An attempt by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government to get big coverage in the national media to the exposure of the multi-crore skill development scam by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Andhra police appears to have backfired on Thursday.
The national media houses in Hyderabad received multiple calls and text messages from the Jagan government that CID additional director general N Sanjay and additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy would address a press conference at Lake View Guest House on Saturday evening.
The national media was given the impression that the CID chief would disclose some sensational issues about the skill development scam and the role of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu in the scam.
The task of mobilising the national media reporters to the press conference was entrusted to the Information and Public Relations Department headed by T Vijay Kumar Reddy and also to the office of national media advisor Devulapalli Amar.
While some national media reporters went to the venue, many others simply ignored the same, because there were other developments to cover, especially the Enforcement Directorate’s fresh notices to Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and BRS legislator Kalvakuntla Kavitha.
Even those who went to the Lake View Guest House were shocked as the press conference was like a public meeting with scores of local reporters from Telugu newspapers, electronic media and even digital media occupying the entire hall.
As usual, the still photographers and camerapersons of electronic media were jostling for space to cover the press conference. There was no space for some of the national media reporters even to sit, let alone interacting with Sanjay.
They realised that the press meet was not meant for national media reporters alone, but the organisers invited everybody who claims to be a journalist.
And when the press meeting actually started, the national media reporters realised that there is nothing new in what Sanjay was saying and everything was said at the press conference in Vijayawada on Wednesday itself. A couple of them quietly walked out of the hall.
Moreover, the local media reporters were demanding that Sanjay should speak in Telugu and this has further irritated some national media reporters, who could not understand Telugu. And Sanjay was also speaking more like a politician than an investigating officer.
When some Telugu reporters were shooting questions, he was getting irritated. Even Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy was also projecting it as the biggest scandal, but finally what was given to the media was the same old information which was mentioned in the remand report.
The bottom line was that the press conference of Sanjay in Hyderabad did not serve the purpose and the national media largely ignored it.
Needless to say, it was a big failure on the part of Vijay Kumar and Amar to ensure a good coverage to such an important development.
