Hyderabad: Congress leaders pay rich tributes to PV Narasimha Rao

Hyderabad: The centenary birth anniversary celebrations of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao were held at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday. Senior Congress leader V Hanumanth Rao chaired the celebrations. TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, MLAs D Sridhar Babu, T Jagga Reddy, former ministers Dr. J Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Laxmaiah, Marri Shashidhar Reddy party leaders Ch Vamshichand Reddy, Mallu Ravi, Kodanda Reddy and former minister G Vinod Kumar among others attended.

The leaders paid tributes by garlanding PV's portrait. Senior journalist K Ramchandra Murthy delivered the keynote address. Editor of Andhra Jyothi news daily K Srinivas spoke. In his address, Murthy said the Congress party was needed for society as also PV's ideology. Murthy said he got opportunities to meet PV several times. Recalling PV's words, he said the former PM had once told him that he lost the elections in the State for introducing land reforms and at the Centre by opting for economic reforms.

Murthy alleged that the BJP government had introduced the controversial three anti-farmers bills in a unilateral manner without consulting anybody.

Terming the ongoing farmers agitation as world's largest, he pointed out that PV's soul would have felt happy if it was also held in Telangana.

The TPCC chief said PV would remain permanently in the hearts of the people. He hailed holding of various programmes as part of the PV centenary celebrations. Reddy termed the land reforms of PV as 'great', adding that the former PM had donated lands to the poor.

He asserted that the party was still strong in more than 12,000 villages across the country while expressing confidence that it would come to power in the days to come.