Panicky Rosaiah on backfoot as YSR birthday fete turns ‘official’

Independent Media

Panicky Rosaiah on backfoot as YSR birthday fete turns ‘official’ Even Dist Collectors Told To Conduct Celebrations In A Big Way IT’S OFFICIAL:  Dancers perfom at a function organised on the occasion of 61st birthday celebrations of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy at Ravindra Bharathi in the city on Thursday Hyderabad/Vijayawada: Amidst heightened political tensions, the state government celebrated late YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s 61st birth anniversary celebrations on Thursday. The official purpose was to take away the thunder from Jagan’s Odarpu yatra in Srikakulam, which attracted big crowds. To encash the YSR sentiment, the government hurriedly asked the district administrations to organise the birth anniversary celebrations as an official programme. Curiously, no other late CM was accorded such a privilege in districts though there is a practice of incumbent CM and his cabinet colleagues paying tributes in the state capital.  While chief minister K Rosaiah unveiled a life-size portrait of YSR in the main lobby of the state Assembly and offered floral tributes along with ministers, MLAs and MLCs, the TDP stayed away from the event. TDP deputy leader Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu raised objection to the installation of YSR’s portrait in the Assembly lobby saying it was unprecedented.  “Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and P V Narasimha Rao who served as CMs went on to become the president and the prime minister respectively. Even their portraits were not installed in the Assembly,” he pointed out. Well, the Congressgovernment knows it could illafford to overlook the mounting sympathy for YSR family in the aftermath of controversies surrounding Jagan’s yatra. Hence, the “official” tag for YSR’s birth anniversary.  N T Ramarao, the first non-Congress CM who served the state for over seven years, was not given such a treatment by successive Congress governments. Only, TDP leaders and family members go to NTR Ghat to pay tributes to the charismatic leader. Recently, the birth anniversary of PV Narasimha Rao was celebrated in Hyderabad and nowhere the fete was organised, including his home district of Karimnagar.  While the birth anniversaries of first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and longest-served PM Indira Gandhi are observed by the education department, the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi is confined to Congress party offices only.  “We get instructions on the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar and Babu Jagjivan Ram to conduct them as official programmes. On Thursday, YSR birth anniversary fete was conducted as an official programme,” explained a district collector.  While the district administration in Prakasam pays tributes to the late CM Prakasam Panthulu in his home district, there is no evidence of such events being organised for Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy in Anantapur, Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy in Kurnool or for remembering Kasu Bramhananda Reddy in Guntur and NTR in Krishna districts. “Even if such events are organised, such programmes are confined to a formal garlanding of the statue or a portrait. But certainly not as a large event as organised in memory of YSR,” a senior official said.  Krishna district in-charge collector Gaurav Uppal, who personally reviewed the arrangements, had directed the district educational officer to issue instructions to all the headmasters of the schools to organise essay-writing, painting and elocution competitions and present certificates to the winners.  In Guntur, district collector B Ramanjaneyulu insisted that all the officials be present for the birthday celebrations. “It seems it’s purely a political decision keeping in view of Jagan’s attempt to take away the legacy of his father from the Congress party fold,” said a to official in Nellore.

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