Separate Telangana has spawned a new culture of journalistic jingoism, in which views any different from the received wisdom are shouted down. This has especially become almost a ritual whenever Visalandhra Mahasabha, which propounds the unity of the state, organizes any press meet to air its views or release any book.
The latest conference organized by the outfit at Somajiguda Press Club on Tuesday to release a book on the struggle for Vislanandhra in Telangana region witnessed the expected ambush by some people, who go by the name of journalists. These may not be in the majority, but they are organized and seem to always come to such press meets with single-minded purpose – to create chaotic scenes at the venue, ensure that the next day’s papers say ‘Visalandhra meet ends in a fiasco’ or something on those lines.
This is how it happened in the words of Nalamotu Chakravarthy, the president of Visalandhra Mahasabha at the latest meet:
“Yesterday’s book release event went well. From Visalandhra Mahasabha we had Freedom Fighters’ Association President Narra Madhav Rao, another freedom fighter Mehaboob Ali, C. Anjaneya Reddy, Parakala Prabhakar, Chegondi Ramajogaiah, Kumar Chowdhary Yadav, Kethiry Srinivas Reddy, Sunkara Venkateswar Rao, Laxman Reddy and several others that were in attendance.
The book was released by Sri Narra Madhav Rao. When Prabhakar garu was speaking, questions were raised by the media persons interrupting the session. When they were told to not to interrupt and let the program go on and that the questions will be addressed later, they would not heed. Some of their main concerns were, how is the book relevant in today’s context? If the whole Nizam region was for integration then, the same Nizam region wants separation now, why not heed to the demand?
However, we insisted on allowing us to finish the program first and the press questions would be addressed once the speakers are done with their speeches. However, the media refused to stay quiet and kept shouting. At this point, we decided to disregard the disruption and go on with the program. After Prabhakar garu spoke, Mehboob Ali garu spoke about their past struggles under Nizam rule and how Communists fought together. He expressed his desire to see “visalandhralo praja raajyam”. Later Chegondi Ramajogaih garu who edited the book, chided the media for lack of respect to freedom of speech. After this we ended the session as the media guys continued their shouting match.”
For those of you interested in reading the booklet, here is the full text
