Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday requested that the Centre take stringent action against two Hyderabad-based newspapers and a television news channel affiliated to ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi for distorting the statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in parliament.
A delegation of the state BJP led by party president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar submitted a memorandum to this effect to Union parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi in New Delhi.
Sanjay Kumar explained to the Union minister that a vernacular newspaper, an English daily and a Telugu television news channel, affiliated to the ruling party, were spewing venom on the Telangana activists, rival political parties and other media houses, which are questioning the policies of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the TRS government.
“In the name of freedom of expression, these pro-TRS media organisations have been publishing scurrilous reports only to provoke their party cadres to resort to physical attacks by whipping up Telangana sentiment,” he alleged.
The BJP president pointed out that these newspapers and channel had completely distorted the comments made by Modi in parliament and damaged the reputation of the august Parliament and the Prime Minister.
“It is atrocious to attribute wrong motives to the Prime Minister, who had been striving the development of Telangana and welfare of the people,” he regretted.
He alleged that the TRS government had resorted to blatant misuse of power and looted the state exchequer to give advertisements worth crores of rupees to these pro-TRS media in the last seven years.
“In fact, the television channel is being operated from the premises of TRS state headquarters in Hyderabad,” he pointed out.
The delegation comprised BJP national vice-president D K Aruna, MP Dharmapuri Arvind, national executive member Eatala Rajender, former MP A P Jitender Reddy, former state legislative council chairman Swami Goud, former minister A Chandrasekhar, former MLC N Ramachandra Rao, advisor to Union water resources ministry Vedire Sriram, state general secretary G Premender Reddy and others.