Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has likened his bete noire and predecessor YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar for turning politics into a criminal enterprise.
“During the YSR Congress Party’s rule between 2019 and 2024, the law and order had reached a new low and the state had emerged as the ganja capital of the country. The drug menace has penetrated deeply into society, bringing national infamy to Andhra Pradesh,” Naidu said while releasing a white paper on the law and order situation in the state.
“Only one person can be compared to what happened in Andhra, and it is Pablo Escobar,” he said in the assembly, referring to the alleged drug menace in the state.
Asserting that building a crime-free state was the goal of his government, Naidu assured the people that peace and security that were fully damaged in the previous government would be restored. Stringent action would be taken against anyone, however big he or she may be, if any disruption was caused to law and order in the state.
Recalling how Escobar, the drug lord whose reign of terror shook Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s, illegally sold drugs worth billions of dollars and went on to kill leaders and politicians who opposed him, the Chief Minister said the previous regime too encouraged illegal drug trade and went after political rivals.
With the “Medellin Cartel” that he founded, Escobar had established a corridor to sell drugs and allegedly earned up to $90 billion. According to the CM, Escobar had emerged as the richest drug lord in the world and likened him to the opposition leader.
“One can become the richest person by selling drugs also. You can become so by doing business, but what was the intention of the former CM? He thought Tata, Reliance and Adani-like people had money and how can I (Reddy) earn more than them,” said Naidu.
Calling Escobar a “narco-terrorist”, Naidu alleged that a similar situation had emerged in Andhra Pradesh under the YSRCP regime when ganja was allegedly freely available.
Elaborating on the law-and-order situation, the CM alleged that the erstwhile YSRCP government had “terrorised” the state by cracking down on opposition parties, the general public and other sections with vendetta politics.
He alleged that the YSRCP government had troubled people using the police force as a “torture tool” and sidelined officials who did not cooperate.
“The first and foremost thing that any government should do in a democracy is to give assurance to protect the lives and assets of people, including the protection of women, but, sadly, this kind of uncivilised thing could happen in a civilised world,” Naidu said.
According to the TDP supremo, 2,560 cases were allegedly registered against party leaders and activists, which included criminal cases invoking stringent laws such as the SC & ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and others.
When Naidu asked the legislators from the ruling coalition how many were booked in cases under the YSRCP regime, a majority of them stood up in the House.
Further, the chief minister said that 17 cases were allegedly registered against him and that he was restrained from visiting the victims of the LG Polymers industrial accident in Vizag and attending several other political programmes.
The chief minister said 10,377 crimes occurred against SC communities, which included 192 murders and 108 abductions, while ST communities allegedly endured 1,768 crimes against them.
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