HYDERABAD: Comparing former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Jawaharlal Nehru, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Sunday that Narasimha Rao was equal in stature to Nehru, but did not received the recognition he deserved.
He further said that though saying Narasimha Rao and Nehru were leaders of equal stature will irk some people, this is a fact that the Telangana government believes in and will publicise the same across the world.
Chandrasekhar Rao made these comments while speaking at an event organised at the PV Gyan Bhoomi, located on Necklace Road in Hyderabad, marking the launch of year-long celebrations by the State government to commemorate birth centenary year of Narasimha Rao, who was a native of Telangana. The State government has released Rs 10 crore for the celebrations.
The Chief Minister said that he will personally lead a delegation, which will also include kin of Narasimha Rao, and meet the Prime Minister to ask the Central government to confer Bharat Ratna on Narasimha Rao.
Calling Narasimha Rao as a "360 degree personality", Chandrashekar Rao said the State government would take up various efforts to ensure that his legacy lives on. The Chief Minister also said his government will take Telangana Sahitya Akademi’s help to bring out volumes of books on Narasimha Rao’s life journey, highlighting various achievements of his personal and political life, including how he went to Maharashtra to get educated, learnt 17 languages, his expertise in literature and the achievements as a Human Resource Development Minister and later as Prime Minister when revolutionary economic reforms were brought in.
Chandrasekhar Rao said these books will be deposited in the libraries of various universities across the country.
He said the Telangana government will conduct various events on topics related to Narasimha Rao, including a conclave to which former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former President Pranab Mukherjee will be invited.
He also promised to built a museum and a memorial, apart from installing bronze statues of PV in Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Vangara and Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi.
A portrait will be put up in the Assembly, he said and added that he will take the initiative to make the Centre to put up a portrait in Parliament. New schemes bearing Narasimha Rao’s name might also be started in Telangana, he said.
KCR wrote to Prime Minister Modi asking the Centre to change the name of UoH to PV Narasimha Rao University of Hyderabad. He said the university was set up in 1974 as a result of the Telangana agitation, under the six point formula and it would be fitting to rename it as a tribute to PV.
Leaders pay tribute to PV Narasimha Rao
HYDERABAD: TPCC president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar and senior party leaders paid floral tributes to PV Narasimha Rao at Gandhi Bhavan and at PV Gyan Bhoomi on Sunday. Uttam said the people of Telangana would always remember PV for his landmark Land Ceiling Act.
Also, BJP State president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Adilabad MP Soyam Bapurao, MLC N Ramchander Rao and the party’s former State president K Laxman also paid tributes to the leader