Andhra: Jagan gets personal, slams Pawan Kalyan, top TDP leaders, for tarnishing image of volunteers

80,686 మంది చేనేత అన్నదమ్ములు, అక్కచెల్లెమ్మల ఖాతాల్లోకి బటన్‌ నొక్కిరూ.194 కోట్లు పంపించే కార్యక్రమానికి శ్రీకారం చుడుతున్నాం. ఈ ఒక్క పథకం ద్వారా మాత్రమే 50 నెలల కాలంలోనే 5వ ఏడాది ఇస్తూ రూ.970 కోట్లు నా నేతన్నలకు తోడుగా నిలబడే కార్యక్రమం జరిగింది: సీఎం#YSRNethannaNestham pic.twitter.com/OwLK96pQ1O

— CMO Andhra Pradesh (@AndhraPradeshCM) July 21, 2023

Tearing into the actor-politician and top TDP leaders in front of a huge crowd, he said, “Only characterless people like Pawan Kalyan, Chandrababu Naidu, (Nandamuri) Balakrishna, and Yellow Media are talking negatively about volunteers. How dare they? Pawan Kalyan’s remarks are proof that we all live in Kalyuga.”

“It is not right to level allegations and malign our volunteers who are going the extra mile to ensure last-mile delivery of schemes. They are doing their best to serve the people. For me, each and every volunteer is my family member,” Jagan said.

Also Read: Who are the ‘volunteers’ — loved by YSRCP, hated by Opposition?

Making it personal

Take a dig at the actor-politician, the chief minister said that, in fact, it was Pawan Kalyan who himself was a “volunteer” for TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, referring to the Jana Sena chief’s supposed eagerness for a tie-up with the TDP.

Jagan also rained fire on the Opposition leaders and their social media teams for peddling and propagating fake news.

“The effort put in by our volunteers and their character are known to the millions of people who are receiving welfare benefits every year. The public is also familiar with Chandrababu Naidu’s character, including that of his adopted son (Pawan Kalyan), his biological son (Nara Lokesh), and his brother-in-law (Balakrishna).”

Getting personal, he said: “Chandrababu Naidu’s adoptive son — the ‘volunteer’ — exploits women, marries them for four years, then divorces them.”

Jagan had several personal comments to make on Naidu himself, his son Nara Lokesh, and the actor Balakrishna as well, accusing them of, among other things, moral turpitude.

Also Read: Protests intensify over Pawan Kalyan comment about ‘volunteers’ 

Government Order issued

Special chief secretary Ajay Jain had, on Thursday, issued the Government Order (GO) to the Village/Ward Secretariat, granting sanction for filing a complaint in court against Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan.

“The government, after careful examination of the matter and in exercise of the powers, hereby accords sanction to the concerned public prosecutor to make a complaint before the competent court against the individual named Konidela Pawan Kalyan,” the order read.

He invoked powers conferred under Section 199 (4) (b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, to accord the sanction.

Jain highlighted that Kalyan made defamatory, derogatory, and venomous statements against the volunteers at a public meeting.

Also Read: Pawan Kalyan appoints in-charges for seats where TDP has strength

TDP slams GO

Meanwhile, TDP supremo Naidu came out in support of Pawan Kalyan, condemning the GO sanctioning the filing of a case against him.

In a Twitter message on Friday, Naidu said that the situation in the state was so bad that it has now become a crime to question the government over its blunders.

The government’s policy now is to foist false cases against against Opposition leaders who question it, the former chief minister said.

Contending that any ruling dispensation should be answerable to the public, Naidu wondered how a case could be registered against Pawan Kalyan for simply asking why the volunteers were gathering personal details of the people against laid down norms.

“If at all any case is to be registered, it should be filed against the Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is misusing the system,” the TDP supremo stated.

The incident in question

Addressing a public meeting in Eluru on 9 July, Pawan Kalyan alleged that nearly 30,000 women have been trafficked from Andhra Pradesh, enabled by the state government’s grassroots governance system’s foot soldiers, namely the ward and village volunteers.

Claiming that he was privy to intelligence from central agencies, the actor-politician said that 30,000 women went missing from the state. He said only 14,000 women managed to return and demanded answers about the whereabouts of the remaining women.

Further, he claimed that volunteers were relaying information from every village to some ruling party leaders as to who belongs to whom, how many people live in a family, if girls have fallen in love with anyone, how many widows are there, and other details.

According to Kalyan, some anti-social elements are making use of this information to target widows and traffic or trap them.

His comments led to widespread protests by the volunteers across the state, and prompted the state government to issue a statement citing National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures to rebut Pawan Kalyan’s claims on missing women.