New Delhi : A brief period of shouting by a crowd during Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech at Andhra Pradesh’s Madanapalle has turned into a political contest over what the disruption was really about. A video clip from the October 2 event in Madanapalle, where Sitharaman was speaking about an agriculture project, went viral online.
Chandrababu Naidu, Sitharaman, Andhra Pradesh minister and TDP leader Nara Lokesh, and BJP leaders rejected that interpretation. They said the crowd was enthusiastic about the leaders on stage, and that Naidu intervened to restore order. What is audible is Sitharaman repeatedly asking people to listen to her before Naidu steps in and asks them to sit down. His remarks indicate how he interpreted the situation at the venue.
Naidu then took over. “Please sit down. What you are doing is not right,” he told the crowd. He said the programme was about bringing change to the lives of Rayalaseema farmers and stressed the importance of the Union Minister’s message. Please sit down. I understand your enthusiasm. But please sit down,” Naidu said. He then told the gathering that he and Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan would come out after the programme.
Naidu said that he was telling them to sit down for their own good. “We are telling you this respectfully, so you should also show respect,” Naidu said, before again asking the crowd to sit quietly. It is this intervention that has become central to the competing narratives around the incident. The October 2 programme in Madanapalle was held for the launch of the “Global Horticulture Hub – Rayalaseema Rising” project.
“The Finance Minister herself is seeing how much anger there is among the public. The Chief Minister had to silence the people,” Ramesh wrote in Hindi. The Congress leader’s post became the basis for a series of responses from leaders of the ruling alliance in Andhra Pradesh. Replying directly to the Congress leader’s post, Sitharaman said, “Unbelievable, Jairam. Didn’t think you were impetuous.
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