Within hours of issuing a government order renaming “APJ Abdul Kalam Pratibha Puraskaram” being given to meritorious students as “YSR Vidya Puraskaram,” the YSR Congress party government restored the original name.
With the Telugu Desam Party started making it a big issue and attacking the government in the social media, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy got alerted and fired the officials of the school education department for issuing such an order without his knowledge.
“How can you drop the name of former President of India and Bharat Ratna A P J Abdul Kalam’s name from the meritorious award without informing me?” Jagan shouted at the officials.
He directed the officials to withdraw the order and retain the name of Abdul Kalam for the award.
He also instructed the officials to name the merit awards after country's stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Jagjivan Ram, Jyotirao phule, etc.
The GO (Ms no. 78) was issued by secretary of school education B Vijaya Kumar on Monday, changing the name of the award as YSR Vidya Puraskaram, in tune with the government’s policy of renaming all the welfare schemes in the name of late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, former chief minister and Jagan’s father.
Since morning, the TDP social media groups have been spreading the news with hashtag #YSRCPInsultsAbdulKalam across the state, questioning the decision to rename the scheme after YSR by removing Kalam’s name.
Several netizens and fans of Kalam found fault with dropping of Kalam’s name.