The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday extended warm greetings and called for a renewed struggle for the ‘reconstruction of Andhra Pradesh’, as the party completed 40 years since it was founded by N.T. Rama Rao.
On the occasion, in a video address to the Telugu NRIs, the TDP chief lauded the Telugu diaspora for taking an active part in Janmabhoomi rural development works in the motherland. It was a matter of pride that the party NRI units were celebrating the 40th foundation day in over 200 cities spread over 40 countries. The NRIs in Europe extended timely help to bring back the stranded Telugus in the war-torn Ukraine. The NRI TDP units were responding immediately with a sacred duty to help those in need in times of emergency, he said.
Mr. Naidu recalled how NTR launched the TDP on this day 40 years ago and showed the power of Telugu self-respect to the whole world. “The State has fallen into the hands of forces of destruction. It’s time to rededicate efforts in order to restore the ‘Telugu pride’. Now that the motherland is facing an existential threat under the present regime, everyone has a duty to fight with self-confidence to regain the Telugu pride,” he said.
Bold reforms
Mr. Naidu said in its long journey the TDP had overcome many obstacles. NTR sowed a strong foundation for the party’s pro-poor welfare agenda. He had ushered in bold reforms by abolishing Patel-Patwari system to remove suppression and introduced mandalika system for reaching out to people. The ₹2 a kg rice scheme stood as an ideal model for food security for the whole country, he said.
Mr. Naidu asserted that in the united Andhra Pradesh, the TDP had laid the foundation for a vibrant knowledge economy by developing infrastructure projects in IT and other sectors. Huge wealth creation had enabled greater scope for poverty alleviation. Children of farmers and poor families went to all corners of the world, took up jobs and sent back money for their parents.
