Garikipati Narasimha Rao is a Padma Shri awardee for his outstanding capabilities in the field of literature. He is a Sahasra Avadhani, representing the ultimate brain power.
He is known for his widely appealing pravachanams that disapprove superstitious beliefs around shakunas and vastu. In most of his speeches he sounds very practical and rational.
But these days he seems to be suffering from loosening nuts of his brain. His verbal eloquence sometimes ends up as verbal diarrhea. His latest comment on mid day school meals is obnoxious and reflects his ignorance.
He commented about serving eggs to students in the midday meal scheme and then asked why they should be given midday meals and made into "first night grooms".
He even questioned how students can learn after eating food. This shocking comment has drawn criticism from illiterates and intelligentsia alike in the two Telugu states.
Midday meals for students is a great scheme because it is meant for poor children whose parents cannot afford to feed them properly with the work they do.
Many labourer parents even make their children work along with them to earn a few rupees, depriving them of education.
The government introduced this scheme to provide food at school and encourage children to pursue education. Since one meal is provided free, many parents started sending their children to school. The scheme helps quench the hunger of poor students.
Even in gurukulams in olden days, food used to be provided by the guru himself for his students, though at the end of education some gurudakshina was given by kings or wealthy patrons. Garikipati knows this culture very well.
The same is replicated by the government today, aligning with our age old culture system. What's wrong in this for Garikipati?
He should also remember that tens of thousands of crores of loans taken by financial criminals of the nation are being waived off by banks and governments. Many such people are in politics today and Garikipati might know several of them.
For the midday meal scheme the government spends around Rs 10,000 crore, which is not a big amount considering its purpose.
After all, it is meant to provide education to poor students, and push the state towards 100% literacy, not merely feed them.
Garikipati has made unnecessary remarks several times earlier as well.
Once he said that there is nothing wrong in dying by the age of fifty after eating whatever one likes. In another instance he said that one should eat everything up to thirty years, then control after that, and after sixty eat in strict limits without succumbing to taste buds. What kind of contradiction is this?
He is an engaging and entertaining speaker, but he deserves some rest and introspection. He should have the basic wisdom to understand how the world will interpret his words.
With overconfidence he sometimes speaks nonsense, which spoils the image he earned over decades.
The respected moral preacher Changanti Koteswara Rao once said that he used to consult his guru Mallampalli Amareshwara Sharma before and after giving any discourse to know if he had spoken anything unnecessary or over the board.
He used to take his feedback, mend his ways and moved forward. That kind of caution should be there for Garikipati Narasimha Rao as well. He can become his own guru and introspect before speaking.
Laymen may speak anything; society gives them that freedom. But respected figures like Garikipati do not enjoy the same liberty to utter whatever comes to their mind.
With public respect comes responsibility. His duty is not only to preserve his personal reputation but also to uphold the dignity of the Padma Shri conferred upon him, and to honour the trust and admiration of the millions who look up to him.
Thatavarthy Pinakapani
