The Andhra Pradesh government celebrated International Women’s Day with great fanfare on Sunday. In connection with this, full-page advertisements were also released in all major newspapers on Sunday. What is strange, however, is that even on International Women’s Day, no place was given to the photo of Andhra Pradesh Women and Child Welfare Minister Gummadi Sandhya Rani. But as usual, the advertisement carried the photo of IT and Human Resources Minister Nara Lokesh, who has no connection with that department at all. It is known that for some time now, the photo of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan has also been included in every government advertisement. But when it comes to Nara Lokesh, he is just like any other minister. Yet, since he is the son of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, his photo is being specially included in every advertisement. On one hand, the government claims that it is making special efforts for women, and on International Women’s Day it spent crores of rupees of public money on advertisements. However, instead of including the photo of the concerned minister, the photos of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and Nara Lokesh were placed in the advertisements, which even officials say they find surprising.
They say that at least on this day, if Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had included the photos of the three women ministers in his cabinet in the advertisement, it would have enhanced his respect. Instead, leaving them out even in the Women’s Day advertisement and placing the photos of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu along with Pawan Kalyan and Nara Lokesh is not appropriate, and there has been widespread criticism. It is known that in Chandrababu’s cabinet, Anitha is the Home Minister, G. Sandhya Rani is the Minister for Women and Child Welfare, and S. Savitha is the Minister for Backward Classes Welfare. If the women ministers had been given a place in the advertisement at least on International Women’s Day, it would have enhanced the prestige of the government. But now, leaving out the women ministers and placing the photos of Pawan Kalyan and Nara Lokesh, who have no connection with the department, is being described as strange. This advertisement has also become a major topic of discussion on social media.