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abdulmuheetchowdhary · 8 years

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This post is written with two objectives:

To give urban middle class readers, the majority of whom have no practical experience of politics, an insight as to what the daily routines of politicians are like.

To give non-Telangana readers some insight into the history and culture of the state.

Let’s begin with an introduction.

My name is Abdul Muheet Chowdhary and i’ll be your host through this post. I work as a legislative aide for Shri B Vinod Kumar, Member of Parliament (India). He is a member of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party and represents Karimnagar in Telangana state in the Lok Sabha. I assist him in his duties as a Parliamentarian, and do things like draft Bills, frame questions that can be asked to Ministers, prepare issues to be raised in Parliament and so on. However this post isn’t about me or my work. It’s about my boss, and this is going to be a ‘day in the life of’ sort of post.

Most urban middle-class Indians have very little to do with politics. Many of them don’t vote and see politics as a ‘dirty’ thing that is indulged in by crooks and thieves. They have nothing but contempt for the political class. As a middle class person myself I understand where they’re coming from. Hence this post, to show them that there’s a lot more to the political process than what the media tells us. I’ll take you through a typical day in Mr. Kumar’s life. Along the way i’ll also share some historical and cultural knowledge about his (and mine) home state of Telangana.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the read!

January 4th, 2016:

6 30 am.

Hyderabad

Our day begins early, at 6 30 in the morning, in the glorious city of Hyderabad, capital of Telangana and my hometown. We are at Mr. Kumar’s residence. By 7 am already a steady throng of people begins to arrive at his house. Who are these people? Let us see some illustrations:

The backbone of any political party – grassroots workers.

Party workers from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. The Hyderabad municipal elections are coming up and they are here to discuss campaign strategies, plead for ticket recommendations, discuss candidates and other such political matters.

Constituents from Karimnagar have come. They are the majority who throng any politician’s office. By and large their requests are as follows:

Recommendations for jobs and education.

Requests to expedite pending works with government officials (“put in a word, sir”).

Sorting issues relating to public works such as broken roads, sewerage pipes (which are typically the domain of someone else like a corporator or an MLA).

Apart from these there is a fascinating spectrum of requests ranging from attending marriage functions (to boost their ‘status’) to resolving domestic disputes between husband and wife. This is in fact a subject which requires a post by itself: what constituents demand from their representatives.

Then there are government officials, who are there mainly for requests for transfers and promotions and occasionally to discuss matters of governance.

The list goes on but these are some of the main categories. Right away sir begins dealing with them. It is a task that requires infinite patience, as those who have spent time amongst the ‘masses’ would know. The stream of people is relentless and continues all day, every day. It is something that can be effectively done only by the very few.

Finally sir stops by around 9 am. We leave for the historic city of Warangal.

9:00 am

En route to Warangal

We are in Sir’s vehicle, a Landcruiser Prado. Such massive vehicles are favored by politicians in Telangana and every leader worth his salt aspires to own one. The popular models are Fortuner, Scorpio, Innova. The bigger the better.

A point on the Telangana politician’s uniform as well. Let me illustrate with a pic of Sir (i’m to the left!):

In the Lutyen’s Delhi Bungalow of B Vinod Kumar, Member of Parliament.

The standard outfit is pure white khaddar (khadi) shirt and trousers with black shoes. The shirts are generally half-sleeved and the shoes are slip-ons without shoelaces. The slip-ons have practical value as they have to be frequently removed while entering temples or seniors houses. The khaddar clothes have both symbolic value as white is generally seen as a colour of purity and practical value as they are necessary to survive the crushing heat of the Deccan.

In the car, Sir’s phone rings non-stop. The same set of people (constituents, party workers, etc), except they are on the phone. One issue after another, all day, every day. Again, something only the very best can handle effectively. When Sir is not responding to phone calls he is calling up and monitoring works. These range right from the very local (construction of village ponds) to the national (amendments to the upcoming Bankruptcy and Insolvency code). To keep track of so many issues is a superhuman task and even the mightiest CEOs in the world would be hardpressed to compare to an average national-level politician from a developing country (where the challenges are always harder).

