On the last day of the ninth session of the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly on Wednesday, uproar prevailed in the House as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) stormed the Speaker’s podium to protest the State Government’s move to rechristen Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) as Dr. YSR University of Health Sciences.
The TDP MLAs, holding placards, raised slogans ‘ NTR Amar Rahe’, ‘ johar NTR’ to protest ‘The Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022’. They even showered pieces of paper on the Speaker Thammineni Seetharam. Enraged over it, the Speaker threw his headphones, and announced a “break for some time.”
Earlier, a wordy duel ensued between the ruling YSRCP and Opposition TDP members. Ministers Kakani Goverdhan Reddy, Ambati Rambabu, Narayana Swamy and others took objection to the TDP members’ behaviour in the House saying that they could discuss the matter when the Bill was tabled.
The TDP members did not heed the advice from the Speaker to allow the proceedings to continue. Instead, they reminded him that TDP founder president N.T. Rama Rao gave him political life.
TDP MLAs Butchaiah Chowdary and others said that the government was paving way for a bad precedent by changing the names. When there was a change in the guard, all these renamings would be undone with a stroke of a pen, they cautioned, adding,The TDP when in power did not change names of YSR Horticulture University or YSR Kadapa district.
As the TDP MlAs were raising slogans, Mr. Rambabu said that Mr. Butchaiah Chowdary alone has a right to speak about N.T. Rama Rao as he alone stood by him when Chandrababu Naidu (TDP National President and former Chief Minister) “backstabbed” him. All other TDP MLAs supported Mr. Naidu then, he said.
The ruling benches stressed that the state government has no intention to belittle NTR. The government honoured him by naming a district as NTR district.
