GURUKULAM STYLE OF SHOOTING THE MESSENGER!

Multiple incidents of food poisoning incidents in Telangana’s Gurukulams of late, apart from raising valid questions about the quality and safety of food served to students, have queered the pitch for Alugu Varshini, Secretary of Telangana Social Welfare Gurukul Institutions Society. Instead of putting the record straight as the society’s sutradhari, she hit the headlines recently for her rude, selfrighteous, and defiant attitude. It is a different matter that she came up with no solutions at all as if it is not her business. Varshini’s presser was marked by fiery darts and theatrics in place of decorum as she raved and ranted against the media. While singling out a particular outlet associated with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi party, she unabashedly declared, leaving jaws on the floor: “Don’t even bother showing up”. That was just a drizzle. Varshini, in the course of her varsham of recriminations that followed, laid out new rules for journalists wanting to reach her. “First, message in the WhatsApp group that you’re trying to contact me, and then I’ll call you back,” she declared peremptorily, leaving reporters wondering who is the boss when it comes to media coverage in terms of so many seconds on air or column centimeters in print. Opening a window into family flex, she let reporters know that she had in fact advised her father-in-law-a heavyweight politician in Tamil Nadu- to replicate TG’s Gurukulams model. She is furious now because of what she dubs as the media’s ‘negative propaganda’ about what she had held out as a ‘model’. It looked like Varshini came fully armed for a showdown with the media, caring two hoots for going off the record even when prompted by scribes aghast at her diatribe. Finally, her every word went on record, leaving no scope mischief or misinterpretation. Media persons were like “It is arrogance cloaked in authority”.