PROFESSIONS, CHECKERED CAREER, AND LESSONS-PART SIX (From Librarian to CPRO to CM KCR) ...... A Journey from Khangi School to Center for Excellence : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

PROFESSIONS, CHECKERED CAREER, 

AND LESSONS-PART SIX

(From Librarian to CPRO to CM KCR)

A Journey from Khangi School to

Center for Excellence

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Prefatory Note

(These reflections arise from close observation and lived experience during a defining phase in the history of Telangana. They are offered with deep respect for Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao, a leader of rare intellectual depth, political courage, and unwavering commitment to the idea of Telangana. What follows is not merely recollection, but an attempt to record how vision, resolve, and governance converged to shape a people’s destiny.

While this narrative draws upon a professional journey that spans eleven organizations and multiple institutional settings, it consciously begins with the final and most consequential phase of that journey. A brief reference to my academic formation is included at the outset only to provide essential context, before the account moves directly into the concluding chapter of my professional life.}

On March 3, 2018, KCR, for the first time, openly articulated the need for a fundamental and qualitative change in the country’s political landscape. While doing so, he clearly hinted that he himself was prepared to play a leading role in shaping such an alternative. He expressed deep dissatisfaction with the slow pace of national progress and what he described as the cumulative failures of the existing political system.

I was present at that moment, watching him closely, not merely listening to the words, but observing the intensity of his expression and the depth of his conviction. As he went on to enumerate over a hundred evidence-based issues, repeatedly pointing out where the country’s leadership over the past seventy years had faltered, especially when compared with the trajectories of other nations, it unfolded as a meticulously reasoned political analysis, backed by data and comparative insight.

His call for a qualitative transformation in politics, anchored in the idea of setting a fresh national agenda, resonated strongly with public sentiment. Personally, I felt that KCR had demonstrated his capacity to make a meaningful difference in Indian politics by thinking beyond conventional frameworks and by articulating goals that few leaders had even attempted to define. I recall listening to him with rapt attention during the discussion on the Appropriation Bill in the first week of April 2018 on the same subject with a transformation.

 On that occasion, he explained that a national alternative did not merely mean electoral arithmetic or coalition politics, but the forging of unity among all sections of society around a common developmental agenda. It was a powerful and rare articulation of inclusive nationalism. KCR’s decisiveness, and the precision with which he chose his words, often left me astonished. There were moments when I felt that had the political system genuinely understood the substance of what he was proposing, the course of national politics might have been different.

One such moment came on April 27, 2018, when he addressed the TRS Party Plenary in Hyderabad. His speech created palpable tremors in political circles. Referring to his own age and physical frailty, he said, in substance, that though he might appear fragile, he had led the struggle for Telangana, ensured its steady progress, and transformed it into a powerful and advantageously placed State.

KCR then, urged people to think big and think firmly, and then made an announcement that reverberated well beyond Telangana, that, he intended to launch from Telangana soil an initiative of national significance, aimed at doing good for the country. He observed, with quiet confidence, that this simple declaration had unsettled and frightened his adversaries. Witnessing that moment, I felt I was seeing a leader consciously stepping beyond the boundaries of State politics into a larger national imagination.

Back again about his welfare initiatives: one of the most widely discussed and nationally acknowledged initiatives of KCR’s governance was the Rythu Bandhu scheme, which attracted attention far beyond Telangana and received strong endorsement from eminent economists. The scheme was widely analyzed and praised in three authoritative articles, one by Arvind Subramanian in The Financial Express, another by The Economist in its Asia edition, and a third by Neelkanth Mishra in Business Standard. Each of these writings examined the scheme not merely as a welfare intervention, but as a potential redefinition of agricultural policy itself.

Arvind Subramanian described Rythu Bandhu as a social and agricultural policy template, characterizing it as an embryonic Universal Basic Income (UBI), or more precisely, an embryonic Quasi-Universal Basic Income (QUBI). He suggested that it could well represent the future of agricultural policy in India. The Economist viewed the scheme as a project that could eventually enable the phasing out of less efficient subsidies, while Neelkanth Mishra referred to it as an ambitious and structurally significant intervention. Such assessments from globally respected voices validated the intellectual and policy foundations of the program.

During the first fifty-one months of KCR’s first term as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, the State witnessed remarkable progress in a relatively short span following its formation. This progress was driven by a governance approach that placed poor and marginalized sections at the center, combining welfare with structural reform. The pace and scale of implementation reflected both political will and administrative clarity.

Among the many initiatives undertaken during this period were: enhancement of income limits to better identify Below Poverty Line families, expansion of Aasara pensions, implementation of Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes, enactment of the SC/ST Special Development Fund (Sub-Plan), upgradation of Girijan Thandas into Gram Panchayats, focused welfare measures for minorities, sheep distribution, Brahmin welfare initiatives, KCR Kits, farm loan waivers, Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bheema, uninterrupted quality power supply, rectification and purification of land records through Dharani, construction of major irrigation projects etc.

