There is a community in Andhra Pradesh. The people of that community are known for hard work, financial discipline, political ambition, business acumen and many more. They are also known for unity among themselves. They have directly and indirectly contributed towards employment in various sectors of business. Their ambition to excel in every field made them compete with every other existing community of the state irrespective of intellectual or working class. They have a major chunk of presence in politics, film industry and business.
But the pity is, the same community is now facing a mental boycott from other communities. The main culprit behind this happening is a group of media channels and news papers which is informally called ‘yellow media’.
The biggest illusion is that this yellow media feels TDP has come to power several times only by its might. The present TDP supremo also lives in the same delusion that he has no political existence without the support of that media.
The matter of fact is different. Chandrababu Naidu never became Chief Minister of the state with media support. Rather he lost the power miserably due to that.
Looking back into the history we can clearly understand under what circumstances Chandrababu Naidu became the Chief Minister and under what situations he lost.
1995 is the year that Chandrababu Naidu became the CM for the first time. But that was a big political coup in the history of AP politics popularly known as ‘backstab’. Literally speaking, not because of any election, but only by backstabbing NTR, his nephew Naidu enthroned as the Chief Minister. There was huge support from yellow media to Chandrababu in this backstab episode.
1999 is the year that made him the CM again only because of the ‘Vajpayee Wave’ that covered the entire nation. Naidu’s tie up with BJP helped him to continue to sit on CM’s chair. Yellow media continued its support with only praising articles and not even an iota of criticism.
2004 has shown Naidu the true power of opponent. He lost miserably to YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the polls. It should be underlined that yellow media has shown its utmost loyalty to Chandrababu even before this election.
2009 has repeated the defeat for Chandrababu and YSR continued to sit on the CM’s chair. Yellow media predicted that Naidu will be the CM again for sure with many stories and eulogies before the elections.
2014 is the most disturbing year with the bifurcation of the state. As the Narendra Modi wave camouflaged everything in the nation and by the virtue of TDP’s tie up, Naidu could become the CM for the third time. Yellow media was behind Naidu even before this election.
2019 is the devastating year for TDP as it has seen the historical defeat in its fight with YSRCP. Yellow media’s aggressive promotions supporting Naidu were of no use.
Now analyzing the above incidents, yellow media groups became successful in pushing Chandrababu into a quagmire of illusion that he got power thrice only because of them. Chandrababu’s reciprocation to these groups when he was in power also kicked them into a whirlpool of delusion that they are the king makers.
The truth is, Chandrababu became CM by crooked means for the first time (in 1996) and by BJP wave for the next two times (in 1999 and 2014); not certainly because of yellow media.
But he lost thrice miserably only because of the over dose of TDP-love by yellow media along with pro-incumbency wave once (in 2009) and anti-incumbency for two times (in 2004 and 2019).
Apart from digging a deep hole to bury TDP, the yellow media ignited negative sparks on a particular community that has been part of TDP. It is shocking to see how the majority people in Andhra Pradesh wishfully desire to see the disappearance of TDP from the state only because of the hatred on the community.
Over-projection of a community based party that boasts about its blood and breed didn’t go well with the general public. The yellow media created a big mental gap between this community and the other communities in the state irrespective of OCs, BCs, SCs and STs.
The result is seen with growing pro-incumbency wave even after two years of YSRCP came into power.
Whatever be the range of success a party sees in General Elections and how impressive be the rule is, it is a general phenomenon to see at least a little anti incumbency after two years. But the unending hatred on this community based party is growing big from time to time, showing its reflection in Panchayat, Municipal and Tirupathi Lok Sabha elections.
People are in a mood to question the government on anything else only after seeing the complete death of TDP in AP like it happened in Telangana State. There can be no parameter for this inference than the election result.
It is high time the yellow media and some people on social media stop boasting about TDP as that is the only poison which is killing the party and the image of the community. Particularly, when the people of the same community write on social media criticizing about the ruling government, it is being understood by the public as pro-TDP write up and thus adding fuel to the fire of hatred.
Written By Usha Chowdhary