Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has one positive trait: he doesn’t act with vengeance against his critics in the media.
Though he may resort to indirect way of taking revenge like stopping advertisements etc, he does not indulge in threatening or intimidating the media which writes negative stories about him.
At the most, he will not entertain media persons who make wild allegations against him or his government.
However, his son Nara Lokesh, who has recently joined the Naidu cabinet after becoming the MLC, is entirely opposite to his father.
Though he too appeared soft towards media, he has started taking a vengeance stand against media, which are writing negative stories on him.
A couple of days ago, Lokesh became a subject of ridicule in the social media for his fumbling in extending “greetings” to the people on the occasion of 126th "vardhanti" (death anniversary) of Dr B R Ambedkar, whereas it was the birth anniversary.
The way he fumbled, unable to clearly recite certain words in Telugu, while taking oath as an MLC or his speech at an election meeting wherein he said voting on "cycle" (TDP's poll symbol) was akin to "hanging yourself" and another instance where he said the TDP was the only party that was "casteist, communal, corrupt and money-minded" all exposed Lokesh, as video clips of his communication skills went viral on social media in recent days and apparently showed him in a "very poor light".
This has angered Lokesh very much, as he is being increasingly targeted in the social media. He took a serious view of this growing attack on him, Lokesh indicated to his party leaders that he would initiate criminal action against those "tarnishing our image".
"The (mainstream) media is favourable to us but we have no control over the social media and there is a lot of negative propaganda against us. We have to curb this," he is said to have told party leaders in a power point presentation during the coordination meeting recently.
"If we start taking criminal action against those making critical posts, it will be a deterrent to others," Lokesh is learnt to have said.
