The unending agitation by farmers of Amaravati, the capital region of Andhra Pradesh, appears to be taking a violent turn, if the Tuesday’s attack on the vehicle of YSR Congress MLA from Macherla Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy is any indication.
It is no surprise, as the agitation which began spontaneously on a peaceful note has turned aggressive with the entry of political parties – be it Telugu Desam Party or the Bharatiya Janata Party or Jana Sena or even the Communist parties.
Naturally, the ruling YSR Congress party leaders are forced to launch a counter-attack with daily press conferences targeting Naidu and explaining how the TDP government had played a gamble with Amaravati farmers and is now trying to gain political mileage from the proposed decision of the government to create three capitals for the state.
While the agitation by affected farmers is understood because they are on the losing side, the TDP and other opposition parties are instigating the farmers and taking the agitation into a violent mode for their political interests. The attack on the YSRC MLA is believed to be part of this strategy.
Naturally, such incidents make it to the headlines in the media. Even national media gave a lot of coverage to the agitation and also the attack on Ramakrishna Reddy’s vehicle.
Coming to the three major Telugu mainstream newspapers, Sakshi carried the report prominently describing the attack on the MLA’s car as a “murder attempt,” while Eenadu carried a small pointed story stating that Ramakrishna Reddy had to face the wrath of agitating farmers. Andhra Jyothy conveniently ignored the incident for the obvious reasons.
On the contrary, both Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy gave a massive coverage to the national highway blockade by the agitating Amaravati farmers. They also gave a frontpage coverage to the anguish expressed by the employees of state secretariat over the capital shift.
The outcome of the first meeting of high-power committee on the capital was also given considerable space in the front pages of the major newspapers.
Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy categorically said the high-power committee favoured decentralisation of administration, but Sakshi said the committee would make its recommendation after collecting opinions of all the stakeholders.
The Patiala High Court’s judgement confirming death sentence to the four accused in Nirbhaya rape and murder case was actually the big news of the day for the entire national media. But it was pushed down the page by the Telugu media.
On the other hand, the state-level bankers’ committee meeting convened by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, where he appealed to the bankers to extend financial assistance for the implementation of Nava Ratnalu, was also another important news of the day.
Sakshi made it as a banner story, while Andhra Jyothy also carried the same with a different headline, indicating that Jagan has asked the authorities to make another one and a half lakh crore to fund the pending projects.
The proposed meeting of two Telugu CMs – Jagan and K Chandrasekhar Rao on January 13 was found a place only in Eenadu.
The nationwide shutdown in protest against CAA and NRC and the attack on JNU students is another news item that figured prominently in all the three dailies.