The Andhra Pradesh Assembly witnessed a heated debate with war of words between YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu over ‘media muzzling’ and implementation of English medium in government schools.
Jagan was on an attack when the TDP raked up the “media muzzling” issue. As the Question Hour was progressing, the TDP raised the issue of “media muzzling” and strongly denounced the GO 2430 that empowered the respective department secretaries to take appropriate action against publication of false defamatory news in the media. Naidu also referred to the ban imposed on three Telugu news channels from entering the Legislature and covering the proceedings. He demanded that the ban be lifted forthwith.
Meanwhile, Jagan read out the Government Order and said there was nothing wrong in it. “May be Chandrababu Naidu has problem in reading or understanding English. Whoever can read and understand English properly, will find no fault with the GO,” he remarked. “I did M A (Economics) from Sri Venkateswara University. You should tell what your qualification is. I may not know English but what about the entire national media? They are also strongly opposing the GO 2430,” Naidu hit back.
Later in the day, during the short discussion on English medium education, the Chief Minister once against lashed out at the Leader of Opposition for speaking in “two tongues”. “First, he opposed English medium education but after realising that people are opposing his stance, he took a U-turn. Rebutting the Chief Minister, Naidu said the TDP only wanted continuation of Telugu medium, parallel to English. Later, the TDP president posted on his Twitter timeline lamenting that the YSRC was repeatedly making fun of his “40-year (political) experience”.
He also complained about the continuing gag on the media and sought the Governor’s intervention to “uphold the freedom of speech” as guaranteed by the Constitution. The TDP Chief also brought the rude behavior of the Legislature Chief Marshal and other marshals with the TDP legislators, to the Governors notice.
