Don't let Kia leave Andhra

A report by international news agency Reuters that South Korean auto major KIA Motors is planning to shift its manufacturing facility located in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district to neighbouring Tamil Nadu has rightly created political ripples and public concerns.

The question underlying the political churn and doubts in the minds of the general public is, does chief minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy have the capacity, interest and willingness to focus on development of the state and creating a business-friendly eco-system that will help the state rise in line with aspirations as an industrial and business powerhouse, and prosper.

Mr Reddy has scored in reforms and welfare — he has made English the default medium of school education and delivered on almost all his social welfare promises — but there is clearly more to a CM’s job scope — making his state conducive to welcoming investors, creating jobs and setting it forth on a journey of ever-increasing growth. It is on this count that perhaps Mr Reddy has disappointed not only his voters and supporters but the business community.

The new report came as a bolt but it was not from the blue. YSRC leaders — including its Hindupur member of Parliament Gorantla Madhav, who reportedly misbehaved with the global CEO of Kia Motors at the plant inauguration programme last year — have been making unrealistic and unethical demands of Kia — whose denial of the news report was tame and not convincing enough.

Let Mr Reddy not forget the Nano episode — West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee is still to recover from the decision of the Tatas to leave. Mr Chandrababu Naidu put in some effort to bring Kia to AP — in a seeming political zeal to undo every decision taken by the previous government, Mr Reddy must not let Kia leave.