VIJAYAWADA: A day after TDP supremo and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu broke down accusing the ruling YSRC leaders of stooping to a new low by dragging his wife Bhuvaneswari, who hails from the Nandamuri family, into politics and “assassinating her character”, members of Nandamuri family joined chorus and condemned the alleged objectionable remarks of the YSRC legislators against the family members.
Daggubati Purandeswari, senior BJP leader and sister of Bhuvaneswari, and film star Junior NTR spoke on the issue. Actor-turned-politician and Hindupur MLA N Balakrishna and other family members issued a statement demanding that family members should not be dragged into politics.
Releasing a video message through Twitter, Jr NTR said, “Criticism and counter criticism are common in politics. That should be on people’s issues, not on individuals. The incident that took place in the Assembly on Friday deeply hurt me. When we resort to individual criticism that too against our women, that is the beginning of atrocious ruling. Respecting women is our culture and tradition, which should be passed on to the future generations.”
Jr NTR further said he was not speaking as a family member of a person subjected to individual criticism but as a son, a husband, a father and a citizen of the country and as a Telugite. “My appeal to all the politicians is to kindly stop the atrocious culture here and fight on people’s issues. This is only an appeal. I hope the issue will end here,’’ the actor concluded.
Balakrishna, along with a host of the Nandamuri family members, on Saturday strongly condemned what they described as an “uncivilised character assassination” launched by the YSRC MLAs on Bhuvaneswari.
Balakrishna told the YSRC MLAs to watch their words and desist from making such ‘derogatory comments’ in future. “Khabardar! Give and take respect. We will not tolerate if such cheap comments are made once again. No system can save you once we begin counter measures.
We will break all walls and hurdles to counter you,” he warned. Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad along with other family members, Balakrishna said their party leaders and cadre were observing absolute restraint as a mark of respect to the words of “my elderly brother-in-law Naidu”. Because of him, the TDP activists were still giving respect to the people’s representatives regardless of the party they belong to, he said. Balakrishna said the political debates should be issue-based without any personal agenda or ulterior intentions. From the days of NTR, the TDP has been fighting issue-based battles, but not along personal lines. Allegations and counter allegations should not deteriorate to the extent of targetting family members who have no connection with politics.
Balakrishna said Naidu was a courageous leader who would never break down in any crisis situation. But now, the circumstances have brought it to such an extent. There would be a certain limit to everything. If they were truly the representatives of the people, they should encourage healthy debates, not personal abuses, he said.
Bhuvaneswari’s sister Lokeswari said she was greatly pained at her sister being dragged into politics. “Assembly would be like a temple, but they have made cheap comments in such a holy place. Naidu never used a word against Jagan’s mother, wife and sister,” she said. Nandamuri Ramakrishna warned the YSRC leaders not to test the patience of the family.