Fear of phone tapping should be normal domain of the Opposition. But here in the State it is the other way round. Host of Congress leaders and even Ministers have this apprehension.
Former Minister P. Shankar Rao started it all. After a slew of complaints against the CM, some Ministers and police officials, he has now turned his attention on phone tapping, alleging his phone was tapped by the police personnel to know who all were in touch with him.
It may come as a surprise but at least three senior Ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet have confessed in private to journalists that their phones were being tapped by the police. In fact they wanted the journalists to directly meet them and talk, instead of using phone.
Old habits die hard
For former CWC member K. Keshava Rao, entry into the Telangana Rashtra Samiti on Sunday will be a new political innings. But, as old habits die hard, he has not yet formally severed his ties with the ruling Congress in which he was a part and parcel for over four decades. The other day, when journalists covering the Congress beat met him at his residence, he thanked the media for their cooperation in projecting his view point on many occasions and wanted them to be in touch with him. When told that henceforth reporters on the TRS beat would interact with him, he insisted that the Congress beat journalists should come. As if to prove that he had not yet forgotten his connections with the Congress party and reporters, his aides called up reporters covering the ruling party to attend a press conference on Sunday at 11 am, hours before he formally joined the TRS. To the surprise of journalists, he even gave sound byte on the sacking of Health Minister D. L. Ravindra Reddy.
Pack-up of dreams?
The TDP’s Mahanadu this time had a different feel. Unlike in the last couple of years, the latest party conference, brimmed with enthusiasm, almost as if it sensed party’s victory in the next elections. So much so that party supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu declared that the next ‘Mahanadu’ would be held when the party would stage a come back.
But Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy had an entirely different take when asked by scribes for his reaction. “Mr. Naidu is building castles in the air. His dreams will evaporate once it is pack-up time for the Mahanadu,” he quipped.
True to his prediction, that all is not well within TDP became clear when a sulking Junior NTR, made everyone know that he was not extended an invite for the main event of party.
Of mega films, messages
This Friday, ‘Iddarammayilatho’ with Allu Arjun and two lovely lasses Amala Paul and Catherine Teresa in the lead hit a record number of screens. As the initial opening collections of this Puri Jagannadh-directed film were flowing in, mobile phones of film journalists got a message about another member of the ‘Mega’ family. The message was about the opening (first shot) of a film starring ‘MegaPowerStar’ Ramcharan Tej directed by Koratala Siva and produced by Bandla Ganesh, who made ‘Iddarammayilatho’. Even as there was a buzz about the coincidence of the message of Arjun’s film , there came another message about ‘Iddarabbayilatho’ starring a newcomer Udaya Babu . All present had a hearty laugh.