We are passing through Nalgonda district. On the way Sir points out the legendary Bhongir fort (actually Bhuvan-giri). It is breathtaking.

Bhongir fort, Nalgonda district, Telangana.

The fort is perched upon an enormous mountain that smashed the teeth of many invading armies. It was built by the famous Kakatiyas of Warangal (1100-1474 CE). The Kakatiyas were feudatories (chelas) of their immediate dynastic predecessors, the Eastern Chalukyans. One of their later kings – Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya the seventh – built this fort.

The Kakatiyas were excellent builders and many of their constructions are iconic of Telangana today. As we enter their historic capital of Warangal, we see a replica of their most famous construction at the entrance to the Collector’s office.

Replica of Kakatiya Kala Thoranam, gateway to Warangal Fort.

The Kakatiya Kala Thoranam is one of the two architectural figures used on the government of Telangana’s state emblem, the other being Charminar in Hyderabad. It is a massive stone gate to Warangal Fort.

As one can see from the image, Warangal is a clean and orderly city. It always strikes me how clean the South is (in general) as compared to the North. As we progress into the city however the same chaos and disarray that characterizes all Indian cities shows itself. Why is this so? My thesis is that it is because the caste system makes it difficult for Indians, especially Indian Hindus, to: a) think in terms of public spaces b) think in terms of systems, or as a ‘whole’. This is compounded by the Brahmanical attitude which looks down upon keeping public spaces clean (“Brahman ka ghar saaf aur sadak maila”). Urban areas which have mixed populations break down established caste ways of managing space and so the net result is a mess. I am however touching upon the tip of an iceberg and will explore the idea in more detail in another post, along with the most important thing – solutions to this problem.

Some points on Warangal. It is regarded as a city of intellectuals and indeed three of Telangana’s most famous poets are from this city.

The first is the famous medieval grammarian, essayist, poet and Shaivite philosopher Pothana who wrote around the time of the Bahmani sultanate, 14th century CE. He is famous for translating the Bhagvatha Purana from Sanskrit into Telugu. Another famous work of his, and one I would personally like to read, is the Veerabhadra Vijayamu which is about the destruction of Daksha’s yajna (part of the saga of Shiva and Parvathi).

The other two are the fiery Marxist poets Kaloji Narayan Rao and Dasarathi. I once remarked to a senior Telangana journalist that Telugu literature seemed to swing between the extremes of religious devotionalism and communist radicalism. He himself had Marxist sympathies and replied cryptically that in any age, an unending battle went on between two ideologies, idealism and materialism, and that all literature would fall into one or the other category.

The city also marks the beginning of Islam’s contact with the Deccan. Alauddin Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate sent his general Malik Kafur southwards to expand the empire. A mighty battle took place between Kafur and the Kakatiya king Prataparudra, and the two forts of Siripur and Hanamkonda (named after the two warriors Anuma and Konda) were finally captured by the Sultanate, bringing northern Telangana under Delhi. Warangal fort was captured by the Khalji’s successors, the Tughlaqs, in 1323.

A point must be made. It is upsetting that a great many Telugu Hindus see this event as some sort of defeat of ‘Hindus’ by ‘Muslims’. All the subsequent history of Telangana which involves Islam and Muslim rulers is shied away from by Hindus and is seen as a ‘dark age’.

This shows that even after 68 years of Independence we are still playing into the divide and rule game of the British. The British, after the revolt of 1857 became hell-bent on dividing Indians so that they would not unite and rebel against them again. So they wrote history in such a way that it depicted all past events as a religious clash between Hindus and Muslims. James Mill wrote the History of India (without ever coming to India) and divided it into the Hindu period, Muslim period and British (interestingly not Christian) period. He wantedly wrote it in such a way that all conflicts were given a religious colour and a great many ‘facts’ on things like temple destruction were made up. Simply put, it was inflammatory imperialist propaganda that masqueraded as history.

