DECCAN CHRONICLE. | SRIRAM KARRI
Updated Feb 3, 2021, 4:57 am IST
NTR was a nationalist but not a casteist, the TDP is not really a Kamma party
Both as an actor and a politician, NTR has left a deep imprint. His body of work in Telugu films will remain a great cultural achievement for times to come.
Hyderabad: In a second part of the interview with Sriram Karri, author of a new biography of late N. T. Rama Rao, ‘Maverick Messaiah’, Ramesh Kandula says though driven by Telugu pride, NTR was a nationalist but not a casteist, the TDP is not really a Kamma party and despite the challenges the party is facing in AP, Telugu Desam will survive the YSRCP onslaught and the BJP won’t grow in Andhra in a meteoric manner like in Telangana.
NT Rama Rao as Krishna in Mayabazar (1957) | Vijaya Films
By 1989, the mercurial chief minister had landed himself in a series of controversies, many of them of his own making. His image took a severe beating. Senior party leaders who fell out with him became a thorn in his side. Caste conflicts and Naxalite violence created fissures in his governance. His iron grip over the party and the administration seemed to loosen. The Opposition stepped up its attack. The Congress (I) was able to pin him down on his home turf when he thought he was close to realizing his ambition of taking on the establishment at the national level…