N.T. Rama Rao is the heritage of all Telugu-speaking people across the globe and there is a need to continue his legacy in society, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu said at an event organised as part of the birth centenary celebrations of NTR here on Saturday.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Naidu said NTR was not an individual but was social and political force and a system himself. He recollected how NTR stood for people during natural calamities such as cyclones as an actor and later for the poor with his policies as Chief Minister. He mentioned that it was during his chairmanship of the National Front that B.R . Ambedkar was conferred Bharat Ratna and now Telugu people would continue to fight till it was conferred on NTR .
General secretary of CPI (M) Sitaram Yechury said as a student activist and young politician he always looked at former Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu and N.T . Rama Rao who fought for strengthening the federal structure in the country’s democracy. He always practised principled politics.
Attributing the credit for V.P. Singh becoming Prime Minister of the country with the help of regional political parties in 1989 to late NTR, general secretary of CPI D. Raja said NTR fought hard for recognition of regional parties at national level with a view that regional parties were indispensable in a diverse country like India. It was due to NTR’s fight that federal system was strengthened in the country and he was a pro-poor politician with focus on providing food, clothing and shelter to the poor.
Governor of Haryana Bandaru Dattatreya said late NTR would be known for, apart from his pro-poor policies, scrapping ‘ patel-patwari-karanam ’ system in the land administration as people had suffered badly with them. He was also against enmity in politics as he believed that there would only be adversaries in politics and not enemies.
Former Union Minister D. Purandeswari and several others from the film industry including Jayasudha ,Jayaprada, Prabha , D. Venkatesh , Shivaraj Kumar, M. Muralimohan , R. Narayana Murthy, Ram Charan, Naga Chaitanya , and Sumanth and others linked to the on-screen and off-screen roles spoke at the event.
Family members of NTR including N. Balakrishna, and those from political field participated in the event. A website, Jai NTR, was launched and a book titled Satapurushudu was released on the occasion. A 45-minute dance ballet based on the movies of NTR was also was performed. It was also decided to set up a 100-ft-high statue of NTR in Hyderabad by his birth anniversary next year.