This contributed significantly to the communal politics of pre-Independence India and to Partition, all this being aided of course by constant divide and rule politics of the British. We continue to fall into this trap and it is high time we got out of it. A starting point would be replacing our categorisation of history into ‘ancient, medieval and modern’ (which is a euphemism for Hindu, Muslim and Christian) with a different category, such as the one used by Romila Thapar. I look forward to the day when the Mughals, Delhi Sultanate, etc are seen as Indians (instead of ‘outsiders’) and their contribution to India is celebrated instead of being ignored.

Thus Warangal, like most parts of Telangana, has a big Muslim population. But there is a world of difference between Hyderabadi Muslims (my community) and Warangal Muslims. They are essentially Telugus while we Hyderabadis are Deccanis. It is two different ethnicities and cultures.

We proceeded through the city and reached a marriage hall where Sir was expected. There was a crowd of ‘local leaders’ awaiting him and while he spoke to them I hunted for the food stalls.

Fun fact: Most marriage halls in rural Telangana are built caste-wise. For eg – Reddy marriage hall, Kamma marriage hall, Padmanayak Velama (Sir’s caste which he doesn’t really subscribe to) marriage hall, etc. In fact this had become so widespread that the government discontinued providing grants under MPLADs for building marriage halls! The reality is that inter-caste marriage is what will ultimately destroy the caste system and so it is here that the battle is most vigorously fought.

We had a superb Warangal lunch. As a Hyderabadi I objectively find it difficult to praise other biryanis but the Warangal biryani was f-i-i-n-e. From there we proceeded to Sir’s house. Being an advocate, his house was filled with legal books. As usual there was a crowd waiting at home and he began dealing with them.

An unsubtle photograph.

We proceeded towards a venue on the outskirts of the city. The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari was coming there to inaugurate two projects: i) 4-laning of National Highway 163 (Yadagiri-Hyderabad) ii) Etunagaram bridge across Godavari. The entire road leading up to the venue was filled with giant hoardings of the TRS and BJP and pink and saffron flags were everywhere. There was even a bike rally.

“KCR” is K Chandrashekhar Rao. The man who founded the TRS, spearheaded the Telangana movement, achieved his goal of a separate state and is now its first Chief Minister.

It is in rural areas that you really get a flavour of Indian politics. My explanation for this is simple – politics is in many ways a process of accessing resources and in rural areas where poverty is acute and the State is a major provider of resources political involvement becomes important.

Politicians’ retinue. Warangal, Telangana

We entered the ‘Parking’ area of the venue. The tent was accessible only for senior party workers and so I had to wait along with the other staff for the entire thing to get over. In the above image you can see a typical politician’s retinue so let me describe this to you.

The main functionary for any politician is known as the Personal Assistant (PA). He (i’ve never seen a female PA) is responsible for managing the MP’s entire schedule, following up with government and party officials on work, managing constituents, drafting letters and so on.He is constantly with the MP, whether in meetings with grassroots workers or with the Prime Minister.

As someone put it, the “PA is coterminous with the MP”. Constituents are very careful to be in the PA’s good books as he is a gatekeeper to the MP. Because of the enormous power involved in the position it is liable to corruption. I’ve come across several stories of PAs demanding money/favors in exchange for access to the MP. Some get so drunk with power they begin to behave like MPs themselves and the problem is acute when it comes to North Indians who are anyway used to a feudal culture of patronage.

A good PA is extremely important for an MP. The pace and quality of work depends on him. A PA who is rude, arrogant, inefficient and insincere will generate resentment among the constituents and will lead to a poor perception of the MP. This can be politically damaging, if not fatal.

The government of India provides for the salary of one PA/MP. This is, as in most other things, an unrealistic allocation. One PA is almost never enough for an MP and most have at least two, if not more.

The second PA for many MPs tends to be a retired low-level bureaucrat, such as a tehsildar or a block-level officer. Such a person is very valuable because they know the system in and out and thus how to draft letters, get permissions, whom to contact for what, keep track of development schemes and funds, etc.

