The sudden decision of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to postpone the first World Telugu Conference in Telangana state has surprised many.
The conference was first planned to be held form June 2, coinciding with the formation of Telangana state. Following instructions from KCR, the Telangana government came up with a detailed programme to organise the conference.
At a time when the department of culture started making preparations, the announcement came from CMO that the conference is being postponed to October.
Officially, the government says the postponement had to be done due to lack of sufficient time. Secondly, the inaugural date falls on Ashtami, hence it is not auspicious for the first World Telugu Conference.
Third, government’s Advisor for Cultural Affairs K. V Ramanachary and other literary personalities requested the CM for the change of dates, as they required some time to invite delegates from India and abroad and to organise the conference on a large scale.
The actual reason, according to sources, is the criticism from various quarters about the nature of the World Telugu Conference.
When the conference was held last time in Tirupati during the regime of then chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Telangana poets and writers boycotted on the pretext of cultural invasion of Andhra writers over Telangana.
Now, when the Telangana government wants to hold the World Telugu Conference, the same writers and poets from various parts of Andhra Pradesh are in the forefront, dominating the scene.
KCR, too, asked the authorities to call writers, poets and litterateurs from all parts of Andhra to the proposed conference. In his view, Telugu is a common language and it has no regional barriers.
This is in contrast to his earlier argument that Telangana literature was being suppressed. This change of attitude evoked sharp criticism from all quarters.
So, the culture department is now trying to identify and promote Telangana poets, for which it needs time. That is the reason why the conference had to be postponed.
