The proposal of the YSR Congress party government led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to shift the administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam is the hottest topic in the political and media circles these days.
Though Jagan has not formally taken any decision and is awaiting the report of a high-power committee, reports from corridors of power indicate that the shifting of the capital is inevitable and it is only a matter of time.
It has now become a big issue that the decision to shift the capital has a caste angle to it.
Ministers like Botsa Satyanarayana and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy have been saying that Amaravati had become a haven for Kamma community, which had bought huge chunks of lands around the capital region through insider trading and also within Amaravati by purchasing plots of the farmers in a big way.
This Kamma angle has now been endorsed by former chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh IYR Krishna Rao.
He tweeted on Thursday that African country Botswana, too, had witnessed a change in capital location due to dominance of one particular race.
According to IYR, the capital of Botswana was originally at Mafeking, which was dominated by a particular race called Barolong for a long time. Many others did not like the domination of this race in Mafeking area. So, they demanded that the capital be shifted. After prolonged discussions and negotiations, the capital of Botswana was finally shifted to Gaborone in 1969, which was acceptable to all.
By comparing Botswana with Andhra Pradesh, it was obvious that IYR was endorsing the argument that the capital is being changed only to counter the domination of Kamma community in Amaravati.
What is more interesting is that IYR has supported Visakhapatnam as the executive capital. He compared it with Mumbai.
“If Mumbai is the entry of India on the western side, Visakhapatnam has the capacity to grow into another commercial capital of India on the eastern side,” he tweeted.