A day after YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy was sent to jail in connection with the disproportionate assets case, leader of opposition in Andhra Pradesh assembly and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu went hammers and tongs against the YSR family alleging that they indulged in the biggest corruption in the history of India.
"Adarsh, commonwealth and 2G scams are mere peanuts in front of what YSR and his son have done during last 8 years in Andhra Pradesh," he said.
Stressing that the CBI's accusations against Jagan were nothing new, as he had been making these allegations for a very long time and that they were documents in several books and reports, Naidu said that so far YSR family was being shielded by the Congress party.
"It is now for the Congress party to give an explanation to the people what it was doing all the while when YSR and his son were looting the exchequer and the people of the state to tune of thousands of crores of rupees. Why did they fail to take action when the opposition parties were raising these issues and even intelligence agencies had sent the reports to the Centre about what was happening in Andhra Pradesh?"
Naidu said that before coming to power in 2004, YS Rajasekhara Reddy had declared his assets at Rs 2 crore and paid an income tax only of Rs 8 lakh.
"With in 8 years, the assets of his family have reached several thousand crores. He and his family systematically looted and plundered the state in an unprecedented manner," he said.
Alleging that YSR made money in every single deal during his regime, Naidu said that YSR had three, four different models of indulging in corruption from every company.
"He will either ask straight for the money, or demand a partnership in the company or will ask the company to invest money in his son's companies," he said.
"The YSR family looted state's mineral wealth and land with both the hands. All the land in the surroundings of Hyderabad has now gone in the name of SEZs, which were nothing but real estate that benefitted Jagan," he said.
Giving an example he claimed that industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad alone made an investment of Rs 854 crore in Jagan's company as the YSR government had allotted 28,000 acres of land to his project.
"In Jagati Publications, Janani Infrastructure and Indira Television alone Rs 1,200 crore were invested. The share value of Bharati Cements was escalated to the extent that Jagan made Rs 2,500 crore by selling 50 per cent of the shares in the company. Where as the value of 100-year-old Dalmia cement company could not cross Rs 120 per share, Bharati cement was valued at Rs 1,350 per share. Even before his newspaper, Sakshi was launched its share price was fixed at Rs 350 per share."
Naidu said that as part of this systematic corruption, Jagan launched 67 companies and 22 of them were used for money laundering.
"We had levelled this charge many years ago that Rs 140 crore were brought in to Sandur power company from abroad through illegal routes," he said.
Apart from misusing the power, YSR family also indulged in large scale grabbing of public and private lands, he said, giving the example of grabbing of 750 acres of government and forest land at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district.
On the statements of Jagan's mother Vijayalakshmi that her son was being victimised and harassed, Naidu wanted her to correct her mistake of not restraining her son from indulging in corruption and other illegal activities.
"She knew everything. When he was building palatial houses everywhere, she should have asked her from where the money was coming," he said.
Naidu exuded confidence that the people will teach a lesson to Jagan and his YSR Congress party in the by elections to 18 assembly and one Lok Sabha seat due for June 12.
He rejected the idea that the YSR Congress party will benefit from sympathy because of Jagan's arrest. "Where is the question of any sympathy? They have to pay the price for the sins they have committed", he said.
