Hyderabad: Tens of thousands of grief stricken people turned out Friday to pay last respects to the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, whose body was kept at a stadium in Hyderabad before being flown to his native Pulivendula town in Kadapa district and buried.
The body was flown in an army helicopter from Begumpet airport after thousands of people paid their last respects at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad.
A stampede at the stadium forced authorities to move the body to the airport an hour before schedule. Police failed to control the surging mourners, who broke barricades at several points to rush towards the body kept on a pedestal in the middle of the ground.
Several people were injured, some of them seriously, as police used force to control the crowds. As the situation was going out of control, the late leader's son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had a word with military and police officers to shift the body to the airport.
Though the body was scheduled to be kept at the stadium till 1400 hrs IST to enable people to pay their last respects, the situation forced the authorities to move it out at 1300 hrs IST.
However, Jaganmohan Reddy said that bad weather in Kadapa forced the family to complete the last rites before schedule. He also appealed to people to be brave and not commit suicide.
"I appeal to all of you to be patient and be brave in this hour of tragedy. He (YSR) wanted to see a smile on the faces of all and if you resort to such things (suicide) this will hurt him," he said.
YSR, who died in a chopper crash on Wednesday, was laid to rest at his family estate, Idupulapaya, in Pulivendula town by his parents' side.
YSR, as he was popularly known, stayed at the estate during every visit to Kadapa district and inquired about various plantations in the estate. The place was also close to his heart as his parents were interred there.
The estate, owned by YSR's family for over three decades, was at the centre of a controversy as opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had alleged that the family acquired the land in violation of various regulations. A case filed by a TDP leader is pending in the court.
YSR, who had surrendered over 600 acres of the estate land in 2006 for distribution among poor, had stated on a number of occasions that his father Y S Raja Reddy bought the land from his hard earned money and cultivated it.
PUBLIC EMOTION VINDICATES YSR'S MASS APPEAL
Was Y S Rajasekhara Reddy one of India's most popular leaders in terms of crowd appeal? If the turnout for his funeral, the public display of emotion by thousands and the number of people in Andhra Pradesh who have died of shock or committed suicide is an indication, then it would appear so.
There have been instances of grief-stricken supporters ending their lives after the deaths or misfortunes of their political idols, particularly of cinema stars turned politicians. But no political leader's death in recent times has triggered such a wave of emotion.
There was mass hysteria in Tamil Nadu, for instance, after then chief minister M G Ramachandran was taken to the US in 1984 for treatment. Many people attempted self-immolation. His death three years later sparked an inexplicable frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state that left 23 people dead, says a posting on his site www.puratchithalaivar.org.
Besides, 30 people committed suicide and lakhs had their heads tonsured, said the site.
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In 1984, eight people killed themselves after Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao was toppled by his finance minister N Bhaskar Rao.
Unlike Rajasekhara Reddy, known as YSR, MGR and NTR were not just politicians but also hugely popular screen stars who had been elevated to the status of virtual demigods.
"However, YSR's death is different as he did not have an actor's label. He was a truly a people's leader and endeared himself to the masses, identified with their cause and did a lot for farmers to lift them from the agrarian crisis," Rama Brahman, head of political science in Hyderabad University, said.
"Going by the initiatives he launched in 2004, he altered the policy agenda for governance. Obviously, farmers who have benefited from schemes, pensioners in rural pockets who receive their fixed Rs 2,200 and even women who are financially independent through employment schemes now feel orphaned or insecure," Brahman, who has been chronicling YSR's policies for some years, added.
A large number of people who died included young supporters of YSR and the beneficiaries of the various welfare schemes launched by him in the last five years. The deaths were reported from 19 out of 23 districts in the state.
According to Malla Reddy, a leader of the Andhra Pradesh Railu Sangam, a farmer's collective, people loved YSR "very much".
"Some poor farmers are apprehensive of the fate of free power and medicare. There are others who have benefited immensely through subsidised housing and pension schemes. They are bound to get worried and have taken the extreme step," he said.
"I won't be surprised if the death toll goes up."
In Reddy's view, this was another way for people at the lowest rungs of the social and economic hierarchy to draw attention of the political class to their plight.
Anand Kumar of the sociology department in the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi gives a different spin.
"This expression of frustration and disappointment where people have taken their lives or died of shock is extremely rare in India and not witnessed especially in politics," he said.
"These people have been beneficiaries of his schemes and put all their eggs in a basket called YSR."
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