To
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
&
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi
The decision of the Andhra Pradesh government to change the name of Kadapa district to YSR (YS Rajasekhar Reddy) district has caused us much disquiet.
Kadapa is a name well-known to the Telugu people since over a thousand years. The name is contained in inscriptions, scriptures and lakhs of documents. The name is evocative of a history, a culture, politics, personalities, a people’s way of life, land, water, language, literature and more. There is also the belief among people that Kadapa got its name since it is the ‘gadapa’ (threshold) for pilgrims visiting Sri Venkateswara Swamy in Tirumala. Kadapa was the first district to be constituted in the Rayalaseema region. It was only later that the districts of Anantapur, Kurnool and Chittoor were formed.
Given this repute, it is improper to suddenly change the name of the district. Though YS Rajasekhar Reddy was a popular political leader and Chief Minister who died in the most unfortunate circumstances, it must also not be forgotten that he and his family have the factionist label attached to them. Let us remember that though national leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi fell to their adversaries’ bullets and bombs, their name was given to institutions, schemes and roads but not to a geographical entity. India is known the world over as ‘the land of Gandhi’, but it was never thought by anyone, and rightly so, to name our country after him. This is because if we begin to do this, there will not be any area left with a permanent name. Just think of how much inconvenience and confusion such a trend would create for the people, among other things, in matters of administration.
It is wrong to impose the whims and fancies of some on everyone under the guise of paying respect to leaders. We strongly appeal for such undesirable tendencies to be put and end to and Kadapa’s name retained. We urge you to direct the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and the Congress party to desist from attempts to rename the district.
S Jeevan Kumar
HRF State President
K Jayasree
HRF Kadapa district convener
10.08.2010
Kadapa