When YS Jagan announced his decision to rename Krishna district after NTR if he became CM, everyone hailed the decision for one principal reason: While the TDP is a Kamma party, the YSRCP is a Reddys party. This is the general perception.
And usually, while there are Reddys in TDP and Kammas in YSRCP, once in power, the TDP doesn’t name anything after a Reddy and neither do the Reddys give any preferential deference to the Kammas.
Therefore, Jagan saying he would name the district after the founder of his main opposition party is a welcome move because it cuts beyond caste equations.
But now, Jagan has moved to West Godavari and said he would rename the district after Alluri Seetha Rama Raju to woo the Kshatriyas there. This is crossing the line because it is now pure caste-based politics.
Do the people of the district not have a say in this matter at all? Who is YS Jagan to be taking arbitrary decisions? The State is not the property of Chandrababu Naidu or YS Jagan. It belongs to the people and their views should be ascertained before renaming districts.
Besides, Alluri Seetharama Raju is a stalwart who is too big to be relegated to just having a district renamed after him.
Alluri was a hero who fought for the tribals and their rights against the British and sacrificed his life in the process. He is a national hero unlike NTR who had umpteen corruption charges and controversies against him when in power.
NTR is a god only for the one community whereas Alluri is a hero for all the Telugus. But the point is, decisions should be taken in the larger interests of the people and not on caste-based calculations alone.
Tomorrow, Pawan Kalyan might say that if he comes to power, he will rename Vijayawada city after Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga and Paritala Sunitha might ask for Anantpur district to be renamed after her late Gandhian husband.
Therefore, it is high time that YS Jagan put an end to this foolishness he has started. Towards this end, let us hope that he completes his Padayatra as soon as possible or else, we might be in for more renaming.
