Shun caste for growth

Vijayawada: Shedding his film hero image and donning the role of a social reformer, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Friday sought to find answers to the evil of casteism that is permeating the entire society and how it had paralysed the effort for development for decades. “There is nothing wrong in being with your caste men.

But you should not hate those of the other castes. Unless all of you live together like brothers caring for one another, development would remain a mirage. Amaravati would not materialize, if caste dissensions continue in Vijayawada just as the way they did in the 90s,” the actor said at a meeting of the party coordinators in Vijayawada.

Pawan recalled how Hyderabad had been built. “I do not dispute the argument that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had done a lot for the development of Hyderabad. But even before Naidu arrived, Hyderabad existed for more than several decades. Building a capital city is not easy and would be almost impossible, if people remain divided on caste lines and fight with one another,” he said.

The actor who is on a tour of AP state reached Vijayawada on Friday and interacted with the students of Fathima Medical College, Kadapa, who have been fighting a battle with the government for justice to them as the seats to which they were selected were cancelled by the Medical Council of India.

Later addressing Jana Sena Party coordinators, Pawan recalled the circumstances in which he had decided against lending his hand to YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy. “I did not support him as he was involved in cases. If he had not been neck-deep in corruption cases, maybe I could have lent my support,” he said and pointed out that the decision to be on the side of the TDP then was only to lend his shoulder to the effort to wipe out the sharp line that differentiated one caste from another.

Pawan Kalyan said he condemned the murder of the then legislator V Mohan Ranga Rao and at the same time he denounced the violence that followed. In fact, several people who had nothing to do either with Ranga’s murder or the subsequent violence suffered a lot. “My heart grieves for all those who were affected by the violence regardless of which caste they belonged to.

If a Kamma woman is in distress, my heart reaches out to her,” he said, driving home the point that one should not reduce society into fragments of hatred. “The caste division which existed after the murder of Ranga continues even today. We are not able to come out of the morass created by hatred for other castes. There may be huge buildings now and the look of the city may have changed. But our hearts have not changed,” he said.

Pawan Kalyan, however, was in praise for the people of Telangana. “I do not see casteism afflicting them as much as it has in Andhra. In Hyderabad, no one asks you what your caste is. But in AP, unless you announce your caste and mingle with your caste men, survival becomes very difficult.”

Reacting to rumours that the then TDP legislator Paritala Ravi had humiliated him by tonsuring his head and beat him up, Pawan said mischievous elements in the Telugu Desam had spread such falsehood to deepen the divide between the two castes which are at logger heads in coastal districts since the murder of Ranga in 1987.