NTR loved his children immensely. But in their growing years, he was preoccupied with his work, so the children were close to their mother but not their father. Therefore, in his old age, they did not keep in touch with him. Had they been around, there would have been no place for Lakshmi Parvathi. She would, perhaps, have remained a biographer. It is common for people of advanced age to crave company, more so if the person is single. It would be uncharitable to say that NTR married Lakshmi Parvathi for conjugal reasons alone or that he had walked into a trap laid by her. It was quite clear from what he said at the Tirupati meeting and in the subsequent interviews given to newspapers that it was NTR who made the offer and Lakshmi Parvathi accepted it. That Lakshmi also was keen on living with him cannot be ignored. She had some special qualities and skills that made NTR so happy that he could not live without her. It is also a fact that everybody should accept.
Had the family, which was largely influenced by Chandrababu Naidu and Harikrishna, accepted Lakshmi Parvathi as their stepmother and treated her properly, things would have been different. But when the whole family insisted that he should disown Lakshmi Parvathi, NTR became stubborn and got closer to her and protected her with all his might.
There are rebuttals to this theory and to the allegations of NTR’s neglect by his children. ‘It is a canard to say that NTR’s children did not take care of him. They adjusted their lifestyles to suit his needs,’ said A.V. Ramana who was associated with the TDP right from its inception. In fact, it was Ramakrishna’s wife Jayashree who dutifully attended to her father-in-law early in the morning. She used to get up much before dawn and take care of NTR’s needs including breakfast. It had been her daily routine ever since the death of her mother-in-law Basavatarakam. Purandeswari used to come early in the morning, followed by Bhuvaneswari.
However, after considering all aspects, NTR had decided to move to his house on Road No. 13, Banjara Hills. Ramakrishna fell at his father’s feet and requested him not to move to a smaller house in Banjara Hills. He said he could live freely as he liked at the Abids residence. After settling down at the Banjara Hills residence, NTR and Lakshmi Parvathi lived together without any hassles. His last son, Jayashankar Krishna, used to live with them. He used to visit and still visits the residences of all his brothers. He was respectful towards Lakshmi Parvathi. He was friendly with her son Koteswara Rao, who was studying at Vijayawada. He used to visit her for a few days in a month. Her father, mother and other relatives also visited the place for one or two days.
NTR’s other sons used to meet him in his office room and go away without seeing or talking to Lakshmi Parvathi.
Besides NTR’s children, the TDP leaders also made their displeasure known in various ways. It took some time for Naidu, who had who walked out of the Tirupati meeting, to come to terms with reality. Some leaders who were close to Naidu were keeping away from NTR. However, many TDP leaders praised NTR for marrying a poor woman.
Somireddi Chandramohana Reddy, president of the Nellore district unit of the TDP, compared NTR to Babasaheb Ambedkar, who married Savita who had nursed him when he was not well. Ambedkar married Sharada Kabir (Savita Ben) when he was fifty-seven and she was thirty-nine. Addressing a press conference at the local press club, Reddy said, ‘Anna garu has a lot of respect for women. That was why he reserved 30 per cent of the jobs for women and gave importance to them in politics.’
Renuka Chowdhury described NTR as a bold man who married the woman in his life. Pratibha Bharati, president of Telugu Mahila, TDP’s women’s wing, said she would soon organize felicitations for NTR and Lakshmi Parvathi. Nallapareddy Prasanna Kumar Reddy, son of Srinivasulu Reddy, a senior leader who was a minister in NTR’s cabinet before leaving the TDP, brought about twenty supporters and a giant garland, and congratulated the couple. Chandrababu Naidu and Raghuma Reddy were among others who met the couple.
Dr Daggubati Venkateswara Rao described his father-in-law’s decision as a progressive step. AICC spokesman V.N. Gadgil, in his daily briefing at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, congratulated NTR. However, Union information minister Singh Deo, who was on a visit to Hyderabad on 16 September 1993, expressed his displeasure at the officials of Doordarshan showing the visuals of NTR’s wedding. The then chief minister, K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, asked by Singh Deo for his opinion, commented that it was NTR’s personal affair and there was nothing to criticize.
As the bona fide wife of NTR, Lakshmi Parvathi was accepted by the general public and respected by some sections of civil society. Both NTR and Lakshmi Parvathi were felicitated by many leaders and organizations. NTR tried his best to make Lakshmi Parvathi acceptable to his family members. He organized a dinner for the whole family when his youngest daughter Uma Maheswari visited from the US. Most told NTR bluntly that they were not going to attend the dinner if Lakshmi Parvathi was around. He participated in the dinner without Lakshmi Parvathi, who later called Uma Maheswari separately and gave her new clothes and a gold chain. The distance between NTR and his family had become unbridgeable.
While the NTR–Lakshmi Parvathi wedding disheartened the TDP leaders, it raised a new hope in the Congress (I) leaders. Everybody agreed that the future developments would depend solely on how the people perceived the wedding. The common people did not find anything objectionable with the wedding. How many faceless persons won as MLAs and became ministers because of NTR’s blessings? Where would they have been without NTR? What about Chandrababu Naidu who lost miserably to a TDP candidate in the 1983 elections and joined the TDP surreptitiously? This was the popular refrain.
While some people who questioned the propriety of NTR’s marriage after he had entered his seventies, the majority of the people appeared to have felt that NTR’s marriage with Lakshmi Parvathi was his personal matter that everyone should respect.
This excerpt from Ramchandra Murthy Kondubhatla’s ‘NTR: A Political Biography’ has been published with permission from HarperCollins India.
Source: The Print
