It has been more than 25 years since legendary actor and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh N T Rama Rao passed away due to heart attack, apparently due to the anguish caused as a result if great betrayal by his own son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu.
NTR continued to be a major vote-catching element of the TDP campaign since then. Despite facing the allegations of back-stabbing NTR, Naidu has been invoking NTR’s name during the elections by raking up the Telugu pride and self-respect sentiment.
During this 25-year period, Naidu had been in power for nearly 13 years. During his tenure as the chief minister, he had never put forth the demand for conferring Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the country, on NTR.
But whenever he was in the opposition, it has become a routine for Naidu to demand Bharat Ratna to NTR.
His party’s conclave Mahanadu religiously passes a resolution every year, putting forth this demand to the Centre, but conveniently forgets the same later.
On Friday, too, coinciding with the 98th birth anniversary of the TDP founder, the Mahanadu, being held virtually due to Covid-19 pandemic, adopted the same resolution again.
Moving the resolution, the TDP chief said NTR was not an individual but an institution. By honouring him posthumously with Bharat Ratna, the country would be honouring itself.
“We shall rededicate ourselves for realising his dream of establishing a welfare state,” he said and requested that the Centre consider conferring Bharat Ratna on NTR.
Senior TDP leader and former Union minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju second the resolution.
