Today is the ninty ninth Birth anniversary of Legendary actor and politician, NT Rama Rao. He passed away more than twenty-five years ago but he is still relevant to the Telugu people and Telugu politics. In fact, he has made an indelible mark on Indian politics as well. He is relevant to the extent even a rival party has to promise to name a district after him.
Several Pro-poor schemes of NTR are still being implemented in the country. He has stormed to power in just one year and two years later, TDP is the main opposition in the Lok Sabha during the Rajiv Gandhi storm. But then, NTR is not just about the welfare schemes he rolled out or his electoral victories.
He has brought in a qualitative change in Telugu politics. The Political awareness he brought in the people between 1982-87 is something remarkable in the history of India. He brought in some of the most backward classes of the society to politics and made them win with his charisma. Moreover, he chose people of modest and educated backgrounds even from those classes.
Many prominent leaders who are in various parties now would have otherwise not dreamt of politics if not for NTR. For an instance, back in those days, one community used to be a dominant force in Ranga Reddy district, NTR chose a person from the BC community to lead the party and he is none other than Devender Goud.
Even after that, Congress tried to counter NTR using the Kamma tag. They extensively used ‘Amma Kavala, Kamma Kavala’ as the election slogan (Amma – Indira Gandhi) but NTR debunked that with his honest politics. Besides this, it is the first time people were so engrossed in politics in AP and Telangana.
People were so connected to politics and NTR that they resorted to the streets when Nandendla Bhaskar Rao’s coup and did not relent until he is back in power. Years after that Indian society and Telugu society are divided once again on caste and religious lines. Cash has become prominent in elections and political parties are pitting one caste against the other, one religion against the other to divide people and make them into dummy vote-banks.
Things have become a lot easy on that line due to the advent of WhatsApp and social media. It’s time the country and both the Telugu states need a leader like NTR – someone who can inspire honest and modest people to come to politics and someone who can inspire people to vote on the merits of the candidate than on anything else.
That’s not impossible but at the same time, not easy because NTR is a limited edition, a masterpiece.
