Chandrababu Naidu Has Defeated Revenge, With Annual Renewals

Chandrababu Naidu has announced that revenge takes only a minute. This is excellent news for Andhra Pradesh, which can now expect the chief minister to stop discussing his arrest any day soon. On September 9, 2026, at a government programme in P. Gannavaram, Konaseema, Naidu marked the third anniversary of his 2023 arrest by speaking about value-based politics, democratic restraint and the dangers of political vendetta. Nothing says “we have moved on” like a commemorative event dedicated to proving that you have moved on.

Naidu’s argument is that cases filed by the previous regime were rejected and that central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate, found no merit in the allegations. The public record is less decorative. The Supreme Court record in the Skill Development Corporation case referred to a prima facie case at the remand stage, with allegations involving approximately ₹279 crore in alleged misappropriation within a wider scheme of about ₹370 crore. That is not a conviction, and it is not a clean chit. It is an inconvenient middle ground, where legal process refuses to behave like campaign literature.

The political achievement is therefore impressive. An arrest has been converted into a renewable leadership asset: every anniversary becomes evidence of persecution, every reference to accountability becomes “revenge”, and every speech about the future circles back to the custody van. Naidu says exacting vengeance takes a minute, then spends a full public programme demonstrating the long-term returns available from not doing it.

The next day, at a TDP leadership conclave, he instructed party leaders to publicise government achievements and counter “false information” on social media. The choreography is beautifully complete: the chief minister declares himself above grievance, while the party is sent out to keep the grievance professionally amplified. Somewhere in the machinery of Andhra Pradesh, governance is being asked to share a stage with a three-year-old political flashback.

For Telangana, the lesson is familiar. Regional politics is supposed to be answerable to its own people, not permanently trapped in a national-media storyline about one leader’s moral biography. Ordinary citizens require functioning promises, not another annual episode of constitutional self-portraits.

Naidu has moved on so thoroughly that the arrest now has a recurring government slot.