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.
Was NTR a casteist or was he communal? Did NTR’s political rise also enable and accelerate the growth of Kammas as one of the most dominant castes in Telugu states?
NTR certainly did not come on to the political scene as a representative of his caste, where the-then Congress was dominated by Reddys, and supported by Brahmins and SCs. Congress provoked caste conflicts in a bid to wean away sections of people from NTR’s TDP. Some say caste polarisation started in AP after the political entry of NTR. It is the other way round. Unable…