Eashwari Bai birth anniversary celebrated

Hyderabad: The TS Department of language and culture and the Eashwari Bai Memorial Trust here have jointly organised the 103rd birth anniversary celebrations of J Eashwari Bai at Ravindra Bharati in the city on Wednesday evening.

Present at the event were Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, home minister Mahmood Ali, excise minister Srinivas Goud, and retired IAS officer KV Ramana Chary, among others.

The celebrations started with the lighting of the lamp and showering of floral tributes to the statue of Eashwari Bai. The life and contributions of Eashwari Bai were recollected.

A firebrand leader (Agni Sikha), Eashwari Bai came from a humble background and strived hard for ensuring social justice and social equity. She worked tirelessly for women empowerment and was in the forefront of the Telangana movement of the 1960s. During the struggle, she was arrested and jailed.

Bai’s daughter Dr Geeta Reddy, working president of TPCC and chairperson of the Eashwari Bai Memorial Trust, said she often looked up to the deceased’s life and took inspiration to work tirelessly for welfare and empowerment of women.
“My most cherished memory of her is when I was appointed as a minister. I invited her to my swearing-in ceremony, but she did not participate. I was taken aback. She said she was from a different political party and held a different ideology. Hence, she would watch the ceremony rather from the television sets.”

“Such was her belief in value-based politics. She was nominated as chairperson of the woman and child welfare corporation in Andhra Pradesh even though she was an opposition leader. She was well respected among her peers across the political spectrum,” Geeta Reddy added.

Governor Tamilisai spoke highly of Eashwari Bai and said, “She was among the first leaders to fight for free education for girls till intermediate stage. All women should look up to her and her struggles for women empowerment and take inspiration.”

Eashwari Bai’s social accomplishments were listed in brief by the dignitaries. “A thorough Ambedkarite, she rose to the position of President of the Republican Party of India,” they noted.

Dr D Nageshwar Reddy, winner of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan honours for commendable work in the field of  Gastroenterology, was presented the Eashwari Bai Memorial Award 2021,  citing his services towards public health.

Expressing his gratitude, he gave an account of the Covid pandemic, tracing its history in India since last year. He also debunked some myths related to the Omicron variant.

“This variant is different from the delta variant in that it has 32 mutations in its spike protein. Hence, it is six times more infectious than the delta. Adequate precautions like Mask-Vaccine-Ventilation-Testing (MVVT) will help us remain safe from this variant and other future variants. As a democracy, we came together in tackling this pandemic, and did better than many foreign countries. Let’s have faith in ourselves that we will continue to do the same,” he said.