimously nominating him the Chairman of the National Front. National Front came to power by defeating the congress party and ended Congress's virtual monopoly in national level electoral politics.
NTR became the first non-congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1983 ending a congress monopoly in Andhra Pradesh. NTR led the opposition coalition that ended the congress monopoly over national electoral politics in 1989. These events added to his legacy as a person that expanded democracy in India.