Senior BRS leader KT Rama Rao on Wednesday sent a legal notice to Telangana minister Konda Surekha, who has sparked a massive controversy by alleging that he was behind the divorce of actors Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Naga Chaitanya.
In his notice, Rao has demanded that Surekha should retract her statement and issue a public apology within 24 hours. He has warned that failure to comply will lead to legal action, including defamation and criminal cases.
The former minister claimed that Surekha was simply using the names of the prominent actors in the south Indian film industry to further her political agenda. The BRS, meanwhile, said her remarks about KTR were “uncouth”, “cheap and disgusting”.
Tagging senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in their post on X, the party further asked them to deal with this “stupidity”. “The Congress party holds no moral ground to preach about the Constitution or its values anymore. Such stupidity will be dealt with appropriately and politically. Your leaders are only digging a grave for your party with their motormouth and uncouth remarks,” it wrote.
What is the controversy?
Attacking KT Rama Rao over “online abuses” directed at her, Surekha claimed that he was the reason behind the divorce of actors Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Naga Chaitanya. These drew sharp responses from the actor, her family as well as the BRS.
The minister for environment, forests and endowments in the Congress government, Surekha alleged that BRS social media activists were targeting her online and defaming her by making abusive comments against her. She also claimed that earlier the opposition party made “derogatory” comments on Telangana Panchayat Raj Minister Danasari Anasuya Seethakka and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi.
“KTR (Rama Rao) was the reason behind the divorce of Naga Chaitanya and Samantha….” she alleged. “He was a minister at that time and used to tap the phones of the actresses and then find their weaknesses to blackmail them… He used to make them drug addicts and then do this… Everyone knows this, Samantha, Naga Chaitanya, his family, everybody is aware that such a thing happened.”
What did the actors say?
Samantha took to Instagram to issue a strongly-worded statement. “To be a woman, to come out and work, to survive in a glamorous industry where women are more often than not treated as props, to fall in love & to fall out of love, to still stand up and fight… It takes a lot of courage and strength,” she wrote.
Directly addressing Surekha, she added, “Konda Surekha Garu, I am proud of what this journey turned me into—please don’t trivialise it. I hope you realise that your words carry significant weight as a minister. I implore you to be responsible and respectful of individuals’ privacy.”
Naga Chaitanya’s father and top Telugu actor Nagarjuna strongly condemned the minister’s remarks asking her not to use lives of movie stars who stay away from politics, to criticise her opponents.
“As a woman in a responsible position, your comments and accusations against our family are completely irrelevant and false. I request you to withdraw your comments immediately,” he said in a social media post.
Later, Naga Chaitanya also issued a statement in response to Surekha’s allegations and said they were “not only false, it is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable”. He said the decision to divorce Samantha was “one of the most painful and unfortunate life decisions”, but it was mutual and “made in peace”.
“The decision of divorce is easily one of the most painful and unfortunate life decisions one has to make. After a lot of thought, a mutual decision was made by me and my former spouse to part ways. It was a decision made in peace, owing to our different life goals and in the interest of moving forward with respect and dignity as two mature adults,” he said in a statement.
He added: “However, there have been various baseless and completely ridiculous gossips on the matter so far. I have remained silent all this while out of deep respect for my earlier spouse as well as my family. Today, the claim made by Minister Konda Surekha Garu is not only false, it is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. Women deserve to be supported and respected. Taking advantage and exploiting the personal life decisions of celebrities for the sake of media headlines is shameful.”
(With PTI inputs)
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