Hyderabad, June 07: The Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, fighting for statehood for several decades now, has a newspaper it can call its own. Namaste Telangana, the new Telugu daily with seven editions, hit the stands all over the region on Saturday with a promise to become the “heartbeat of Telangana”.
The newspaper, the brainchild of Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, was formally unveiled in Hyderabad by Shankaramma, mother of a student Srikant Chary, who committed suicide for the cause of Telangana. The tabloid edition and Sunday magazine were launched by the relatives of other students who had laid down their lives for the cause of Telangana.
Speaking on the occasion, KCR said Namaste Telangana will fill a big gap in the lives of the people of Telangana who were completely neglected by the existing Telugu media, including newspapers and TV channels as they were owned and controlled by the capitalists and the politicians from Andhra and Rayala Seema region. “We have to write the original history of Telangana as our history has been completely distorted by the Andhra media”, he said.
KCR said that other newspapers had always tried to suppress the voice of the people and never gave due coverage and importance to the struggle for the separate State. “Now the people of Telangana have their own media which will bring out the truth”, he stated.
He exuded confidence that very soon Namaste Telangana would be the number-one newspaper of the region as it will be the paper of the four crore people of Telangana.
He promised that an Urdu newspaper will also be launched to fulfil the needs of the Urdu speaking people of Telangana. “The Telangana region has only two languages – Telugu and Urdu”, he said. The Urdu daily Rahbar-e-Telangana will be launched on August 2, coinciding with the start of the holy month of Ramadan, he said.
These papers will be in addition to the T-News, a 24-hour news channel in the basket of KCR
Prominent Telugu journalist Allam Narayana is the editor of Namaste Telangana. “We have been forced to start this newspaper because of the step-motherly treatment of Telangana by the other newspapers and channels”, he said. But he promised that the new daily will not be less than any other paper in any aspect.
The paper has a 12-page main section and a 16-page tabloid edition, specific to each of the 9 districts.
The inaugural ceremony was addressed by prominent people from the cross sections of the society.
According to K Shekhar Reddy, CEO, Telagana Publications, the publisher of the daily, the project involved an investment of almost `70 crore.
Namaste Telangana will be the latest to enter the already crowded market of Telugu newspapers in Andhra Pradesh. The eight newspapers, with several editions include EEnadu, Sakshi, Vaartha, Andhra Jyothi, Andhra Prabha, Andhra Bhoomi, Vishal Andhra and Praja Shakti. They have a combined readership of 1.4 crore.
As far as political leanings of these papers are concerned, Sakshi is owned by YS Jaganmohan Reddy, president, YSR Congress and son of former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy. His group also owns Sakshi TV.
Eenadu of Ramoji Rao, is known to be a supporter of Telugu Desam party and Andhra Jyothy also has a tilt towards TDP and its supremo N Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu’s son owns a TV channel. Ramoji Rao is the media moghul and has channels in several languages including a 24-hour Telugu news channel. Vishal Andhra and Praja Shakti are the organs of the CPI and the CPI (M).
——–Agencies