New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu released a commemorative coin on the occasion of the centenary of Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao or NTR, cinestar, ex-chief minister, a powerful political force and founder of the Telugu Desam Party.The function is significant as it shows the attention the Union government would like to draw to his legacy and its desire to get associated with it, but also for the one family member who was kept out – the president’s office did not send an invite to his wife, Nandamuri Laksmi Parvathi.According to South First, on Friday, August 25, Lakshmi Parvathi had written a letter to Murmu and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman “seeking their intervention to instruct the concerned officials to include her name in the guest list”.In her letter, Lakshmi Parvathi mentioned that she was married to the late NTR on September 11, 1993.“Together, we led a peaceful family life and actively participated in the [Andhra Pradesh] state legislature election in 1994. Under our leadership, the TDP secured 226 assembly seats out of 294. However, due to a conspiracy orchestrated by his elder son-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu in collusion with other family members, power was acquired through backdoor methods,” she said.She is further quoted as saying, “This unfortunate turn of events led to NTR’s deep depression, as he expressed his dissatisfaction with his children’s families. Tragically, he passed away on January 18, 1996. Ironically, the very same family members who were responsible for his demise are now invited to the prestigious function of releasing the ₹100 coin in his memory.”Parvathi further stated, according to South First, that “As a single woman, I wish to express my profound dissatisfaction with the authorities responsible for this oversight.”She sharply criticised the political morality of state BJP president D. Purandeswari in a video today.The sons, daughters and other extended relatives of NTR were invited to the function and the Rs 100 coin has the inscription ‘1923-2023’.#NandamuriTarakaRamarao Gari ₹100 Coin officially launched by the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi TODAY.#JoharNTR 🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/OSnEUgEvuB— Nandipati Murali (@NtrMurali9999) August 28, 2023Chandrababu Naidu, NTR’s son-in-law and current TDP chief, has been working hard to get onside and effect an alliance with the BJP. He is said to have visited and held meetings with Union home minister Amit Shah, too.But there are reports about the Andhra Pradesh BJP not being anxious to rush into an alliance or announcing one right away.A recent change of guard in handing over the charge of the state BJP to another daughter of NTR – former Union minister in the United Progressive Alliance, D. Purandeswari – is being seen as a mixed signal, one suggesting the desire and need to appropriate NTR’s legacy to contest Jagan Reddy, but also doing that without getting directly into an association with Chandrababu Naidu.Naidu is not said to be close to his sister-in-law, and spared no insults last time when he opposed the BJP in 2019, going so far as terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a terrorist”.NTR’s first wife Basavatarakam died in 1985. His second wife, a writer whom he married in 1993, is said to be interested in politics and public life, and also resented by NTR’s children.It is likely that her being in the picture now could complicate any political project of the BJP to claim NTR’s political inheritance. Chandrababu Naidu and others in the family are also unlikely to be easy if she were to be acknowledged. Sources say this may be the reason she was simply left out.According to a press release from the Press Information Bureau, speaking on the occasion of the launch of the commemorative coin, “the president said that [the] late Shri N.T. Rama Rao has enriched Indian cinema and culture through Telugu films.”It continues: “He breathed life into the prominent characters of Ramayana and Mahabharata through his acting. The characters of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna played by him became so alive that people started worshiping NTR.”Murmu is also said to have “noted that NTR also expressed the pain of the common people through his acting. He spread the message of social justice and equality through one of his films titled ‘Manushulanta Okkate’ i.e. All human beings are equal.”The president also spoke flatteringly about NTR’s film and political legacy and remarked that he “initiated many public welfare programmes, which are remembered till today”.
