United in superstition: How Telugu CMs are wasting public money on Vaastu

Hyderabad: What is driving the tech-savvy Chandrababu Naidu administration in Andhra Pradesh and revolutionary leader K Chandrasekhar Rao government in Telangana? It is superstition. Both are spending huge sums from the respective state exchequers to ward off evil influences. For those not in the know, Naidu is the first chief minister in the country to have introduced iPads for a cabinet meeting, and both he and KCR claim to be modern-day administrators driven by the spirit of science and power of technology. That makes their fascination for Vaastu – the ancient treatise on constructions with dubious scientific merit – difficult to fathom. Since the day they came to power, they have been busy changing construction plans of offices – elevation of the offices, positioning of the entry gate, toilets, windows opening in specific directions and what not – at a hefty cost to the exchequer of course. [caption id=“attachment_2074895” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana CM KC Rao.[/caption] However, what is giving jitters to officials of the cash-strapped states, which are now almost sure of not getting any “special packages” from the Centre, is the huge burden of expenditure to be cast on the exchequers of the two Telugu states. KCR, after a seven-hour-long marathon Cabinet meeting on Friday, announced that the current building complex of the Telangana state secretariat had serious Vaastu defects that would hamper the prosperity of the newly-carved state and cast the spell of an evil on it. He has now identified the sprawling premises of Government TB and Chest Hospital at Erragadda area for building an ultra-modern Vastu-compliant Secretariat complex to house the heads of various departments also at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore. “None of those who worked from here (the current building) were happy or prospered. This has serious Vaastu defects,” he said at a news conference. While responding to a query on the possibility of razing the heritage structure that housed the Chest Hospital, he inadvertently opened a can of worms by saying: “Meaningful heritage is okay. Mindless and meaningless heritage is not okay. We will follow the law of the land for removing heritage structures.” This is sure to trigger a controversy sometime later. As if to add a dash of religious tolerance and equality of sentiments, KCR said that priests of all religions would offer prayers to ward off evils before taking up the construction of new secretariat, for which plans are almost complete. If that wasn’t enough, he listed out a slew of “offerings” the Telangana government would make to fulfill the “vows”, he made during the agitation, to different presiding deities, as the Gods “granted the wishes” and helped create Telangana. KCR would personally go to Tirumala and offer gold ornaments costing Rs 5 crore to Lord Venkateswara to fulfill the vow. The Telangana government would construct a dormitory at a cost of Rs 5 crore at Ajmer Dargah to facilitate Telangana pilgrims and KCR would also personally visit and offer the customary ‘chaadar’ at the Dargah. Nose-studs would be offered to Kanakadurgamma atop Indrakeeladri in Vijayawada, Padmavathi Devi at Tiruchanur, a golden crown to Goddess Bhadrakali and golden moustaches to Veerabhadra Swamy, the presiding deity at Kuravi. KCR, who had several changes made to the current official residence of the Chief Minister in Begumpet in accordance to Vaastu, stepped in after performing a homam (holy fire) on assuming office. Now, he is mulling the idea of moving into the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) building which was vacated recently, as the current official residence of the chief minister did not seem Vaastu-compliant to him. N Chandrababu Naidu’ fascination for Vaastu is well-known. He had the main entrance of the Telugu Desam Party state headquarters office renovated and repositioned a few times. After becoming chief minister, he had the very direction of the state secretariat changed to face Hussain Sagar lake. When the original Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated, the ‘H’ Block in the erstwhile secretariat was renovated and modernized at a cost of several crores of rupees to house the office of the chief minister. Naidu, on returning to power after a protracted gap of one full decade, took to Vaastu and had a couple of floors renovated at a cost of Rs 20 crore to house the CMO in the “L” Block, in the half of secretariat that was allotted to AP. However, at the recent ‘At Home’, a high-tea hosted by Governor ESL Narasimhan, on Republic Day, KCR told Naidu that even the current CMO which the latter occupied was in contravention of Vaastu postulates. Naidu lost no time in getting his pundits working on that again. Though Naidu announced on the floor of the assembly that area in and around Vijayawada was chosen to locate the Capital of Andhra Pradesh, it was KCR who prevailed upon Naidu, albeit casually, that the capital should be located south of a river course. All capitals which are located on the southern side of rivers prospered, KCR averred during his tete-a-tete with Naidu during the ‘At Home’ on Independence Day last year. This resulted in villages on the banks of the Krishna in Guntur district becoming the Capital Region for the residual Andhra Pradesh. Taking cue from their leaders, several ministers too are having their offices renovated to meet ‘Vaastu’ requirements. Now Naidu is completely renovating his residence (own house) in the upmarket Jubilee Hills area. Is it the same Naidu who gloats about Singapore-type of ultra-modern Capital City and is it the same KCR who boasts of ITIR (Information Technology Investment Corridor) around Hyderabad.