The Telugu royal rumble
The Hyderabad media is in a feeding frenzy over the bribing scandal. Every hour, the papers and TV channels are running debates and stoking opinions on the bribing episode involving Telegu Desam Party (TDP) deputy leader in the Telangana Assembly, Revanth Reddy.
Reddy was caught on tape last Sunday attempting to bribe a nominated member of the legislative assembly, Elvis Stephenson, in return for his vote for the TDP candidate for the MLC seat. Reddy mentioned Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s name indirectly as ‘boss’ about 20 times.
The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau’s meticulous trap using high quality spy cameras is proving to be a sensation in the two Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but the actual investigation is being drowned out by the noise generated by the media who have gone to town with the story over the past week and show no sign of letting up.
One channel is violently pro-Naidu and another is violently anti-Naidu. No one knows how the recordings found their way to the media, but both the audio and visual clips are being endlessly shown on each and every channel.
At present, Reddy is in police custody to allow the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to collect more details about the sources of the Rs 5 crore which was promised to Stephenson and of the bundles of notes - Rs 50 lakh in total - which were placed on his desk.
Stephenson appears to have made a written complaint and it was based on this that the ACB laid a trap for Reddy both to record the telephone calls he made to Stephenson and to film the bribe being offered.
One audio tape of a conversation between Stephenson and a broker supposedly offering a bribe on behalf of the TDP was released along with a video showing Reddy’s aides handing over Rs 50 lakh as an ‘advance’. The next day, the newspapers published the entire text of these conversations.
Since 7th June, a new audio recording of an alleged conversation between Naidu and Stephenson surfaced in the media. According to the reported text, a TDP supporter asks Stephenson to hear Naidu. Then Naidu’s voice is heard reassuring Stephenson that he will honour the commitments made by his men.
For the anti-Naidu media such as Sakshi and T News, this is enough to have him booked for conspiracy to bribe. For the pro-Naidu media, Andhra Jyothi and TV9, this is a conspiracy against Naidu and the people of Andhra Pradesh. All of them have been trying to build up opinion in favour of the side they support through SMS polls and debates.
Naidu’s media advisor, Parakala Prabhakar, has questioned the source of the tapes: Who tapped the chief minister’s phones? On whose authority? Who leaked the tapes the media? He also challenged the Telangana government to face legal notices for illegally tapping phones and called it an attempt to destabilize the Andhra Pradesh government which, incidentally, has just started working on the new capital of the state, Amaravathi.
As for the ACB, caught in the cross fire, it has been struggling to maintain its objectivity.
The background - games of destabilization
The allegation levelled by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is that the TDP tried to pump in Rs. 150 crore to destabilize its government by defeating an extra (fifth) candidate fielded by the TRS over and above its available strength for getting four MLCs elected.
After getting caught in the bribing scandal, the TDP has raised its voice against the Telangana government of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, alleging that it was responsible for the unethical engineering of defections from its party and the Congress Party.
Naidu has angrily demanded to know how Rao can induct TDP legislators into his ministry? This is a reference to Tummala Nageswar Rao and T. Srinivas Yadav, who opposed the creation of Telangana from Naidu’s camp, and who are now cabinet ministers in Rao’s government, a fact which is unpalatable to the original leaders of the TRS who made ‘sacrifices’ for the creation of a separate state.
The TRS originally won 63 out of the 119 seats contested in the 2014 elections in the new state. Its strength rose to 76 with the addition of 13 legislators from the TDP and the Congress which the TDP called ‘buying over’. It also has the support of a nominated MLA and seven members from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and one legislator from the YSR Congress Party.
The TDP-BJP combine has been left with only 15 members, not enough to win one MLC. Media critics are saying that by fielding five (instead of four) candidates, the TRS laid the trap and the TDP walked into it with their money bags.
Offering a cabinet berth to a defector may be unethical but it is not criminal according to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Though the Anti-Defection law in Schedule 10 of the Constitution mandates disqualification of defections numbering below two-thirds of the strength of the legislature party (called a merger), the deciding power lies with the Speaker who either delays or toes the line of the ruling party, thus letting the legislators continue in the House and cabinet.
The Hyderabad High Court, meanwhile, has asked the Speaker of the Telangana Assembly to inform it if he receives any complaint from the TDP and Congress against the defections.
Those who support the TRS talk of the law. Those who oppose it question its ethnics. Similarly the pro-TDP media question the unethical defections of the TRS as they find it difficult to defend the recorded bribe-offer of Revanth Reddy.
While most of the media have forgotten how to be impartial, will it be possible for the ACB to remain impartial? Particularly when the media seem to be conducting their own investigations and trials?
And to conclude, spare a thought for the poor governor, E. S. L. Narasimhan, who is common to both states. He keeps getting visits from both chief ministers who bombard him with contradictory claims.
(Madabhushi Sridhar is former Professor of Media Law with NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad)
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