Battle of tweets: Pawan Kalyan takes on YS Jagan over data and education scandals

Jana Sena party leader, Pawan Kalyan, intensified his criticism of the YSR Congress government, questioning the handling of the Volunteers system and the utilisation of Byju’s educational content for students in Andhra Pradesh.

Pawan Kalyan, in a series of tweets, raised questions about data privacy, allocation of resources and accountability in the administration of these systems.

He questioned the leadership of the Volunteers, the storage and handling of the personal data collected by them, and the legality of their actions since they are not government employees. These concerns arise from his previous allegations of misuse of the data collected by volunteers from families.

In a separate context, the Tollywood hero scrutinised the government’s expenditure on Byju’s content for tablets, questioning the sustainability of this initiative. He pointed out that the government had spent approximately Rs. 580 crore on content that was loaded onto tablets valued between Rs. 18,000 to Rs. 20,000 in the market. However, Byju’s CEO Ravindran had agreed to provide this content for free to 8th class students as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Pawan Kalyan fires questions on AP’s government over data privacy and educational expenditure. Photo courtesy of Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India/Wikimedia Commons.

Pawan Kalyan further questioned the continuity of this provision and who would bear the cost if the company doesn’t continue to offer free content in subsequent years.

He also questioned the applicability of the content, asking about the medium and syllabus on which the content was based, to which the organisation responded that it is based on the CBSE syllabus.

Pawan Kalyan’s tweets triggered a wave of support from his followers, who flooded Twitter with posts echoing his concerns and supporting their leader’s stance.