Normally, one would notice more or less similar news making headlines in all the mainstream newspapers. The presentation, tone and tenor and positioning might be different, but most of the news that appear on the front pages of all major dailies would be the same.
But on Wednesday, three major Telugu dailies – Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy and Sakshi –looked entirely different in the presentation of news, except for a few stories. The choice of banner stories and even routine stories by these dailies was different.
Eenadu carried a big flyer story on the growing atrocities on women despite stringent legislations as a follow-up to the Hyderabad rape and murder case. Naturally, such stories carry a lot of readability.
But surprisingly, Eenadu carried four reports that give a positive image of the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh.
The lead story is about the report of the high-power committee on RTC employees’ merger with the state government, which said there would be no decrease in salaries of the employees and there would be no more Mazdoor Unions but only employees’ unions etc. It says the report would be tabled in the forthcoming assembly sessions.
Second report is about chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s magnanimity towards a girl child who lost both her eyes due to cancer by coming forward to bear all the expenses towards her treatment.
The third report is about the submission of report by WAPCOS, a consultancy wing of the Union water resources ministry on Godavari-Krishna-Pennar river linkage, which is aimed at providing irrigation to parched lands of Rayalaseema and the upland areas of coastal Andhra. The report said the DPR would be prepared once it gets the chief minister’s nod and tenders would be called immediately.
The fourth report is about increase of 50 seats in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences coming up at Mangalagiri.
On the other hand, Andhra Jyothy took a completely negative stand against the YSRC government in its stories on the front page.
Its lead story is about Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu’s outburst against the YSRC government for continuing to harass his party workers by filing false cases (Eenadu also carried this story on the front page).
It also carried Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan’s attack on the Jagan government for failing to bring down the prices of essential commodities like onions and his demand for the resignation of Jagan as the chief minister.
The alleged orders given by some ministers to the cable operators to stall ABN Andhra Jyothy channel also figured on the top of the front page of Andhra Jyothy. The daily also carried another negative story as an anchor, in which it alleged the YSRC is trapping at least three TDP MLAs into the party.
At the same time, the daily also carried a special story on how Swamy Nityananda of Karnataka has created his own world at an island near West Indies and is ruling the same.
As usual, Sakshi daily carried its own brand of pro-government stories including the lead stories on saving of Rs 83 crore through reverse tendering in smart phone purchase and launch of YSR Law Nestham programme by the chief minister. All other reports were carried as pointers to the stories carried in the inside pages.