T. Anjiah's question-and-answer column becomes a smash hit

When, as a rank outsider, he cantered home far ahead of the field in the chief minister's stakes last October, T. Anjiah was immediately christened "The Faceless One." The sobriquet seemed to have acquired a permanent ring to it in the first few months of his chief ministership, when he kept a low profile and insisted on over stuffing his cabinet, apparently convinced that there was safety in numbers.Suddenly, almost overnight, the state has been wiped clean and Anjiah rides again. All that was required to bring about the miracle was a gimmick so far used exclusively by film stars and lonely-heart columnists.The gimmick called, ironically enough, "Face to Face", is a column by that name started in the Telugu weekly Andhra Prabha, part of the Indian Express stable, in which Anjiah answers reader's questions on a wide range of subjects.When the weekly first broached the idea to the chief minister, his aides balked at the prospect, realising that any commitment made in the column would have to be honoured and, secondly, at the unwelcome flak it would invite from his opponents accusing him of cheap film land gimmickry. Anjiah, however, overruled their objections and gave the go-ahead and ever since then has been laughing all the way to the vote bank. In fact, the column's popularity has surpassed even the most optimistic estimates. When the deadline for the first batch of letters expired, the weekly's mailbag was overflowing with 1,600 letters to Anjiah. Consequently, when the first issue with Anjiah's question-and-answer column hit the stands on April 22, it occupied the entire four pages of the weekly and was a smash hit.Overflowing Generosity: Soon, however, Anjiah discovered that he was having to pay a heavy price for popularity. Caught up in the initial euphoria of the column's success, Anjiah turned exceedingly generous with the state coffers as he distributed money by the bucketful in response to readers with financial sob-stories to tell. Within weeks, frantic officials informed Anjiah that the Chief Minister's Relief Fund was fast approaching total depletion. Undaunted, Anjiah undertook a crash course in how to give with the right and take with the left. "If one is willing to serve people, money is not hard to find," he airily told India Today last fortnight having earlier demonstrated this reciprocality when, in return for giving away the Chief Minister's cup at the Hyderabad race club, he received Rs 9 lakh as a contribution to his relief fund.The chief minister: A smash hitMeanwhile, the letters are pouring in at an alarming rate, including hundreds from schoolchildren asking for autographed pictures of Anjiah, raising him to film star status. An equally large number of letters are from people requesting jobs, while others involve charges of corruption against state officials.Letters from the handicapped or the aged asking for government doles are crosschecked for veracity while corruption charges are carefully probed. In many cases, Anjiah has ordered the immediate settlement of outstanding dues like pensions or delayed payments.Inevitably, there have been some wild goose chases, like the case of a letter from P. Mabu Saheb of Anantapur district who requested the chief minister for cement to construct a local tailor's association office. A deputy tehsildar was despatched to the village where the letter came from, only to discover that nobody by that name existed and neither was there an association of tailors.Good Samaritan: But generally, the letters and Anjiah's prompt response in the pages of the weekly have been a resounding success. Some samples:Q: I am a schoolteacher from the Kalavanthulu (former hereditary prostitutes') community and am being humiliated because of this background. My husband, an electricity board employee and I had two children before I was sterilised in 1972. We did not receive any benefits under the family welfare programme. Our son is no more and my daughter is teased because of the caste to which we belong. Can you show us a way out? A:Dear daughter. Rising above casteism comes with a cultured outlook the Government is seizing gramophone records and literature that degrade any community and will arrest all those responsible for such acts: Now, recanalisation is possible. If you desire to have another child, the Government will arrange for it.Q: Your advice to those who want to enter politics?A:If in a sound financial position, one can enter politics. But that does not mean that one should have money. It is not essential. If it is opportune, anyone can make it (whether he meant money or to make it in politics. Anjiah failed to mention).Q: Your wife's name and the number of children you have? You must answer!A.You remind me of my early married days Mrs Mannamma! Four daughters and a son.Q: Do you have a ration card?A.Yes, I have a card.Q: Do the squint-eyed come under the category of 'handicapped' for benefits?A:No.Popular Move: Despite the crackpot letters that creep in. "Face to Face" has been a belated booster for Anjiah, and indirectly, for the Andhra Prabha. Though the weekly's editor P. Venkateswara Rao denies that circulation has registered a rise since Anjiah's column started, the weekly has received 2,000 more letters after the initial 1.600 expressing gratitude for starting the column.Anjiah has been deluged with similar requests from rival publications and seems keen to cater to some of them at least. "I will give each of them an hour every week and I will also go on the air once a week over All India Radio and perhaps Doordarshan." says Anjiah, fired by a new enthusiasm and, of course, the apparent upsurge in popularity his new gimmick has triggered off.Meanwhile, the state's public relations department is planning to bring out a book on the chief minister's reply to questions in "Face to Face" which has already been dubbed Chairman Anjiah's little "red book" by local wags. However, the biggest irony in the entire affair is that the organisation responsible for giving Anjiah's popularity a much-needed boost is Ram Nath Goenka's Indian Express, till now considered rabidly anti-establishment. Even antagonists, it would appear, have their uses.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 11, 2013 08:52 IST--- ENDS ---

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T. Anjiah's question-and-answer column becomes a smash hit

The gimmick called, ironically enough, "Face to Face", is a column by that name started in the Telugu weekly Andhra Prabha, part of the Indian Express stable, in which Anjiah answers reader's questions on a wide range of subjects.

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