There has been rarely a more disastrous, sad and heartrending year for Andhra Pradesh than 2009. The year began with one scandal and ended with another disgrace and was punctuated by several calamities in between. It was in the very second week of the year that Satyam Computers, one of the icons of the state, crumbled as its founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju stunned the entire country and created an upheaval in country's IT sector by admitting one of the biggest financial scam. Raju, admitting that he had cooked the account books of the company to the tune of Rs8000 crore and swindled funds, was arrested by the police. Later the case was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigations which has filed a charge sheet against Raju and other scamsters including his younger brother Rama Raju, chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani. They are still languishing in Chanchalguda central jail of Hyderabad and Ramalinga Raju's health is fast deteriorating as he is suffering from Hepatitis B and cardiac ailments. The investigators are yet to find out where the missing money has gone. The only silver lining in the darkest hour of Indian corporate was the way the Indian government went all out to save the third largest IT company of India and also saved the jobs of 40,000 odd software professionals and other employees of the company. As Satyam's share price and prestige nosedived, Mahindra & Mahindra came as Messiah and took over the company to give it a new lease of life. Both the share value and company's brand value has recovered to some extent under the new names of Mahindra Satyam. It was also a year of elections in Andhra Pradesh. In May, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, overcoming tough challenge from the opposition led the Congress party to power for second consecutive in the state, albeit with a narrow margin. This also played a major role in the UPA coming back to power at the center as the party won 33 Lok Sabha seats, highest number in all the states. The celebrations, however, proved shortlived. September proved to be the beginning of a tragic phase in the state's history. It was on the stormy morning of Sept. 2 that the chopper carrying YSR, his secretary, security guard and two pilots went missing while flying from Hyderabad to Chittoor. It had crashed in the dense Nallamalla forest in Kurnool district and heavy rains and inclement weather made search by police, army and air force impossible. It was unprecedented search operations involving satellites and Sukhoi fighters. The wreckage along with charred bodies were found by the Indian Air Force next morning, drowning the state into mourning as people wailed over the loss of a popular, pro poor and pro farmers leader. Then the 77-year-old-veteran K Rosaiah took over as the chief minister as Congress became a rudderless ship. Group rivalries resurfaced as a majority demanded anointment of YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy. Both the party and the state suffered collateral damage due to the political uncertainty. However, the high command chose to ignore the campaign in favor of Jaganmohan and Rosaiah remained in his chair. But the weak leader without any base of his own, was clearly no match for his predecessor in clout and power. Second disaster struck exactly in a month's time as the unprecedented rains and floods wrought misery and pain like never seen before. Millions were rendered homeless, throwing life out of gear in several districts as state suffered huge losses to the tune of Rs15000 crore. The districts of Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, Krishna and Guntur are yet to recover from the shock, trauma and losses and many displaced families are still languishing in temporary huts and tents. The year 2009 was also the year of Telangana. It was for the first time since 1969-70 that the demand for a separate state of Telangana came to the fore with such intensity and magnitude. Spearheaded by K Chandrasekhara Rao of Telangana Rashtra Samiti the movement engulfed the entire region and all the political parties. As KCR's fast unto death starting from Nov. 29 fueled anger among the students and the youth, the movement got out of hand of the politicians and turned into a people's movement. For the first time in the five decade-long history of struggle for Telangana, the central government gave a clean and categorical assurance. With the announcement of the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that the center was going to initiate the process for the formation of Telangana state, the anger turned into joy and celebrations and the Telangana youth hailed it as “second freedom”. But as Telangana returned to peace, fires of protest and anger erupted in the other two regions of Andhra and Rayala Seema in opposition to Telangana and continued till the second statement of Chidambaram saying the center will hold wide range discussions with all the parties on Telangana. It was again the turn for Telangana to rise in protest. The center was clearly in a bind and the state is caught in a vicious circle as political uncertainty, violence and fear is causing immense damage to the brand value of Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh. Telangana is hanging between hope and despair not knowing whether to laugh or cry. The Center has invited all the parties for talks. But few expect a quick result or an end to the uncertainty. If this one month long trouble has achieved anything, it is exposing the doublespeak of all the major political players. Congress, Telugu Desam and PRP, who had committed themselves to Telangana state are now standing divided on regional lines. A new element of disgrace was added to the entire swamp as a television channel went to town with photos and claim of a sex scandal in the state Raj Bhavan. As ABN channel claimed that the man with three women in the photos was the governor of Andhra Pradesh ND Tiwari, the center forced the 86-year-old politician to pack up and leave.
