With the demise of Potturi Venkateswara Rao on Thursday at the age of 86, the generation of journalists who were born before the Independence and started their career as journalists in the Nehruvian era is almost gone, with a very few survivors. He was born on February 8, 1934, at Pottur village in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh in a Niyogi Brahmin family, who were traditionally village Karanams.
He graduated from Guntur Andhra Christian College, where former Chief Minister and senior politician K Rosaiah was his senior. He came to Hyderabad in 1956 in search of a job and lived at his elder sister’s house. His brother-in-law Valluri Ramachandra Rao was a prominent lawyer. His brother Valluri Basava Raju, popularly known as VB Raju, was a minister in the Hyderabad State government headed by Burugula Ramakrishna Rao, and one of the earliest protagonists of the Telangana State along with Dr M Chenna Reddy and others.
As Potturi was the member in VB Raju’s house, he had a ring-side view of the political developments then with clashes between protagonists of united Andhra Pradesh and votaries of Telangana State. He was a staunch supporter of separate Telangana state since then until it became a reality, though he hailed from Andhra.
Potturi, as he is popularly called, cut his teeth in journalism, which spanned well over five decades, in ‘Andhra Janata’, one of the prominent dailies in Hyderabad in those days, promoted by VB Raju.
He worked with such stalwarts like Kuchimanchi Satya Subrahmanyam, whom he succeeded as Editor of ‘Andhra Prabha,’ a Telugu daily from the stables of Indian Express. After the paper was folded, he joined ‘Andhra Bhoomi’ daily, then edited by an iconic editor Gora Sastry as News Editor.
When, Ramoji Rao launched ‘Eenadu’ edition in Hyderabad, Potturi joined as one of the editors of the newspaper. He quit ‘Eenadu’ after a short stint and joined as Editor of ‘Andhra Prabha’ Weekly and then became its editor succeeding his guru in journalism, Kuchimanchi Satya Subrahmanyam. He continued there until his retirement. Then he took over as general Editor of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) publications, where he pioneered the publication of Anamaya Keertanas.
As an editor, he was fiercely independent and brooked no interference from the managers. When this writer was Staff Reporter of the paper in Karimnagar, one of the managers approached to put in a word with the district Collector to pass pending advertisement bills. I refused and complained to Potturi, who chastised the manager. He resigned as Editor of ‘Udayam’ newspaper, where he served briefly, when a news story he spiked appeared in next day’s edition, apparently at the prodding of the management. He immediately put in his papers and asserted his independence.
Potturi, though a conservative at heart, stood by liberal democratic values and in support of freedom of press, freedom of expression and human rights. He was part of the ‘Group of Concerned Citizens’ which facilitated a dialogue between the government of Andhra Pradesh and the People’s War Group of Naxalites immediately after Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy came to power in 2004. He was part of a fact-finding team of editors to probe the atrocities on Dalits in Kanchikacharla and Tsundur in Guntur district appointed by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ).
As Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Press Academy, he launched digitalisation of old Telugu newspapers and magazines. He also published a few books authored by veteran journalists to acquaint the new generation journalists about the history of journalism. He authored a few books, prominent among them is the History of Telugu Journalism, which is considered to be an authoritative reference book to students of journalism.
He was recipient of Best Journalist award given by the Andhra Pradesh government. He was one of the five editors honoured specially by the Press Council of India during its Golden Jubilee in 2017.
With his demise, Telugu journalism lost a staunch protagonist, an independent editor and a fine human being. It takes a while to fill the void created with his passing away.
(Writer is advisor,national media, govt of AP)