Hyderabad, November 23: A day after Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Sakshi TV aired a story critical of Sonia Gandhi, Congress workers across the state worked up a rash of protests and the APCC sent a 15-page report on it to the high command along with CDs of the programme and English transcripts of comments made in Telugu.
According to highly placed sources, the AICC took a serious view of the programme and wanted the state unit to send a report since it had criticised Sonia Gandhi directly.
The asked-for material was reportedly sent to Sonia Gandhi herself. According to sources, the party president was upset by the comments that the UPA government had become synonymous with corruption.
Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumantha Rao, known detractor of Jagan, left for Delhi with the CDs to submit them to the high command and seek action against the Kadapa MP.
Loyalist Congress leaders ground their teeth at Jagan and vowed to take the issue to a logical conclusion.
“Can a channel owned by a Congress MP beam a story portraying Sonia Gandhi in poor light on the day of Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary? Though there are reports that the programme was toned down a bit today, the damage has already been done and the MP would have to pay,” Hanumantha Rao said.
Sakshi CEO Priyadarshini Ram denied the episode had been revised. “We beamed the same story that was aired on Friday night. Not even one word was deleted,” he told Express.
He insisted Jagan had nothing to do with the programme. “He is taking rest in Bangalore. We have not received any instructions from him. For that matter, he does not intervene in the running of the channel,” he said.
Interestingly, Sakshi TV’s website could not be accessed throughout the day. The day began with protests by Congress workers who staged dharnas at Sakshi offices across the state even as leaders called Jagan names.
Copies of Sakshi newspaper were burnt at several places and its offices attacked.
Even ministers in the Rosaiah cabinet took part in a dharna at the Sakshi office.
Danam Nagender (health) and K Venkata Reddy (IT) — both once Jagan campers — sat with Congress workers at the Sakhi office to mark their protest.
Congress leaders P Sudhakar Reddy and MLA P Shankar Rao staged a dharna in front of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s statue at City Centre mall near the Sakshi office in Banjara Hills. Shankar Rao was taken into custody when he would not end his protest, demanding an unconditional apology from the newspaper. Congress activists also staged a dharna at the YSR statue at Punjagutta.
Congress activists broke window panes of Sakshi office at Chirala and set fire to copies of the newspaper.
In Karimnagar, Youth Congress leaders staged a dharna before the Sakshi office.
Congress MPs G Vivek, Manda Jagannatham, Rajagopal Reddy and Gutta Sukhender Reddy said they were contemplating lodging a complaint with the Press Council of India and even seeking a “CBI probe’’ into the story behind the story.
–Agencies