It was a height of cheap journalism. Telugu television channel – TV5, which is known for its pro-Telugu Desam Party stand, indulged in a blatant character assassination of Nandamuri Lakshmi Parvathi, widow of legendary actor and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao.
Based on a complaint given by one Koti, claiming to be a follower of Lakshmi Paravathi, with the Vinukonda police in Guntur district, the channel on Thursday night telecast a repeated story seeking to project her in a bad light – that she is a woman without character, sex maniac and above all, she had no loyalty towards NTR.
What is worse, the so-called WhatsApp messages allegedly given by Lakshmi Parvathi to Koti were also circulated among the media, which soon went viral.
The channel also went on broadcasting an audio having a purported conversation between her and another person, in which she allegedly made derogatory comments against NTR.
Obviously, the pro-TDP channel wanted to damage the character of Laksmi Parvathi for two reasons: one, she is now a general secretary of YSR Congress party campaigning against TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh.
Secondly, she has suddenly become popular with release of Ram Gopal Varma’s film “Lakshmi’s NTR” in which she was projected as the most trusted wife of NTR and Naidu as a back-stabber and villain.
First of all, one doubts whether there is any authenticity to Koti’s complaint. One cannot even prove that the WhatsApp text messages to him were really from Lakshmi Parvathi, as anybody can create a phone number with her name.
So, even before the police took up the investigation and probed whether there is any fact in Koti’s complaint, the channel telecast it without any proofs and verification, so as to assassinate the character of the YSRC leader.
What more do you call it, if not the dirtiest journalism!