Row as Jagan renames NTR health varsity after his father
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to rename the NTR health university after his father and late former chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy sparked a political slugfest in the state on Wednesday.
The state legislative assembly passed a bill changing the name of NTR University of Health Sciences to Dr YSR University of Health Sciences by a voice vote, opposing which the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) created a ruckus in the House and 17of its members were suspended for the entire day.
The bill was introduced by state health minister Vidadala Rajini on Wednesday morning. The TDP members raised strong protests over the decision and disrupted the question hour proceedings.
Assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram said the TDP members could express their opinion when the discussion on the bill took place. Resisting the move, the TDP members stormed the Speaker’s podium, tore away the bill copies and raised slogans demanding the government withdraw the bill.
But the Speaker continued with the question hour amid slogan shouting and disruption of proceedings by the TDP members. With the situation going out of hand, the Speaker suspended the TDP members for the entire day.
During the brief discussion on the bill, the state housing minister Jogi Ramesh said the TDP leaders had no moral right to talk about NTR. “If at all there is anybody who has affection and respect towards NTR, it is Jagan, who has named Vijayawada district after NTR,” Ramesh said.
In his reply to the discussion, the chief minister strongly defended his government’s decision to rename the health university. He said it was a well-thought move to give due credit to late YSR, who had pioneered the healthcare sector in Andhra Pradesh and was by no means showing disrespect towards NTR.
“Due credit should be given to the deserving. Everybody knows YSR, a practising medical doctor before joining politics, had been a pioneer in taking quality medical care to the common people with his innovative scheme like Aarogya Sri, besides introducing the ambulance services,” Jagan said.
He said that out of the existing eleven medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh, nine were functioning even before TDP was formed and the remaining had been established due to the initiative of YSR.
“Since we came to power in 2019, we are adding another 17 medical colleges to give a fillip to the healthcare sector. This itself is a credit which qualifies the renaming of the health university,” he said.
Stating that TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu had no love lost for NTR, Jagan said Naidu had usurped the TDP and also the CM post from NTR. “He had not even lobbied for Bharat Ratna for NTR. But we have all the respect towards NTR, and that is why we have named one of the districts as NTR district,” he claimed.
Reacting to the government’s decision, Naidu wondered how YSR was related to the health university, which was established in 1986 during the NTR regime. “It was NTR’s brainchild, as he wanted a separate institution for medical education. After his demise, the then TDP government named the university after NTR in 1998,” he pointed out.
The TDP president said the successive governments, including that of late YSR, had never thought of changing the name of the university, which had acquired national recognition. “It is illogical to think of changing the name of NTR Health University now, after 36 long years of its establishment,” he remarked.
Soon after the assembly passed the bill, the TDP workers took up protest demonstrations in Vijayawada and blocked the roads by staging a dharna near the health university. The police arrested the protestors and shifted them to the police station.
Several other leaders like Bharatiya Janata Party state president Somu Veerraju and CPI (M) state secretary P Madhu opposed the government move.
Meanwhile, former MP and state official languages commission chairman Dr Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad resigned from his post. “Though I still consider Jagan as a hero, I was pained at his decision to drop NTR’s name from the health university,” he said in a statement.
