Shri Chowdary, an entrepreneur since 1986, earned high regard for his sterling qualities as both an amiable person and a professional businessman. Known for exuding positivity, he has consistently offered a helping hand to those seeking support, garnering respect. His extensive network of friends and well-wishers spans various sections of society, including industry, politics, and culture.
However, once he became associated with politics, there have been attempts to drag his name into unsavory episodes. Political rivalries, accompanied by jealousy, led to orchestrated attempts at besmirching his name both within and outside his party.
Since the second half of 2000s, there has been a systematic effort by interested groups to make unsubstantiated allegations and insinuations against his business activities, which till then had no record of blemish.
Once he became active in the Telugu Desam Party from the year 2005 onwards, Shri Chowdary became a target for political detractors. At the time, the Congress Party headed by Shri YS Rajasekhara Reddy was at the helm of the government in Andhra Pradesh. Shri Reddy’s government began tax investigations into the Sujana Group in order to indirectly dissuade Shri Chowdary from associating with the TDP. The inquiry found no tax-related irregularities in the Sujana Group.
While the tax investigations did not find anything amiss with the Group, the occasion was used to make baseless allegations against Shri Chowdary’s businesses using several media outlets that were friendly with the state government.
Targeted misinformation was spread to diminish Shri Chowdary’s personality and the integrity of his businesses. A few Telugu and English newspapers based out of Hyderabad began circulating this misinformation. Later, the electronic channels which came into vogue also followed the suit. While Shri Chowdary took care to issue clarifications from time to time to every charge made in the media, the mud-throwing continued since it was essentially at the behest of political interests.
None of the stories circulated in the media contained a shred of evidence but the mud-throwing continued.
The attacks became more stinging after Shri Chowdary became a Member of Parliament and later a Minister in the Union Government. However, while the political and media blitzkrieg continued, people in general and those who interacted with Shri Chowdary personally or his companies took all such reports with a pinch of salt.
The fact of the matter is while there are a few company-related issues involving loan default to some banks, which is within the realm of business operations, there have been no cases against Shri Chowdary himself. He has not held any executive positions since 2014 in any of the companies that he had founded.
In this backdrop, here is an effort to clarify some of the issues regarding Shri Chowdary in the true spirit of transparency and accountability.