Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today paid rich tributes to a prominent leader of the Telangana Armed Struggle, Ravi Narayan Reddy, describing the latter as a "true democrat", on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
The CM recalled that Reddy, besides building an armed movement dedicated to the liberation of Telangana, also demonstrated his immense faith in parliamentary democracy, and called this ideological stance "laudable".
"Ravi Narayan Reddy was a great democrat who withdrew his armed struggle when the country attained independence. The leader had shown that all successful people's movements must have action plans that are in tune with the existing circumstances and contexts of their creation. The spirit of people's movements as practiced by him was an extremely important and integral part of the separate Telangana movement that we were all a part of," KCR said.
The CM said that Reddy, in the first general elections of independent India, won his seat with the highest majority among all those who contested in the same and set a record with the big win.
Reddy, a founding member of the Communist Party of India and a peasant leader, is fondly remembered by many for his role in the Telangana Rebellion against the rule of the last Nizam of the Princely State of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan. He is also remembered as being a philanthropist, social reformer, and an able parliamentarian. Many in the state admire him for his relentless fight for peasant rights as well.