Name-callers mark bitter campaign

BY J.R.PRASAD

Hyderabad, April 12: The language that politicians use has just worsened as the poll race enters the final lap.

The Telugu Desam chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has called Congress leaders “bandicoots,” and the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Raja-sekhar Reddy’s regime as “demon’s rule.”

The Chief Minister duly said Mr Naidu was a clown (pittala dora). The CPI state secretary, Mr K. Narayana called Dr Reddy “kallu tagina koti (drunken monkey). To add effect, he said the Chief Minister should be kept in a prison for crushing the land struggle and that many state ministers were dacoits.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said the Congress was a “veyyi talala visha sarpam (hydra-headed monster) and called upon people to bury it in 10 km deep in the ground.

The Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi has been a little soft. For him, Mr Naidu is “free all Babu,” and Dr, a “real estate hero.” No such finesse for the actor-campaigner Dr Raja-sekhar, who called Chiran-jeevi a “mekavanne puli (sheep in a wolf’s clothing).”

The hottest words, many of it unprintable, have been exchanged between the TD mahila wing chief Roja and Chiranjeevi’s brother Pavan Kalyan, occasionally joined by sundry others.

The TD’s star campaigner and N.T. Rama Rao’s son Balakrishna is not very good at oratory but slaps his thighs and twirls his moustaches at every road show — including in front of the house of his minister-sister, Ms D. Purandareswari, who is a Congress candidate.

Reacting to all this, the finance minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, said, “Politicians should maintain dignity in their speeches. Slapping the thigh and twirling the moustaches show the political immaturity of persons who do it.”