YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has finally done what he wanted to do. He was firm on doing away with Amaravati as the seat of administration and shift it to Visakhapatnam.
And he has done it without any hassles, notwithstanding the protests from Amaravati and the Telugu Desam Party.
Interestingly, Jagan tried to appease the protestors saying Amaravati will continue to be the capital for assembly sessions, he declared that he was only adding two more capitals – Visakhapatnam as executive capital and Kurnool as judicial capital to ensure equal justice to all the regions.
What Jagan has done right or wrong will be proved in the coming years, but it only shows that he has taken a bold decision and also a calculated risk. If it works out well and the state really prospers, it will be a big achievement for Jagan.
The pro-Telugu Desam Party media, which has been running a series of stories against the Jagan government’s decision to shift the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam, defending Amaravati and highlighting the agitation by the farmers of Amaravati all these days, have nothing to say now.
On Tuesday, the two pro-TDP dailies – Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, while giving big coverage to the passage of bills in the assembly – one doing away with Amaravati as the capital development region and second on creation of three capitals, also highlighted the highhanded behaviour of the police in crushing the Chalo Assembly rally of the farmers.
The lathicharge on farmers in the morning, the suspension of TDP legislators including N Chandrababu Naidu and the arrest of Guntur MP Galla Jayadev in the afternoon and Naidu in the evening were also the big news of the day for the pro-TDP papers.
Since there is nothing much for the farmers to hereafter, except knocking the doors of the judiciary, there will be nothing much even for the pro-TDP media, too, to write about Amaravati. Yet, they will do their best to campaign against the decision, even after the administration is shifted to Visakhapatnam.
Being the mouth-piece of the ruling YSR Congress party, Sakshi completely ignored the Amaravati farmers’ agitation and instead, sought to highlight the party-sponsored celebrations in other parts of the state, appreciating Jagan’s decision. The party organised milk baths and distribution of sweets at different places, particularly in north-coastal Andhra.
However, all the three major dailies gave equal importance to Jagan’s speech in the assembly, where he assured do equal justice to all regions and all sections of people while running the administration from Visakhapatnam.
Interestingly, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy sought to generate sympathy for Naidu by giving prominent coverage to his appeal to Jagan Mohan Reddy with folded hands, “though the chief minister being very younger to him.”
Sakshi also carried prominently the directions given by Speaker Tammineni Sitaram to the government to order a comprehensive probe into the alleged insider trading in Amaravati. This was conveniently ignored by the other two major dailies.
The unanimous election of J P Nadda as the Bharatiya Janata Party national president was the only other major news that figured on the front pages of the major Telugu dailies.
