YSRCP President and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy strongly condemning the arrest of senior journalist Kommineni Srinivas Rao, he described it as `height of personal vendetta’ and deplored that Andhra Pradesh has become a haven for anarchy.
He deplored over the arrest of a 70-year-old journalist for comments he didn’t even make, he said that this is nothing but the toxic culture of revenge that Chandrababu Naidu has promoted.
He lamented that democracy, law and justice are becoming murderous, while people are terrorizing democrats, intellectuals and journalists so that none of them raise their voice on behalf of the people against the anarchic and unjust rule being carried out by CM Chandrababu for a year.
He lamented that CM Chandrababu has been running an oppressive and unjust administration for the past year.
“Without allowing anyone to raise their voice on behalf of the people, he is trying to suppress dissent through extreme abuse of power — silencing criticism of his misrule, deceit, corruption, and failures,” he added.
Stating that TV debates are intended to include diverse opinions, he wondered the logic behind the arrest. “In any normal debate, some participants speak in favour, and others against. How can the anchor be held responsible for what panellists say? Haven’t we seen many guests on various TV channels in the past making personal attacks? Isn’t that still happening today?”, he asked.
The former Chief Minister slammed the TDP government for systematically targeting the media to stifle dissent and protect the government from scrutiny. “False accusations are being made, topics are being diverted and distorted, and attacks are being carried out — especially on Sakshi media,” he added.
Moreover, he recalled that this is not the first time Kommineni became a victim of Chandrababu’s vendetta. Earlier too, he alleged that the journalist was removed from his job (at NTV) because Naidu couldn’t tolerate his neutral and fair debates.
“Between 2014 and 2019, Chandrababu imposed restrictions on the channel Kommineni worked for (not Sakshi at the time). Now again, he’s targeting channels that don’t support him, trying to control and suppress them,” he alleged.
Stating that Chandrababu’s one year of the five year term has already passed, he warned that after four years he has to answer to the people for the injustice, illegality, and abuse of power during he tenure.