Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu joined us at NBF Conclave 2022 to talk about the future of media and opposition. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader was interviewed by the Managing Editor of NewsX, iTV Network Rishabh Gulati.
During his address to the session, he stated “In any democracy, there are four pillars: legislative, judiciary, executive, and media. Opposition and political parties are supposed to function together; this is how democracy works when everyone has the opportunity to voice and discuss their concerns. Media and opposition have to work together- in history we have seen efficient work of media where it helped to expose corruption.”
He added saying “In Andhra Pradesh, the situation is deteriorating because the media is not giving appropriate room for the opposition as the government is paying too much money for advertisements, thus the media only covers favorable news about government.”
However, he went on to say that there is media manipulation and that it is a shame that no federation or even the press council is able to combat it.
Following what Naidu stated, Rishabh Gulati questioned how to have a fair voice in media when many media firms are owned by political parties, to which he responded that the opposition role and communication have become almost impossible.
He went on to say, “We all work for this great nation, and ultimately, everyone should be able to voice their opinions, which the media should report.”
While concluding the discussion, NewsX’s managing editor asked Naidu if being in opposition means questioning the government’s positive plans and efforts.
In response, Naidu stated that India is a great country, and that following economic reforms, India is developing extremely quickly and would play a more critical role in the future. In the information economy, our IT is quite powerful; in the next 25 years, we will achieve and do considerably more. If we work together, regardless of our political ideas, India is in for a glorious moment.
However, he noted that slight variances would exist, but fundamental principles must be enforced.
