Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu was at the receiving end of criticism not only from Opposition leaders within the state but also from leaders of various other political parties all over the country for his silence on the aggressive and abusive acts of his party's Ananthapur MP J C Diwakar Reddy at the Visakhapatnam airport on Thursday.
Apart from political leaders, even people from various walks of life in different parts of the country used the social media to lambast the Chief Minister not only for not reigning in Reddy for his aggressive actions but also for allowing him to leave the country on a foreign jaunt.
What is upsetting people even more is that the Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who also belongs to the TDP, was very much present in the airport when the unsavoury incident took place.
Political circles are agog as to how a Chief Minister who has been espousing the need for a clean public image for political leaders, did not utter a single word of reproach leave alone take action when his own party MP caused a nationwide outrage by his boorish behaviour.
It is also intriguing that Diwakar Reddy was allowed to leave not just the state but also the country on the eve of an important meeting convened by the leaders of Ananthapur district by the Chief Minister.
YSRCP and Congress leaders are demanding that the Chief Minister immediately place Reddy under suspension pending investigation into the airport incident. They also criticized Ashok Gajapathi Raju for his nonchalant attitude regarding the airport episode.