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Will the real Chandrababu please stand up?

There is Chandrababu Naidu, the "CEO of Andhra Pradesh"; the blue-eyed boy of the World Bank; the guy who took one of the most backward states in India and propelled it straight into the pages of Fortune magazine; the guy who talks directly to Bill Clinton and Bill Gates (though not necessarily in that order).

And then there's the other Chandrababu Naidu: the bungler who is bad-mouthed by his own top bureaucrats; the guy who's supposedly bankrupted the state so badly that government cheques bounce; the show-boy who has slicked up Hyderabad in a classically Potemkin-ian manner (ie, merely along the route from his home to office, and back); the nervous politician who is now rumoured to be into heavy-duty tantra in order to survive.

So which is the real Chandrababu … and will he please stand up?

Living in Hyderabad, one confronts this schizophrenia all the time. The last time I visited Bombay, for instance, a friend slapped me on the shoulder excitedly and said, "Hey, I was reading about your Chandrababu in the latest Economist. I believe he's turning Hyderabad into a second Singapore."

I wish I could tell him those stories are all true. But, unfortunately, they're not.

The truth, as always, lies halfway between two extreme viewpoints. There is obviously a lot of great work that Chandrababu has done. But on top of that -- let us be very clear -- lies a dazzling layer of hype. The media, Indian as well as foreign, has been expertly massaged into adulation. They see only what has been highlighted to them, and cannot, or will not, see the rest of the picture.

It is a masterful PR job. And the big question is, who exactly is behind it all?

There is no obvious professional PR machinery behind Chandrababu. He has some advisors, but it is generally agreed that there is no real equivalent of Margaret Thatcher's Saatchi & Saatchi. Talking to an insider recently, I suddenly realised how it was all done. And the discovery took my breath away with its simplicity and audacity.

The fact is that Chandrababu doesn't need no PR agency -- because the entire bloody Confederation of Indian Industry is, in effect, his PR agency. A long time ago he managed to convince the CII that he was just their kind of guy: he communicated to them a powerful vision of business, technology, a streamlined bureaucracy and an empowered population, all working together to improve society … with himself pushing the buttons. In short, a CEO, not just another wretched politician.

It didn't take the CII long to buy into this vision. And once they had done that, they took over his entire public relations campaign for him. Every CII honcho became a Chandrababu salesman, in India, and abroad. Every CII member had its own PR machinery working overtime on his behalf (for free).

So who the hell needs a Saatchi & Saatchi?

To be fair, Chandrababu has done a lot towards implementing his vision of pragmatic, result-oriented, political governance. His efforts have often been bold and popular, like his innovative ways to computerise state records, to manage water, to build roads. And when the World Bank started working directly with state governments, it wasn't for nothing that it picked Andhra Pradesh as its first "focus state", for projects on nutrition, education, health, power reform, and other key areas.

But if you take the trouble to look below the surface, you can find plenty to worry about. Economists point out that the state's infotech-driven economy is nowhere as robust as it's made out to be. The fiscal deficit is huge: a budgeted deficit of 3.9 per cent, as against the 2.9 per cent agreed with the World Bank. The People's War Group is disconcertingly active. And the chief minister himself is under siege on a number of issues (particularly the massive hike in electricity tariffs).

Most embarrassing of all, perhaps, is the fact that, despite all those breathless stories in Fortune, Economist and the Wall Street Journal, a recent survey conducted by the CII -- yes, the same friendly CII -- revealed that on the basis of various development indicators, ranging from literacy growth to Internet penetration, Andhra Pradesh actually ranked a lowly 12th out of the 18 states that were studied. (Even the state's much-hyped investment climate, alas, was ranked only 9th out of the 18 states.)

So what is the bottom-line on Chandrababu? Just this: he is a master illusionist, as all great politicians (and CEOs) need to be. For there is a certain metaphysics of leadership. In order to initiate any transformation process the first step is to create a powerful and compelling vision. If that vision is powerful enough, it acts as a prophecy, a spiritual beacon. Winston Churchill understood this as well as Ho Chi Minh did -- or Akio Morita, for that matter.

But there's a little more to it. As the old saying goes, "If you have built your castle in the clouds, don't worry, that is where it should be. Now work to build the foundation under it." Chandrababu still has a lot of foundation left to build.

Anvar Alikhan