REPORTERS’ DIARY : Promoting friends not gonna stop in BRS

The immortal number from Sangam (1964) ‘Dost dost naa raha, pyaar pyaar naa raha, zindagi hamen tera aitabaar na raha, aitabaar na raha’ — inimitably sung by Mukesh, penned by Shailendra, and set to music by Shankar-Jaikishan – strikes a chord about betrayal of dosti. What about the other extreme? Well, reporters are foxed these days over former minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president going way beyond the normal in promoting his school bestie Bukhya Johnson Nayak, who had lost in the Khanapur Assembly election. In good old days (that is, for BRS), any smallest reason would see a flurry of activity with a plethora of pink flexies coming up months in advance. Today, with former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on the cusp of launching the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign, there is hardly any sign of a pink flag in Karimnagar. Although there is a public meeting on March 12, there is no hungama as of now. But what has not gone unnoticed is how KTR his promoting his school dost Bukhya Johnson Nayak. In fact, during the preparatory meeting at Veernapally, KTR made Johnson speak in Gormati language, considering the preponderance of tribals in that area. Johnson honoured dosti, but was criticised by his opponents for lack of communication skills.