NEW DELHI: A political row erupted between the Congress and members of NDA after a video showing a brief interruption during Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech in Andhra Pradesh’s Madanapalle on October 2 went viral on social media.The 30-second clip showed Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu addressing the crowd during Sitharaman’s speech. A social media user claimed that people in the gathering were demanding jobs. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh later reposted the clip and alleged that the crowd’s reaction reflected public anger.“The finance minister herself is seeing how much anger there is among the public. The chief minister had to silence the people,” Ramesh said.Sitharaman rejected the Congress leader’s interpretation, saying workers of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jana Sena Party were eager to meet their leaders, Naidu and Pawan Kalyan, during the event.Calling Ramesh’s conclusion “unbelievable”, Sitharaman said Naidu had only asked the workers to wait until the programme ended before interacting with the leaders.“Unbelievable, Jairam. Didn’t think you were impetuous. The workers of both TDP and Jana Sena Party wanted to meet their leaders, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan. The chief minister only said they would meet them after the programme ended. That was all,” Sitharaman said in the comment section of Ramesh’s post.Naidu also hit back at Ramesh, saying the clip had been presented as evidence of public anger when the gathering had actually witnessed an enthusiastic response.
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“Jairam ji, your interpretation of what happened could not be further from reality. What you are trying to falsely portray as public anger was, in fact, an overwhelming and enthusiastic response from the people. The sheer enthusiasm of the gathering required me to intervene briefly so that the programme could continue smoothly,” Naidu said.State minister Nara Lokesh, who was present at the event, also criticised Ramesh, accusing him of promoting a false narrative without verifying the circumstances.Lokesh said there had been no protest among the crowd and alleged that a routine interaction with an enthusiastic gathering had been selectively presented to suggest public discontent.
