The election fever seems to be here in Andhra Pradesh, and with it, several videos of speeches – some fake and some real. A recent video that was being shared on social media seemed to suggest that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had called ‘Alexander’ the President of India at a recent public meeting. Now, the TDP has released a video of their own, countering this claim.
The video that was doing the rounds has multiple cuts, and said, “In the history of the Telugu Desam Party, not once or twice… in this country if we make Alexander the President of India… if we make Alexander the President of India, I will only say one thing — in this country, out of all people who are eligible, we convinced the Prime Minister that he only should be the President — the only party to have cooperated is this Telugu Desam Party.”
However, the TDP published the portion of the original speech – where Chandrababu Naidu is referring to PC Alexander, who was a candidate for the President’s post when APJ Abdul Kalam was elected the President of India. TDP had supported Abdul Kalam.
The TDP’s video of the original speech shows Chandrababu Naidu saying, “In one country, if Alexander was made the President of India, I will say only one thing. For this country, where all kinds people who are eligible – I told Abdul Kalam that the only he should be there. I convinced the Prime Minister and I convinced Abdul Kalam for the post of President… the only party to have cooperated for the post of President is this Telugu Desam Party.”
The speech was made at Nara Hamara - TDP Hamara, a Muslim-outreach campaign by the party.
PC Alexander (Padinjarethalakal Cherian Alexander) is former civil servant and politician who hailed from Kerala, who held several high positions in the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi regimes. Later, he has also served as the Governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. He could not become President of India in 2002, as the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi opposed his nomination for the post by the BJP government.
However, the manipulated video doing the rounds seemed to suggest he was referring to Alexander the Great.