Alai Balai a socio-political get-together conducted every year during Dasara season by veteran leader Bandaru Dattatreya, saw attendance from politicians from all political parties even this year. While Telangana CM Revanth Reddy was the cynosure of all eyes at the event, former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, Union Minister Kishan Reddy, Telangana Ministers D Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad, MPs Etela Rajendar, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, AP Minister Satya Kumar Yadav and others took part in the meet.
Bandaru Dattatreya, who is serving as Himachal Pradesh Governor right now, started the tradition of conducting ‘Alai Balai’ on the next day after Dasara festival in the year 2005. Except during COVID pandemic, he has been continuing the tradition without fail over the past two decades. This year Bandaru Dattatreya’s daughter Bandaru Vijayalakshmi, took over the responsibility from the veteran leader.
Bandaru Dattatreya came up with the idea of Alai Balai, to unite politicians from all parties keeping aside ideological differences. Appreciating the initiative, CM Revanth Reddy during his speech stressed that, it was Alai Balai which inspired formation of Joint Action Committee (JAC) during Telangana movement.
Staying committed to its motive, this year’s Alai Balai highlighted the need for setting aside political differences and stop spreading hatred towards each other in both the Telugu states.
“The political conditions in both the Telugu states are not healthy. Leaders from opposing political parties are not even seeing eye to eye, which is very unfortunate. We should take inspiration from Bandaru Dattatreya’s Alai Balai and ensure that fight between politicians is only restricted to elections. Once elections are over, politicians from all parties should work together for public good,” pointed out AP Health Minister Satya Kumar.
Senior leaders like MP Etela Rajendar, Minister Sridhar Babu and others echoed Satya Kumar’s opinion.
At a time when politicians degrading language is also being debated, several leaders who took part in the Alai Balai like Ponnam Prabhakar stressed on the need for maintaining restraint while criticizing political opponents.
Overall, Aalai Balai 2024 sent an important message at the right point of time, ‘the need for stopping hatred and bad language in politics’.
Dnr
