After keeping silent for over a year, former advisor to Andhra Pradesh government Parakala Prabhakar has begun raising his voice against shifting of administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
Parakala had quit the post of information advisor in the Chandrababu Naidu government following criticism that he was continuing in even after the TDP came out of the National Democratic Alliance government of which his wife Nirmala Sitaraman was a member.
Since then, he had been lying low and had held the post of CEO in Maha News television channel. He came out of the channel only recently.
Now, he has started a campaign questioning the decision of the Jagan government to create three capitals for Andhra Pradesh. He produced a documentary film – Rajadhani Vishadam-Amaravati (A tragedy of capital called Amaravati), which was released last week.
On Wednesday, he screened the film in Vijayawada and said there was a need for a discussion in the public over the capital city.
“One should find out the reasons why Amaravati, which is supposed to be a seat of administration, has become a centre of agitations and anguished souls,” he said.
Parakala wondered why those who had supported Amravati as the capital city were dumping the same now. Those who were adopting the model of the three capital cities of South Africa should find out their experience first before taking such decisions, he said.
The former advisor said the state would lose heavily if the people, the government and the political parties went in different directions.
“I have made the documentary after speaking to several analysts, historians, common people, advocates and experts from South Africa,” he said.
One wonders why Parakala has suddenly decided to highlight the capital issue. There are rumours that he, too, might have made some investments in lands in Amaravati during the Naidu regime and with the changed policies of the Jagan government, he suffered heavily.
“May be, by taking up the campaign against Amaravati, Parakala wants to give a hype to the agitation so as to bring pressure on the government,” a YSRC leader said.