Former Congress MP from Rajahmundry and firebrand politician Vundavalli Arun Kumar, who had fought against the Telugu Desam Party and exposed anti-people policies of Chandrababu Naidu government in the past, appears to have turned his ire on the YSR Congress party government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy now.
All these days, Vundavalli had never been critical about the Jagan government stating that it was still young. Since Jagan happens to be the son of his favourite leader Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, the former MP had been refraining from making any negative comments against the YSRC.
But, of late, Vundavalli has started questioning the decisions of Jagan.
The other day, he found fault with the chief minister for deciding to create three capitals for AP, though he had never supported Amaravati as the capital region.
“Nowhere in the country does any state have three capitals. It is not correct to distribute assembly, secretariat and high court to three different places,” he said.
On Wednesday, Vundavalli batted for two prominent Telugu television channels – ABN Andhra Jyothy and TV5, which are known for their blatant favouritism towards the TDP and opposition to Jagan government. He was referring to the blacklisting of these two channels in Rajahmundry.
“Some channels have been blocked after Jagan came to power. Now, in Rajahmundry, two channels – ABN Andhra Jyothy and TV5 are not being aired. It is quite obvious that the two channels were blocked at the instance of the Jagan government,” he said.
Vundavalli pointed out that when YSR was the chief minister, the entire media was against him.
“Those days, there was no Sakshi paper and channel. Yet, he did not try to block or stop any channels. He only used to make critical comments against two papers which were writing against his government, but he had never stopped even advertisements to these papers,” he said.
The ex-MP said even Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana chief minister had tried to curtail the media.
“May be Jagan is not aware, but restricting media and imposing curbs on them is extremely wrong step. It only shows his weakness. The moment he is afraid of negative reports in the media, it is the beginning of his fall,” Vundavalli said, and demanded that the two channels be restored in Rajahmundry.
He also expressed concern over the bleak financial position during the Jagan regime.
“The income to the government has fallen drastically. Even the dues from the Centre are not forthcoming and there are no income generating measures in the state. Hope there will be clarity once the budget is introduced. As Jagan often says, only god will have to come to the state’s rescue,” he said.