Furthermore were: Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha, double-bedroom housing for the poor, Telangana Ku Haritha Haram; administrative reforms, expansion of residential schools, Kanti Velugu eye-care program, introduction of a new zonal system, the TS-iPass single-window industrial clearance mechanism etc. At various stages of these processes, I was involved, sometimes actively, sometimes in a supportive or advisory capacity, supplementing and complementing the decision-making whenever the Chief Minister sought my inputs. KCTR’s typical style of seeking advice was inexplicable. 

KCR had the wisdom of economy and was fully conscious of the sectors where benefits from the investments were the highest. However, he was also allocating for spending funds to satisfy the basic needs for the welfare of poor and vulnerable. Underlying all these initiatives was KCR’s keen sense of economic prioritization. He demonstrated a clear understanding of sectors where public investment yielded the highest long-term returns, while remaining equally conscious of the need to allocate resources to meet the basic welfare requirements of the poor and vulnerable.

Accordingly, funds were channeled not only into visibly productive sectors, but also into areas where benefits were less immediately apparent, such as human development and capacity-building, recognizing that these investments ultimately enhance productivity and social stability. Within just three years of its formation, Telangana emerged as one of the select States eligible for additional borrowing limits, a reflection of its fiscal discipline and economic management.

Thus concluded the first fifty-one months of my association with K Chandrashekhar Rao as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, a phase that was historic not merely for its scale of governance, but for the clarity of thought, firmness of purpose, and originality of vision that defined it. The December 2018 Assembly elections reaffirmed the people’s faith in KCR’s leadership, returning him triumphantly for a second consecutive term.

With a landslide victory in the State Assembly elections held on December 7, 2018, K Chandrashekhar Rao was sworn in as Chief Minister of Telangana for a second term. The election results sent a clear signal that the slew of welfare measures implemented by his government had been well received by the people and had effectively translated into a strong vote bank for his (TRS-BRS) party. Despite hectic campaigning by top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the impact was negligible.

I continued to serve alongside him in the new mandate. The experiences of the second term, shaped by greater confidence, higher expectations, and more complex challenges, unfolded in a different yet equally compelling context. Those years, which also I have documented, merit their own narration, one that reflects the evolution of governance from consolidation to maturity. They follow form here.

Significantly, in his very first press meet, KCR identified the ‘National Economic Model’ as his top priority, aimed at addressing the distress of nearly 15 crore farmers across the country. Immediately upon assuming office, KCR once again focused on the principle of ‘Good Governance,’ placing emphasis on meticulous planning and effective implementation of both election promises and ongoing welfare and development schemes.

He left no stone unturned in steering the State toward stabilizing and advancing the vision of a ‘Golden Telangana.’ In his role as Chief Minister, he remained intensely engaged in continuous reviews of departments, one after another. I had the opportunity to observe him closely and with admiration, particularly the manner in which he consistently demonstrated strong guidance and leadership capabilities.

KCR’s characteristic combination of conventional and contemporary leadership of the highest order, marked by statesmanship, vision, multifaceted qualities, and deep commitment, along with his decision-making process rooted in consensus, consultation, and rigorous review, together resulted in the conceptualization and implementation of people-oriented, welfare-driven, and development-focused schemes in Telangana. In my close observation, this leadership model merits inclusion as a case study at institutions such as Harvard Business School, or any comparable global institution.

His review meetings exemplified a rare blend of personal humility and professional expertise: channeling determination toward building robust systems for long-term continuity; providing clear vision, strategy, and direction; inculcating a culture of discipline across all levels of the bureaucracy-both political and official, as KCR preferred to describe them, to achieve breakthrough results; sharing rich experiences drawn from diverse fields, including discipline, challenges, and successes; and driving participants to deliver outstanding outcomes in both the short and long term. Disseminating the essence of these deliberations through press releases was the responsibility of the Public Relations team, led by me as CPRO to the Chief Minister.

Despite his demanding schedule, KCR consistently remained mindful of certain responsibilities that lay outside conventional political priorities, such as promoting Universal Peace and prosperity. From January 21 to 25, 2019, he performed the Sahasra Maha Chandiyagam at his Erravalli Agricultural Farm, an initiative which, to my knowledge, has rarely been undertaken either by Chief Ministers who openly project themselves as staunch proponents of Hinduism or even by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What deeply impressed me was KCR’s intent and the larger objective behind the ritual: the all-round well-being of farmers, workers, labourers, employees, businesspersons, and, in essence, society at large. 

This event reminded me of an observation by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Professor Johan Frederik Staal of the University of California, a specialist in Vedic rituals and mantras. Reflecting on ancient traditions, he wrote: ‘Temples, cathedrals, and skyscrapers were built and fell into decay; languages and religions have come and gone, and innumerable wars were fought, but the Vedas and their rituals continued to be transmitted by word of mouth, from teacher to pupil, and from father to son. What a triumph of the human spirit over the limitations of matter and the physical body!’ In that spirit, I felt that KCR had performed a truly meaningful act. It is also noteworthy that he had conducted an Ayuta Chandiyagam during his first term as well.