President advises Kcr, naidu to end row
KCR skipped the Governor’s banquet held in President Mukherjee’s honour in order to avoid meeting Naidu.
recent cash-for-vote scam.
The President was speaking during the launch of a Telugu book Uniki, written by Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao, in Hyderabad on 3 July. Though KCR had turned up for the launch, Naidu had not.
The President is in his customary southern sojourn for 10 days till 8 July. But the discomfort between KCR and Naidu was on full display when the former skipped a dinner thrown in President Mukherjee’s honour in Secunderabad in order to avoid gate-crashing with Naidu.
Mukherjee, who arrived in Hyderabad on 29 June, wanted both leaders to be present at the dinner hosted in his honour by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at Raj Bhawan on 30 June. Narasimhan had personally invited Naidu and KCR along with their wives. Naidu turned up, but KCR stayed away citing ill-health. KCR is also said to be miffed with the fact that Telegu Desham Party MLA A. Revanth Reddy was granted bail by the High Court in the cash-forvote scam earlier in the day.
However, KCR received Mukherjee at the airport on his arrival. Naidu, on the other hand, received him at Tirumala shrine on 1 July. This was President Mukherjee’s first sojourn at Rashtrapathi Nilayam at Bolarum military area in Secunderabad after the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh. This visit, along with a cluster of other appointments of the President in the neighbouring states, had been fixed much before the recent cash-for-vote scam hit headlines. President Mukherjee is learnt to have received complaints from both Naidu and KCR against each other.
Mukherjee will visit the Lakshminarasimha Swamy temple at Yadagirigutta inTelangana on 6 July. Sources said that Mukherjee told Naidu and KCR that they should work together for the welfare of both the states. A senior Raj Bhawan official told The Sunday Guardian that Mukherjee advised the warring Chief Ministers to bury their hatchet. The Telangana IAS Officers’ Association has decided to stand by Smita Sabharwal, an IAS officer who served a legal notice to an English news weekly for showing her in a bad light in a recently published article.
The Association decided on Wednesday that it would take up Sabharwal’s case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and complain to him about the magazine’s sexist comments about the female civil servant. The IAS officers will also call on Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley as well as the authorities of the Press Council of India, National Human Rights Commission and the Editors’ Guild of India.
The magazine, in its latest issue, published an article by “Deep Throat”, making “derogatory” observations about Sabharwal’s fashion sense and also hinted that she owed her success at work to being an “eye candy”. “She makes a fashion statement with her lovely saris and serves as eye candy at meetings, admit leading party politicians,” the magazine’s gossip column said.
Although nobody’s name was mentioned, the article alluded to Sabharwal, a 2001 batch IAS officer who worked as district collector of Medak until 2014 and was brought to the Chief Minister’s Office after K. Chandrashekhar Rao became Telangana Chief Minister. The magazine also commented about Sabharwal’s casual outfit at a recent fashion show in Hyderabad.
Sabharwal, 38, has demanded an unconditional apology in the next issue, “in the same place and in the same size”. She has said a failure to do so would invite civil and criminal cases. The State Human Rights Commission in Hyderabad has already served a notice to the magazine’s editor.
Sabharwal told a group of journalists that there was nothing wrong in her wearing a casual dress at a private function in Hyderabad. “On 19 June, I went along with my husband to a fashion show held by Sabyasachi. As it was a private visit, I was in casuals and there was nothing wrong in that. I am deeply hurt for being described as someone without any talent,” said Sabharwal, an additional secretary in the CMO.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Working Journalists’ group has demanded that media accreditation of the magazine’s journalists be cancelled unless the publication apologises. The magazine’s Hyderabad office remained unavailable for a comment.