The 40-minute meeting of YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy with media baron Cherukuri Ramoji Rao on Monday at the latter’s hilltop residence in Ramoji Film City has given the media mills in the Telugu states enough grist to grind.
There are more reasons than one can think for Jagan’s surprise visit to his arch rival in media and politics. Though Ramoji Rao is not a politician, his unstinted support to Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) when he launched the Telugu Desam Party in 1982 was instrumental in bringing the legendary actor to power a year later.
It was also a well known fact that Eenaadu, with multiple district editions, had given such a boost to NTR’s political campaign on his Chaitanya Ratham that the mass hero of silver screen was propelled into the mass leader of crores of Telugus. In other words, Ramoji Rao had shown the world, way back in the 1980s before the advent of satellite TV in this country the power of printed word. He was a kingmaker at that time and continues to play a pivotal role in moulding public opinion, particularly among the middle and rural classes through Eenaadu.
So, it’s not surprising to see YSR Congress boss meet Ramoji Rao a week before his padayatra, scheduled to begin on November 2. During his 3,000km foot journey through Andhra Pradesh, he wants to understand the people’s problems and share their concerns over a host of issues.
In fact, this is not the first time that Jagan planning a mega walkathon throughout AP. He has undertaken such foot marches a la Mahatma Gandhi, Chandrababu Naidu, etc to drum up support for his party. But this is the first time that he changed the tack and strategy with an eye on 2019 Assembly elections.
Though his meeting with the biggest Telugu media baron was ostensibly described as “seeking blessings for his padayatra and cooperation in covering it on the TV and in the newspaper (read, please don’t downplay or underplay the tour), media projection of NTR before and after he became the chief minister seems to have goaded Jagan into befriending digital and print media.
He is doing this despite the fact that Sakshi newspaper and TV trumpet every move and word of Jagan, including his diatribes against Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and unsubstantiated scams and scandals against the ruling TDP.
When what is shown on the TV and written in the newspaper is one sided and viewed/read incredulously, efforts to project a clean image carry the risk of boomeranging.
