All said and done, the Chalo Vijayawada rally organised by the Andhra Pradesh state government employees on Thursday was a big success, looking at the massive turnout of thousands of employees and teachers from all parts of the state.
It was a fact, which was admitted by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government itself. State government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said it appeared like a show of strength by the employees, rather than a protest to project their demands.
So far so good. But what surprised everybody was the way the Telugu media covered the event. Though the rally of the employees was essentially meant for bringing pressure on the YSR Congress party government to achieve their demands, the anti-establishment and pro-Telugu Desam Party media sought to project it as a public revolt against chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
So, the pro-TDP media gave an extensive coverage to the Chalo Vijayawada rally, right from the morning to evening. Channels like ETV, ABN Andhra Jyothy, TV5 and a couple of other channels telecast the rally and the speeches live and also conducted debates, as if Jagan government is collapsing.
Even on Friday, the pro-TDP newspapers gave massive front-page coverage of the rally, apart from big photographs of the rally in the inside pages.
On the other extreme, Sakshi media channel owned by Jagan has completely ignored the rally. It continued to telecast all the other news, except the employees’ rally, except in the evening when Sajjala and chief secretary Sameer Sharma explained the government stand on the employees’ demands.
On Friday, too, Sakshi gave a very meagre coverage to the massive rally dismissing it in a few paras. Though it carried a small story on the front page along with the picture, it sought to project that the rally had turned political and most of those who participated in the rally were the Communist party workers, besides TDP and Jana Sena party workers.
This kind of political divide among the Telugu media is not confined only to Andhra Pradesh. Even in Telangana, the media is divided between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the opposition.
When there is any major agitation by people or protests by farmers, it doesn’t find any place in pro-TRS media like Namaste Telangana and even in Sakshi or Eenadu. But the other media houses like Velugu follow the other extreme stand.
Where is the credibility of the Telugu media, when they can’t project the facts, irrespective of their political affiliations?
