Seemandhra media’s hostility towards Telangana statehood movement is a known fact. The secret chapter in Srikrishna Committee has clearly mentioned that out of the 13 news channels in Andhra Pradesh, 11 are owned by Seemandhra businessmen and they oppose Telangana state formation.
These channels have been openly spewing venom on Telangana agitation from past two years. Deliberate distortion of Telangana related news, non-coverage of important agitation events and mis-information campaigns on Telangana movement are some of the tactics used by these Seemandhra Channels.
Yesterday’s decision of Telangana people’s representatives to resign en masse for Telangana cause, has obviously rattled the anti-telangana businessmen, leaders and media.
Right from yesterday morning, Seemandhra media channels like TV-9, NTV, ABN-Andhrajyothy, and Sakshi have started started their false propaganda.
TV-9 as usual led this vicious campaign through out yesterday. In the morning, the channel kept airing breaking news that the T-Congress leaders were squabbling among themselves over resignations and there was no unanimity. Then they came up with a shameless lie. They started airing a breaking news that Prof. Kodandaram was humiliated at the Telangana Congress leader’s meeting. The channel then showed some live footage and concocted a story that Kodandaram was not allowed into the meeting hall of the T-Congress men.
What actually happened was this.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) convened an emergency meeting yesterday morning to take stock of the situation and plan the future course of agitation. The meeting decided to send a delegation to the Telangana Congress elected representatives meeting being held at the Exhibition Grounds.
So, a delegation comprising of Prof. Kodandaram, Swamy Goud and other TJAc leaders had gone to the Exhibition Grounds to meet the Congress leaders. At the meeting venue, the delegation held talks with K. Keshava Rao in a room beside the meeting hall. The delegation assured Keshava Rao that TJAC and the entire population of Telangana would back them if they resigned to their posts. After a brief meeting, the delegation left the place.
But TV-9 channel twisted this and started telecasting a fictitious Breaking News that Prof Kodandaram was not allowed into the meeting hall.
The 9 PM news bulletin is regarded as the most important news bulletin for any channel. Generally, the day’s most important news are shown in that bulletin. But TV 9 completely ignored the most important news of the day i.e the Telangana Congress leader’s resignations and instead showed a news related to gangster Bhanukiran’s murder.
And N-TV, another Seemandhra channel chose to focus on Telangana traitors like Jagga Reddy. The Seemandhra channels repeatedly tried to highlight the issue of a few MLAs and MPs refusing to resign. They kept airing stories how these resignations are useless and they might result in President’s Rule.
The behavior of these channels is only strengthening the resolve of Telangana people of not patronizing any of these Seemandhra channels.