Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday said that he was deeply hurt at the manner in which some media groups were attacking Telangana.
“Even after Telangana state is formed, they continue to attack Telangana language, dialect and culture. I can bear anything but I cannot tolerate Seemandhra media’s arrogance. How dare TV9 telecast a programme insulting our Assembly and its members? Some new members of the Assembly might have stumbled while taking oath. Just because of that they made derogatory comments against members,” he said.
Referring to Andhra Jyothi, he said, “The newspaper has been publishing baseless stories without quoting anyone, against Telangana government. Today’s issue carries two reports which state that my government has decided to impose heavy taxes on goods transferred from Seemandhra to Telangana. Another report on vehicle number plate change suggests that we are doing a Rs 500-crore deal for this. When a state changes, it’s natural that number plates also change. What is the issue? The newspaper is trying to make issues out of nothing with an intention of bringing disrepute to my government. If they carry such reports, they should clarify what is the basis of these news.”
Referring to his recent Cabinet meeting, he said, “I told my ministers to do proper homework before coming to the media in the meeting. The next day, Andhra Jyothi reported that my ministers shied away from speaking to the media following Mr Rao’s instructions. What is this nonsense?”
Responding to this, Congress MLA T. Jeevan Reddy urged the Speaker to move a privilege motion against both media groups.
TV9 has apologised for its comments as a statement issued by its editor said, “We regret the telecast of undue comments. We will take required measures to ensure that such mistakes do not occur in future.”
