“Paritala Ravi was an idealist who till his last breath fought for social equality and for the poor who were subjected to injustice. Today, on his birth anniversary, I remember his services to the Party and the people and humbly offer my respects to this people’s leader,” posted Chandrababu Naidu on Twitter.
Yes, indeed! Paritala Ravi was a visionary who could dream up innovative ways to kill people by placing bombs in TV sets and killing women and children, dressing up as police officers and shooting his opponents dead, having his men dressed in burquas and sending them to kill their enemies, etc etc. The list is endless.
When Paritala was terrorising Anantapur, there was no media that would or could cover his atrocities.
The usual K-gang media of Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi would portray this murderer as a hero and his enemies as villains.
Truth of the matter is that Paritala was a hard-core factionist who was eulogized as a man who took to weapons for the sake of the poor.
NTR was looking for a person who could break the monopoly of the Reddys in Rayalaseema and was delighted to know that this dreaded factionist hailed from his own community.
Since then, there was no looking back for Paritala Ravi and the Kamma media was anyways there to always present him as God’s blessing to Anantapur which is nothing but hogwash.
Paritala Ravi is every inch as bad as if not worse than the other factionists of Rayalaseema.
But not only did the TDP place him on a pedestal, by making him a Minister, they legalized murder politics.
According to the TDP handbook of journalism, Paritala Rai is a people’s man whereas all his opponents in Rayalaseema are ‘factionists’. Why is this?
The K-Factor, it is, the one unwavering factor which has been the scourge of Andhra Pradesh pretty much like how terrorism is to the world.
Chandrababu Naidu should be ashamed of himself for publicly paying tribute to a man with umpteen murder cases on him. He has exposed his complete lack of dignity by labeling such murderers as ‘people’s leaders’.
Would the yellow media be able to digest it if YS Jagan tweets in a similar fashion on Maddelacheruvu Suri’s birth anniversary?
After all, Suri has a huge fan following as well and has done many good things to his followers too?
But then, a political angle here cannot be ruled out behind Chandrababu’s actions. There have been reports that the Paritala family is seriously considering joining the BJP. Chandrababu might just have gone in for a pre-emptive strike.
Else, why this sudden outpouring of affection all of a sudden for people who lived and died by the sword?
In his capacity as Leader of Opposition, is he not ashamed of endorsing such personalities?
(The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)