The PA forms the apex of the MP staff’s hierarchy. Next come researchers/legislative aides like myself. Generally speaking we are still a new addition to the staff and so our place in the hierarchy is unclear. However given that we carry out an important function (legal and policy research) we are seen as right below the PAs, if not at the same level.

Then there is the driver and two security guards provided by the government. The driver often doubles up as a house caretaker and does odd jobs.

The security guards are entirely ceremonial and useless. They come from the state police and are generally crude, barely literate and corrupt. They are hulking oafs and are mainly useful for keeping the equally oafish and hysterical constituents at bay. Their ‘security’ is limited to crowd control and if an actual attack takes place by say Maoists or the like then the MP is in real trouble.

Watching all those English movies with ‘FBI and CIA’ agents who are constantly on the prowl I expected at least a modicum of similarity. Too tall an order I suppose. Given the huge number of people an MP (or any politician) meets daily and the kind of ‘security’ s/he is provided it is the easiest thing in the world for them to be assassinated. It is a worrying thought. Our politicians do what they do day after day with effectively no protection for their lives.

The security guards come from the State police. MP guard duty is seen as a plum posting. There is no dealing with criminals, one moves around in comfortable surroundings and there is plenty of scope for making money. This usually involves ‘tips’ given from people who want to put in a word to the MP or just maintain ‘good relations’. Thus the guards are very happy to get such a posting and fight tooth and nail to avoid a transfer.

I asked one of the PAs what was seen as the opposite of such a posting. He replied that cops dreaded a transfer to the Greyhounds. This was an elite unit set up in undivided Andhra Pradesh that was tasked with hunting Maoist guerrillas. It meant forages through harsh, booby-trapped jungles and the promise of certain death if they were ambushed.

In this manner we were waiting for the event to end, so Sir could return and we could continue on our journey. Suddenly we heard the national anthem playing, meaning that the inauguration of the NH and bridge was almost done, and it was being dedicated to the nation. All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity as security guards, PAs and other aides geared up, waiting for their bosses to return.

Nitin Gadkari had come to the venue via helicopter. As a Union Minister in the vast country that is India, a national-level politician typically travels long distances on a daily basis. This being someone who is in the government, and needs to spend an obligatory amount of time in the office. Senior party functionaries travel even more. The current BJP President Amit Shah is reported to average 500 kms in a day. This is like covering several European countries on daily basis.

Nitin Gadkari’s chopper.

For the first time in my life I saw a chopper function up close. As its blades began to turn, it threw up tremendous amounts of dust, causing everyone to turn away and close their eyes. And then, away it went.

Up up and away!

The local politicians’ cavalcade began to get ready to rumble. The Chief Minister has a convoy with several decoy vehicles. This is to confuse assailants and provide safety, though in typical Indian style it has more of symbolic value than anything else. The person in the middle with the black stole across his waist and shoulder incidentally is the District Collector’s minion (‘fetch me that file!’).

KCR’s convoy + District Collector’s minion.

Sir returned and we continued on our journey. It was now nearly 5 pm and Sir wanted me to do some sightseeing. He asked his staff to take me to the biggest attraction of the city – the Thousand Pillar Temple. He had more political work to take care of and so sent me off.

First sight of the Thousand Pillar Temple

One of the temple’s pillars. Observe the intricacy of craftsmanship!

The temple’s architecture is characteristic of the Eastern Chalukyan style, which is popular in the entire Deccan region (including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Southern Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and northern Karnataka). It is also markedly different from the more quintessential ziggurat-style temples one sees in the deep south, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The temple was built during the reign of the Kakatiyas (took about 72 years to complete) and was built by Ganpati Dev, father of the famous warrior-queen Rudrama Devi.

Recent Telugu movie on Rudramadevi.

The temple is devoted primarily to Shiv and is hence known locally as Rudreshwar (another name of Shiv) Swamy. The other main deities are Vishnu and Surya, the Sun-God. Although now the lines are blurry, historically the South was more Shaivite (Shiv-worshipping) and the North more Vaishnavite (Vishnu-worshipping).

