Press has turned into ‘private estate’: Kavita blasts Centre

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], December 12 (ANI): Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter and TRS MLC K Kavitha on Monday addressed a gathering of Telangana Jagruthi at Hyderabad, saying that press, which is the Fourth Estate in a democracy, has become the “private estate”.
Kavitha said, “Today, the young men and women of Telangana should think about the country. We are losing our rights, without even knowing that we are losing them. Some have stopped speaking because of this disappointment. Poets have stopped picking up their pens and writers have given up writing books. Many famous writers have returned awards they received. Today, there is a situation where our Jagruthi members have to go across the country to create awareness among the people.”
She said during the Emergency period by Indira Gandhi, a newspaper had left their front page blank in protest. “The BJP is brought down democratically elected governments in 8 different states. When the government of Maharashtra was brought down by the BJP, a famous newspaper wrote, ‘Shinde as Maharashtra CM is a masterstroke by BJP’. Is this true journalism? Another newspaper wrote, ‘Checkmate to Uddhav Thackeray’. Is this a checkmate to Uddhav or checkmate to democracy? There is no one to question all this. The Union government is failing a democratic system. Today, press is the fourth estate.”
“Seeing these newspapers, I feel the Fourth Estate has become private estate. If we save the democratic systems, the system will save us. Today, we see that the people who expose the BJP failures are being attacked,” she said.
She added that the time has come to think about all the injustice happening across the country. “There are no scholarships for Dalit students across the country but it has evoked no protest. People should have the right to speak when there is a problem,” she said.
She said, “We will unite poets, artists, writers, students, women and farmers across the country. Telangana Jagruthi has the power to establish itself in every state. We are seeing many attacks. It’s not just on me but we see the same story from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Whoever speaks up will have to face an agency. We don’t care. We won’t back off but work harder. We will go forward, not backward. The country has fallen on many indices today. Starting from the value of the rupee, we have fallen in all indices. Such is the unfortunate situation today.” (ANI)