The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Whither transparency?

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Tuesday, Oct 07, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Whither transparency?

Journalists in Krishna district are now used to the rigmarole of being invited to review meetings by officials of the Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department and turned back at the last minute only because the district Collector decides otherwise.

Gone are the days when mediapersons freely walked into review meetings that the Collector chaired either in Machilipatnam or Vijayawada and reported the proceedings in their own way.

But now, even the most routine of the meetings are being held only “in-camera” and journalists are being gently asked to leave the hall and wait outside either for a briefing later or depend on the prosaic press note from the I&PR late in the evening.

One wonders where has all the spirit of ‘transparency’ in the officialdom that the Right to Information Act sought to usher in gone?

Future leaders

The organisers of the cultural show by the members of “Baalala Jana Chaitanya Yatra” at Press Club took all the care to make it look like a programme for the children, by the children and of the children. After the cultural programme was over, they called a girl member to come forward and address the media. She promptly took the mike and went on reeling out the aims and objectives of their yatra with the ease of one having a long experience. Having been exposed to cultural performances and with a little training, the girl could articulate the information about their yatra. This is how future leaders are shaped, said one of the organisers, exuding a bit of pride.

Dasara ‘mamool’

The practice of demanding Dasara ‘mamool’ is perhaps as old as the festival itself. At least for this reason, the festival, which otherwise brings much joy and cheer to everyone, makes middle class families somewhat nervous, as they have to part with small amounts to several service providers, which make a hole in their pockets. Barber, postman, apartment security guard, maid, milk vendor, plumber, washerman, cable operator, mechanic…, the list is endless. Apart from these individuals, who serve us in some form or the other, organisers of Navaratri pandals, with a big tilak on their forehead and a notebook in their hands, knock on your doors with a sheepish grin, and sometimes making a forcible demand, to part with the ‘mamool’. Festival for a few, it looks like.

Snappy!

A rangoli competition organised by ITC Aashirvaad to promote its products brought to the fore the general preferences of girls and women. Right from the word ‘go’, the participants hurried through the process of drawing and then colouring the images to outsmart others in the race and finish the task well ahead of the hour-long deadline. The press photographers began to stream in at the venue towards the end of the programme in an obvious attempt to capture the completed images. Since most participants were in a big hurry to meet the deadline, they did not oblige the camera-toting men’s plea to smile or pose for a photograph. Some of them even gave a ‘disgusted look’ to demonstrate their displeasure over the ‘avoidable disturbance’- something very hard to digest for the shutterbugs who are accustomed to having their ‘muses’ posing for them without any fuss.

Neither friend nor foe

Congress was said to have fallen into its own trap with regard to chairmanship of mandal parishad bodies in the district with majority of the mandal presidents defying their party arrangement for power sharing. To satisfy its party MPTCs owing allegiance to one powerful leader or the other, the party wanted them to share the chairmanship in two or three terms after 2006 elections.

Today Mangalagiri, Tenali, Duggirala, Repalle MPPs or municipal chairpersons have defied the party dictat and are designing their own strategies to remain in power by defeating the no-confidence motion. This has turned foes into friends at many places.

Tenali is a classic example where local MLA N. Manohar and Vallabhaneni Balashouri patched up their past differences, that had divided municipal council into two, to fight a common enemy -- current chairperson Mastanamma. They proved that there were no permanent friends and enemies in politics.

(K. Srimali,

G. Ravikiran, J.R. Shridharan and P. Sujatha Varma in Vijayawada and Ramesh Susarla in Guntur)