Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu exposed his weakness for publicity once again, as was evident from the financial assistance extended to flood-hit state of Kerala.
Soon after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan made an appeal to all the states for a liberal financial assistance to the flood victims on humanitarian grounds, Naidu quickly responded and announced Rs 5 crore as immediate assistance.
So far so good. Nobody would question Naidu as to why he announced only Rs 5 crore to Kerala. There are other states which pledged much lesser support. But within a couple of hours, Naidu came to know that his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao announced Rs 25 crore cash assistance to Kerala, the highest by any state so far.
Naidu should have kept quiet, as everybody knows the financial position of AP is worse, compared to that of Telangana. KCR could afford to send Rs 25 crore, but Naidu did not have enough money in the coffers. As such, nobody would have compared Naidu with KCR.
But, the Andhra chief minister felt he was shamed by KCR and that the latter deliberately announced five times more cash assistance than him. So, he announced another Rs 5 crore late on Friday night, making the total assistance from AP to Rs 10 crore.
Though this is still lesser than what was pledged by Telangana, Naidu thought it would at least be face-saving for him.
However, what Naidu did not realise that his action only exposed his jealousy character. Well, he could have waited for a couple of days more and announced further assistance in various other forms. But announcing another Rs 5 crore within hours of KCR’s announcement does not suit a person of Naidu’s stature.
But that is Naidu!