Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju has said that tributes paid to those who sacrificed their lives during the freedom struggle will be meaningful only if people joined hands in nation building to put India above the comity of nations.
Addressing schoolchildren and parents at the State-sponsored 117 birthday celebrations of Alluri Sita Rama Raju here on Friday, Mr. Raju thanked the State government for organising the celebrations. He also advised parents and teachers to inculcate ethics and human values in children.
Speaking on the occasion, he quoted the incident in which a woman councillor of the YSRC was assaulted in his presence at the Bobbili Municipal Council Hall on Thursday. Stating that it was his first experience in politics, he recalled how the elected TDP ZPTCs behaved when the Congress nominee won the ZP Chairperson seat through lottery.
Even Parliament did not turn into a boxing ring when former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was defeated by just one vote. “But, some believe that installing huge statues of thugs at every place will make people adore them. Unfortunately, the number of people adoring thieves released from prison has been increasing,” he said. Mr. Raju appealed to people to think about moral values and self-regulation.
Earlier, Mr. Raju, MLAs M. Geetha and K.A. Naidu, District Collector Kantilal Dande, Joint Collector B. Rama Rao and Additional Joint Collector U.C.G. Nageswara Rao paid floral tributes to the portrait of Alluri Sita Rama Raju. Additional JC Nageswara Rao narrated the life story of the revolutionary. Later, Mr. Raju felicitated Sanskrit scholar Manapragada Sesha Sai, philanthropist P.V. Narasimha Raju and academician Nadiminti Vijayalakshmi.
