Renowned journalist Sekhar Gupta found fault the YSRCP government on the capital row. Sekhar Gupta analyzed various factors behind this but there were three prime reasons for Jagan government looking at other cities as capital.
The first thing, Sekhar Gupta said it is Jagan gives a damn about what Chandrababu has done and the second is, if it is a big idea, the successor has to take it forward. The third is Fear Of Having Missed Out (FOHMO). The journalist added that Jagan had missed out the opportunity to build a capital and even if he takes Amaravati forward, the credit will still remain with Chandrababu and his government which has pooled 33,000 acres of land and the work has started. Sekhar Gupta said that the rivalry between regional parties is not healthy and ultimately the people will be at the loss.
Calling India as a supreme hypocrisy state, Sekhar Gupta said, the four major cities in India i.e, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai don’t have the ability to grow and people are just piling up with in these cities without proper infrastructure. From Delhi to Chennai, there is a decline economically, quality of life, social indicators which resulted in huge regional imbalance. Post-Independence, India has built three cities and they are Chandigarh (Punjab), Gandhinagar (Gujarat) and Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh). Among the three, Chandigarh is the only green-field capital and Amaravati would have become the second one if the YSRCP government had positive vibes on it.
Further the journalist said, people of Andhra built an emotional connection with Hyderabad having brought their wealth to the city. After division of state, they moved and from the leaders to big business people, they had a golden opportunity to build a grand and in fact bigger capital than Hyderabad. The previous state government planned the same and acquired such huge land through innovative pooling method where farmers were made stakeholders and so Amaravati was launched on an ambitious note.
“Andhra has an entrepreneurial culture and that’s why I call Andhra’s entrepreneurs’ as ‘Andhrapreneurs’ and I thought they will build a big capital city and would become the first greenfield capital in India since mid 1950s and in more than 60 years. Unfortunately that has come to a stand-still as Jagan is skeptical about this project right from the beginning,” said Sekhar Gupta.
The journalist called the ‘Three Capital’ idea is a national tragedy and to have High Court benches in all three places, gets worst. The idea of summer legislature in Vizag sounds like 2020 Thughlaq’s rule and madness. We have a bad example of Jammu & Kashmir wherein the government shifts places depending upon the seasons
Sekhar Gupta opined that if YSR would have been alive, he would have moved out of Hyderabad and built a new city much bigger than Chandrababu and all at one place as he is visionary. What is happening right now in Andhra and Amaravati is nihilistic.
Further the noted journalist observed the West-Coast of India has good airport, labour work and others whereas the East-Coast lacked similar developed. Barring Chennai all the way to North in Kolkata, there is not even a single city that has a world-class airport. Amaravati had a good chance to build one and a large city too.
Summing up Sekhar Gupta hoped that Jagan government’s revives the Amaravati project which actually brings a significant importance to not just to the state but to the whole nation.
