No official State song for WTC

Focus on contribution of TS poets, writers

December 14, 2017 12:11 am | Updated 12:11 am IST - HYDERABAD

With just 48 hours left for the World Telugu Conference to be inaugurated and about 8,000 delegates coming down from over 40 countries, one is not yet sure if Chief Minister and the Ministers of neighbouring Telugu State have been formally invited by the Telangana Government.

Of course, 500 registered delegates from Andhra Pradesh will participate in the five-day event along with Telugu people from several other States in their individual capacity.

It is Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, who is extending invitation to the VVIPs, VIPS and bureaucrats while Telangana Sahitya Academy sent out invitations to the literary personalities within and outside the State and the country. Sources said that they were expecting Mandali Buddha Prasad, Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh, who served as the official language Chairman too in the combined State, though there was no official word. The biggest contingent of 100 members is coming from Malaysia, followed by USA.

The first World Telugu Conference was organised at Hyderabad at the same venue - L.B. Stadium in 1975 and people still remember the inspiring song ‘Maa Telugu Thalliki Mallepudanda’ written by Sankarambadi Sundarachari and sung by Tanguturi Suryakumari. The song was adopted as the official song of Andhra Pradesh in 1956.

However, the first World Telugu Conference being organised in the new State of Telangana will not have any official song of the State and the National Anthem alone will be sung. Apart from the Telugu luminaries, the WTC will focus on the contribution of Telangana poets and writers who enriched Telugu language and literature. After 1975, WTC was held in Malaysia in 1982, in Mauritius in 1990 and in Tirupati in 2012.

The Government is extending accommodation, boarding and transport to about 8,000 delegates coming from outside in 50 hotels apart from lunch to all the delegates at the venue.

Mr. B. Venkatesham, Principal Secretary, Tourism and Culture, said he believed that the WTC would inspire every one to be literate in their own mother tongue - to read and write in Telugu irrespective of their academic and professional qualifications. Unless one was able to read and write in ones mother tongue, he or she would not be able to appreciate and understand the nuances of ones culture and traditions.

People in Scandinavian countries and other developed countries like Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, France, US, England, Russia spoke and studied in their own language. Strangely, people here believed that to compete globally one should not study in one’s mother tongue. One could learn another language without neglecting one’s mother tongue, he said.

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