After TDP workers reportedly vandalised the Deccan Chronicle’s Visakhapatnam office in Andhra Pradesh over its report on the governing TDP-Jana Sangh-BJP alliance’s “U-turn on VSP privatisation”, leaders of the BJP and YSRCP have condemned the alleged attack.   

Reports said that the TDP workers “screamed, set things on fire, and destroyed precious equipment”, “vandalised the furniture” and got into “a heated argument with the staff” as they stormed inside the Deccan Chronicle office on Wednesday afternoon.

 The TDP activists called the newspaper’s report, titled “Alliance takes U-turn on VSP privatisation”, as false and said that the alliance government would continue their fight against the privatisation of the Vizag steel plant.

Deccan Chronicle defended its report, saying that it is “true”. 

The report suggested that the coalition government in the state will allow the privatisation of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of the Vishakapatnam Steel Plant, which has been pending for three years. The BJP-led central government had said that the plant was constantly incurring losses and that it would not allow public money to be wasted, while the TDP had previously promised to retain it as a public sector unit.

The BJP Kakinada urban convener Gatti Satyanarayana said that attacks on the media houses are not the culture of the alliance parties and should not be encouraged. He said that people may ask for answers from media houses but attacks are not a solution.

Party leader Duvvuri Subrahmanyam also condemned the attack, terming it as “vicious culture”, and said that the police should take action against the persons involved in the vandalism. The TDP is yet to comment on the incident. 

Meanwhile, YSRCP chief and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said it was a “cowardly attack” and an attempt to “stifle the media”.   

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