Praise be: KCR's 'private event' Chandi Maha Yaagam gets premium coverage in local media

Away from the heat, dust and the crowd at Erravalli, Hyderabad is staying up-to-date about Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Rs 7 crore Chandi Maha Yaagam, thanks to massive media coverage. After scouring several local language newspapers, one thing was clear: there is unanimous and astounding praise for the Puranic ritual.

KCR’s news channel, T News is airing the entire proceedings at the Yaagam throughout the day. V6, another Telangana channel is also providing extensive coverage of the event. In addition to this, Sri Venkateswara Bhakti channel owned by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) and N Tv, another Bhakti channel are unsurprisingly providing round-the-clock coverage.

Local language newspapers, on 23 December, carried curtain raisers for the mega event. Eenadu carried a picture of the Maha Yaagam right on the upper left corner of the paper’s front page — one of the the most premium positions in a newspaper. Inside, the edition carried a full page report of the proceedings, replete with pictures. The article was titled Ayutham needs aarambham (The Ayutham has started) and included the religious importance of the Yaagam. The centrespread of the supplementary edition was dedicated to the Yaagam arrangements as well. KCR made sure that chairmen/proprietors of all media houses are invited; according to various media reports, he personally called each one of them. Ramoji Rao, the chairman of Ramoji Group (publishers of Eenadu) was one of the chief guests at the event, alongwith the governor of the state, ESL Narasimhan on the first day.

Andhra Jyoti, a publication that has consistently been critical of KCR, published a front page banner story, and full page coverage on the inside pages.

Sakshi, owned by YS Jaganmohan Reddy made the Maha Yaagam story their second lead; ran a three-quarter page coverage on the Yaagam arrangements and titled it Erravalli calling

In the Hyderabad editions of English dailies, The Hindu was the only one which carried pre-event coverage — a six column news story with a picture describing the proceedings and arrangements. The story reported that “elaborate security arrangements” were made — setting up posts almost 5 kilometres away from the farmhouse.

On 24 December, Eenadu splashed its front page with Jana hitam koru mantra horu (Sound of the mantra wishing for people’s prosperity)— an eight column banner headline accompanied by huge pictures. The story also said, “Erravalli is reverberating with vedic hymns." Eenadu also heaped praises on KCR for planning the event to the T, including the “hassle-free arrangements for the devotees”. In addition, to this, the 11th page of Eenadu was completely dedicated to the features, the arrangements, the culture and the devotion of KCR to Chandi. On the same day, the centrespread of the city supplement was also packaged with colourful pictures and highlights of the Yaagam.

Andhra Jyoti, which proudly claims, “Aksharam nee ayudham (The written letter is your weapon)” also carried the Maha Yaagam as the lead story of the edition with the headline — “Angaranga vaibhavam (Resplendent grandeur)”. The paper also ran a full page article on its inside pages. It’s city supplement’s centrespread was full of pictures from the event.

Sakshi carried a banner story — Maha Yaagam Shubharambham (Maha Yaagam started positively). A half page article on Page 2 and a full page article on the inside pages were dedicated to the event along with a mini daily centrespread covering the event.

As far as the English dailies are concerned, most carried a front page story including Deccan Chronicle and The Times of India. The Hindu, however carried a brief coverage piece about the event. This clearly shows the latent coercion that political parties and people tend to apply on media houses. At the Maha Yaagam site, though there exists a separate section for media to park their vehicles right along side the VIPs and VVIPs, access is limited and skewed. The media is cordoned off in a shed near the yaagam; all pictures and information are given to them by public relations personnel.

Premium space on newspapers and live coverage on a host of television channels is being dedicated this event, and in the process other worthy stories are getting displaced.