A controversial party member
Only a few months after winning the election, Raju criticised Jagan’s decision to oblige Telugu-language government schools in Andhra Pradesh to teach in English. Soon after, he gave interviews in the media about an alleged government scam related to low-income housing projects, and spoke out against illegal land sales and black market deals between the government and the sand trade. In 2020 he complained to Narendra Modi that Jagan was promoting evangelism in Andhra Pradesh, and also drew public attention to the YSR Congress Party’s caste-based politics, claiming that the party has a strategy of using community leaders to target a leader of the same caste: “For instance, if they want to criticise Pawan Kalyan, they will make leaders of his community (Kapu) speak against him,” he said in an interview.
Most controversially of all, in April 2021 he asked a CBI special court to cancel Jagan Mohan Reddy’s bail on the grounds that the CM had violated its conditions. Jagan has already served sixteen months in prison in a disproportionate assets case, and has still not been cleared. He was granted bail, provided he refrain from attempting to influence any of the witnesses in the case. According to Raju – never afraid to speak his mind and tell the truth as he sees it – Jagan has tried to do just that, rewarding those who were accused with him and thereby breaking the terms of his bail.
On Friday 14th May 2021, Mr Raju was arrested and charged with sedition. It was a clear warning to any MPs who refuse to toe the party line, and anyone who dare criticise the Chief Minister.
The events surrounding Raju’s arrest are a glaring example of the institutional crisis in India today. Both the police and doctors at a government hospital, who were called upon to provide evidence, showed themselves to be corrupt tools of the state government. The media, reporting on the case, told the story acceptable to the authorities rather than providing a neutral account. Even the CBI, far from defending justice, acted as an arm of those in power.
When even a member of parliament is at risk of sedition charges for speaking out, no citizen of India can feel safe.