President Kovind to attend World Telugu Conference in Hyderabad today
President Ram Nath Kovind will attend the World Telugu Conference, a five-day event conducted by the Telangana government to celebrate Telugu language, literature and culture
Hyderabad: President Ram Nath Kovind will land in Hyderabad on Tuesday to attend the valedictory session of the World Telugu Conference in the city. The five-day event is being conducted by the Telangana government for the first time since its bifurcation from Andhra Pradesh in 2014 to celebrate Telugu language, literature and culture after it was accorded the classical language status last year.
Kovind will also pay his respects at the statue of Lord Buddha at Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad before returning to Delhi on 20 December. He will, however, return to the city on 24 February to spend four days at the Rashtrapati Nilayam at Bollarum in Secunderabad as part of the President’s customary winter sojourn in the city.
More than 6,000 delegates have registered to attend the conference and every day 20,000 to 25,000 people are expected to attend the programmes, which are being held at six venues across the city. Apart from the main venue, daily plenary and evening cultural programmes are also being held to host literary discussions, poetry recitations, and cultural programmes.
The conference also includes an Avadhanam programme, a literary performance where the artist, called Avadhani responds to the queries of up to 100 persons even as another person distracts the artist with light-hearted banter. This is an ancient tradition popularised by Telugu poets and writers.
“The World Telugu Conference is focused on Telugu with special emphasis on Telangana. The event is going very well," said Mamidi Harikrishna, director, Telangana State Department of Language of Culture.
The conference is being seen as one of the many attempts by Telangana to create a separate cultural identity for itself. Post the split with Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana government has been striving to revive local art and dance forms and rewrite history text books to assert its individuality, claiming that they were overshadowed and suppressed for decades.
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