Even as all eyes were on the Lok Sabha on Monday morning, which was expected to take up the no-confidence motions against the BJP, TDP MP Naramalli Siva Prasad, known for his bizarre protests, dressed as a Telugu woman. Siva Prasad along with the other TDP MPs were staging a protest demanding special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
By wearing a saree, it was the Chitoor MP who was once again grabbing media attention. Explaining that women made up half of the population, Siva Prasad went on to hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing his government of cheating the women of Andhra.
Speaking to HMTV, Siva Prasad says, “How many assurances did you give us (the women of Andhra)? Do you know what would happen if the women of Andhra Pradesh get angry? How many movements they have taken out? How many struggles they have sacrificed and have accomplished? You came and we thought you’ll do something good for the country, you put demonetisation on our heads. Sir, you left people penniless. Do you know how many people died in ATM lines? They put their money in their banks, and they couldn’t take it out and get operations done, not get their children married, do you know how unjust it was? Forget that, people are scared to even go have an idli in a hotel as the GST might be too high. Hindu women like jewellery…You tried to put a limit on that also. You’ll even ask us to link our thaali with Aadhaar.”
Urging the Centre to cooperate with Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Siva Prasad demanded that the Prime Minister grant special status for Andhra.
This isn’t the first time Siva Prasad has grabbed attention. On March 7, the MP dressed as a farmer from Amaravati, wearing a white pancha and shirt, and carried a pot of mud and a pot of water to return to the PM. The symbolic protest was a dig at the Prime Minister, who he said had broken his promise of providing financial assistance for the construction of Amaravati. In October 2015, Modi had presented mud from Parliament and Yamuna water at the time of laying the foundation stone for Andhra’s new capital Amravati.
Reminding BJP of its promises, he had said, "Even after four years he is not giving anything for capital Amaravati for its infrastructure, for educational institutions. This despite his promises on god Balaji and goddess Kanaka Durgamma."
However, Siva Prasad's efforts to enter Parliament with the pots were foiled by security officials.
He has, in the past week, also taken on the avatar of Sri Krishna and Sr. NTR, while protesting against the Centre.
In February, Siva Prasad, he caught everyone’s eye when he dressed as a tantric, who had been ‘possessed’, protesting the ‘injustices’ to Andhra following the Union Budget.
The MP from Chittoor is an actor-turned-politician, who joined TDP in 1995. He became the Information and Culture Minister in 1999. He was also elected as MP from Chittoor for two consecutive terms in 2009 and 2014.
Siva has worked in couple of Telugu films as a character actor and villain.
People have already started pointing out that he has taken over the tag of ‘Drama Rao’ conferred to the late actor NTR.