When YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in Andhra Pradesh by achieving a thumping majority in the assembly elections, it was believed that the BJP would extend a friendly hand to him and Jagan, too, would not take any step that would antagonise the Centre.
But as the days passed by, the BJP has started adopting an aggressive posture against the Jagan government making strong criticism against his policies, though he has been maintaining utmost restraint in his stand towards the BJP and the Centre.
Till now, Jagan has not uttered a single word against the Centre. And in fact, when there were negative stories in a section of the media after his meeting with Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao a few days ago that both the CMs want to fight against the BJP aggressively, the Andhra CMO lost no time in refuting such reports.
Yet, the BJP appears to be trying to keep Jagan under its control taking advantage of the Central Bureau of Investigation case pending against him. It was evident from the way the CBI filed a counter-affidavit in the court, strongly opposing Jagan’s petition seeking exemption from personal appearances in the court.
The counter-affidavit used very strong words against Jagan, describing him as an economic offender who had the capacity to influence the witnesses using political, money and muscle power.
The CBI alleged that any permission to Jagan to stay away from court appearances would virtually entail him to liberate himself from the lawful restrictions imposed by the court to ensure the ends of justice.
“Such an exemption would give Jagan an unsolicited liberty to do whatever he wants and influence the witnesses behind the iron wall of political, money and muscle powers.
The CBI further said the high court had earlier described the charges against Jagan as grave, causing dent to the economy of state and affecting the economy of the country.
“In all the 11 charge sheets, the petitioner (Jagan) stands as an accused in his individual capacity and as representative of his privately-owned companies and therefore should attend the court as such,” the CBI argued.
It clearly showed the CBI, obviously under the influence of the Centre, is trying to arm-twist Jagan so that it would be politically beneficial to the BJP!