Roja takes the sheen out of women parliament

Vijayawada: Film actress-turned YSRC firebrand MLA Roja continued to be under the media glare in her own style for a full day on Saturday as much as the National Women Parliament did in the last two days.

The day witnessed a slanging match between the Roja camp and the ruling TDP which let the women’s session take a break for a while from debating on women’s rights and empowerment.

High drama marked the landing of Roja at the Gannavaram airport to attend the parliament. Even as she claimed to be having an invite from the government to take part in the second day’s deliberations, the police detained her in the visitors lounge for more than a couple of hours and whisked her away.

After taking her around through unknown routes in a police vehicle, the cops let her off in Hyderabad. When the vehicle slowed down to overcome a speedbreaker at Perecharla in Guntur district, Roja gave a slip to the police and jumped out from the vehicle.

She ran for a while only to be mobbed by people giving them a rare opportunity to see a film star from close quarters in amusement. However, the police shoed the villagers away and took her back into the vehicle. The YSRC activists staged a dharna at the police station suspecting that she could have been under the custody of the local police.

She managed to release the self-recorded video clips with a hard-hitting criticism against Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad Rao, who is hosting the Women Parliament, and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, to the media through whats app which went viral.

In the video clip, Roja said her detention exposes the hallow claims of the TDP government over empowerment of women while recalling how the Speaker suspended her from the House for a year unilaterally.

In total contrast, the CM and the Speaker spoke at length over the TDP government’s contribution to women, which included granting of the right to property for women by NTR, on the inaugural day.

YSRC leaders met DGP N Sambasiva Rao at his office and filed a written complaint against the police personnel who detained MLA Roja illegally. The DGP defended the police action stating the department has solid information that Roja will create scene at the venue. .

Meanwhile, Minister for Women and Child Development Peethala Sujatha at a separate media conference at the party office depicted Roja as a `psycho’ out to project the high-level women’s event in a bad light just for political mileage.