Over the past week, television channels in Andhra Pradesh have relentlessly covered what they dubbed an akrama sambandam (illicit affair) between an all-powerful Opposition politician and an Adivasi woman bureaucrat. It started on July 15, when Madan Mohan Manipati, an assistant director in the Indian Institute of Packaging, alleged that his wife Kaligiri Shanti, an Assistant Commissioner in the state Endowments Department, entered a romantic relationship and had a son with YSR Congress Party second-in-command and Rajya Sabha MP V Vijaysai Reddy. What followed was a media trial, with channels dedicating entire days to ‘examine’ the case.
Over the next few days, Telugu channels put up the most eye-grabbing, tawdry coverage of the ‘paternity dispute’.
A Mahaa News headline read, “I had sex with Vijayasai Reddy – Shanti drops truth bomb..?”, something Shanti never actually said. Another video displayed yet another ‘quote’: “He is 68, I am 32, how is this possible?” Another thumbnail featuring Shanti, her husband, and Vijaysai Reddy said, “Shanti’s child’s benami”.
A thumbnail from a TV5 video read, “She slept with Vijayasai Reddy, she told me so: Shocking truths revealed by Shanti’s husband.”