YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is completely unfazed by the attack on his government from all sides – from unruly opposition, hostile media and so-called intellectuals.
The anguish of being attacked by the opposition was reflected in Jagan’s speech at Mummidivaram in East Godavari district, where he addressed fishermen community on Thursday. His speech was the highlight of all the mainstream media in Andhra on Friday.
In its banner story, Sakshi quoted Jagan as screaming as to whether he had done any mistakes in doing good for the people in the last five months.
“I have been planning to transform the backward classes into backbone of the state. Was it a mistake? Despite seeing the great decisions taken by me in the last five months, you have been watching how I have been blamed for everything. Though I have not taken any bad decision, they are trying to mislead the people by projecting me in bad light,” Jagan said at the meeting.
Andhra Jyothy highlighted Jagan’s confident statement that he has the ability to withstand the onslaught from all his enemies though they get united. Apparently, it appears to be an indication to Jagan’s suspicion that the main rival parties – TDP, Jana Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party might join hands together again to bring down his government.
Eenadu also carried the same story as the third lead story quoting Jagan as saying that he had fulfilled the promises made by him during the padayatra.
There seems to be no end to the controversy over introduction of English medium in government schools.
For the first time, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu clarified that he had never opposed the English medium, but was only suggesting that both English and Telugu mediums are essential for the students. This was one of the major stories carried by Eenadu.
Andhra Jyothy continued to make it an issue by carrying a special report as the second lead, saying English medium is not an issue, but the attempt to phase out Telugu is the real problem.
Sakshi completely ignored this topic, after Jagan asserted that he would go ahead with his decision on English medium.
The Jagan government’s signing of an MoU with Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad to create a mechanism in the government offices to eradicate corruption is a big development in the state on Thursday.
Eenadu gave it a lot of prominence by carrying it as an anchor and Sakshi took it as second lead. Unfortunately, Andhra Jyothy pushed it to inside pages.
Interestingly, Eenadu’s banner story is a public interest report on how the Andhra Pradesh police department is trying to prevent accidents on highways through a series of road safety measures. Its second lead story is also a soft one – on the commencement of first day-night test cricket match at Eden Gardens using pink ball.
Both Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy ignored an interesting story on Industries Minister Mekapati Gautam Reddy’s announcement on setting up of a mega electric bus manufacturing company by Veera Vahana in Anantapur.
Instead, they carried a story on the high court stalling the order giving by single bench lifting stay on the construction of Polavaram hydro-electric project. Both the dailies also gave prominence to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s affectionate calling of YSRC MP from Narsapuram K Raghurama Krishnam Raju.
After all, they still believe negative stories always sell!