Does the temple actually have a thousand pillars? Yes, and those are in the ‘Kalyan Mandapam’ (Sanctum Sanctorum) which unfortunately was closed for renovation at the time. Nevertheless it was quite beautiful, and as always there was the feeling of regret at how under-utilised our tourism potential is…

7 pm

Residence of Captain Laxmikant Rao, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)

We left the temple and went to the above mentioned address. The Captain used to be in the air force and though his surname is Rao he doesn’t belong to the caste of Padmanayak Velamas (which include Sir and KCR). Instead, his place in the caste hierarchy is far higher, in fact right at the very top – he was a Brahmin.

The Telugu Brahmins are a mysterious and enigmatic community. They are known to keep a low profile and do not openly assert themselves them as a group, the way Brahmins elsewhere do. For example, their Southern counterparts such as the Namboodiris of Kerala or the Ayyangars of Tamil Nadu hegemonise the polity and social life in their states in a way in which the Telugu Brahmins simply do not. Why is this so? My hypothesis is that it is because their historical position as royal advisors and educators was weakened by administrators and court officials who came from Persia and Central Asia to work in the government of the Qutub Shahis and thus replaced them. This trend continued right till Hyderabad’s accession to India in 1948.

(In fact my mother’s side of the family actually came to India centuries ago from their homeland in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) and became nobles in the Nizam’s court. To this day they retain their Central Asian family title of Mir.)

However, though the Telugu Brahmins are not as loud and vocal as their other counterparts, the ones who rise to positions of power go high indeed. In fact India’s first (and perhaps only; Deve Gowda doesn’t really count) Prime Minister from the South was a Telugu Brahmin – PV Narasimha Rao.

Captain Rao is in fact related to Narasimha Rao. His son Satish Vodithala, MLA for Husnabad, told me that he had the privilege of working with the former Prime Minister, whom he described as a genius.

Thus here we were in Captain Rao’s residence. It was full of all the important leaders from Warangal, along with key members of the cabinet and the party. The reason for the crowd was that the most eminent of guests was in the house – Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao himself, who was holding a review meeting of the ongoing projects in the area. He was inside a room in which he was holding one-on-one meetings. Whenever a politician’s name was called out he would madly scramble into the room from which (more often than not) someone ashen-faced would come out.

Finally, after a while, the Chief Minister emerged from the room.

Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao.

I was awe-struck. In front of me was the man who single-handedly created a separate state of Telangana. This was a task which was tried by the best and the brightest, including PV Narasimha Rao himself, but none could do it before him. Here he was, lord of his creation, in complete control, the master of the situation. A shudder went through the party members as they appeared before him. He radiated power and authority in a way that i’ve only seen Modi and Sonia Gandhi do (both of whom I had the good fortune to see in person). This was somewhat accentuated by the peculiar bluish hue of his white clothes, which comes from using a traditional Indian whitener known as ‘Ujala’. It gave him a rather divine look, like the blue skinned gods Rama and Krishna.

I was transfixed by his presence and going by the reactions of the others, so were they. At one point he came and stood right in front of me. Next to me was a Superintendent of Police, and he was asked some questions. The man stammered a reply and wilted before the Chief Minister’s instructions. His manneurisms, like his words, were measured, precise and quietly forceful. Seeing him in person I could understand fully for the first time why the party workers eulogised him the way they did.

He then went upstairs, followed by Sir, who is his close confidante and known as his right hand. A long discussion of politics and policy probably ensued as it always did, resulting in decisions which would affect the lives of millions.

I had my dinner with MLA Satish’s family. As Brahmins they could not eat meat, so found their protein nourishment through excellent curd, which I helped myself to. The day finally came to an end, and I retired to my hotel.

Epilogue

This was a day in the life of B Vinod Kumar, Member of Parliament. Hopefully through this you could get a taste of what an Indian politician’s life is like. Thank you for staying through this long post, and look forward to seeing you next time.

A day in the life of a Telangana Parliamentarian This post is written with two objectives: To give urban middle class readers, the majority of whom have no practical experience of politics, an insight as to what the daily routines of politicians are like.

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