By renaming NTRUHS, Jagan remotely drives a wedge within NTR's family

HYDERABAD: By changing the name of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences to YSR Health University, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy cleverly caused a rift within the family of the legends NTR.

It's no surprise that there was an outbreak of criticism in the sharpest form from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as well as the Nandamuri family against Jagan and the YSR Congress.

But, NTR's wife Lakshmi Parvathi, who hold a government position, didn't utter a word about the decision. The tongue-in-cheek tweet by NTR's grandson and film star Jr NTR drew flak from the TDP's rank and file and some of his cousins in the patriarch's family.

TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu, general secretary Nara Lokesh, AP unit chief Kinjarapu Atchen Naidu MLA Gorantla Bucchayya Chowdary and a lot of others strongly condemned the decision. When the bill was being passed, TDP leaders also stormed up to the Speaker's chair and staged a protest in the Assembly.

While Kalyan Ram, Bala Krishna and other family members strongly and openly opposed this decision saying that the name of Dr NTR Health University should have been retained and not be named after YSR, Jr NTR's response was rather a tongue-in-cheek statement. In the statement which came through as a tweet, he said that both NTR and YSR were great leaders and that the renaming would not lower NTR's stature, nor increase YSR's.

Reacting to his statement, TDP supporters took the internet by storm and went against Jr NTR. His soft-pedalling to the renaming forced TDP admirers to troll Jr NTR. They were shocked as to how his reaction could be so weak-kneed when a decision was taken against his grandfather.

On the other hand, fans of Jr NTR stepped in his support, a day later. They tweeted their support to the star with the hashtag #JrNTRfootNaradogs, meaning the supporters of Chandrababu Naidu were "dogs" and at the feet of Jr NTR.

They trolled the 'yellow media' – Chandrababu Naidu's media.

It maybe recalled that Jr NTR was specially invited for a personal meet by Union Home Minister and Senior BJP lease Amit Shah who had indicated that the party could use his services in an appropriate manner. Until then, it's maintained as a meet to appreciate his action in RRR.

When Jr NTR's fans did not hesitate to take on his critics from the TDP head on, Jagan could politically prove to the BJP that NTR's family was not united. It's squabbling at an issue to which they just were arrogating a vicarious responsibility to themselves.