<span style="color: #222222;">Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has underlined the need for writers and litterateurs to promote progressive and positive thinking among the people even while holding a mirror to the happenings in society. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He was speaking at an event organised to mark the death anniversary of noted social reformer Kandukuri Veeresalingam at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh yesterday. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">ice President said that Veeresalingam was popularly known as Raja Ram Mohan Roy of Andhra and he was a strong advocate of widow remarriage, opposed the dowry and caste system as also child marriage and batted for empowering women through education. <br />'' <br />'' Vice President said writers, authors, columnists can change the mindset of the people through their progressive writing and can help remove disparities and evils in society. <br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Stressing the need for protecting and preserving native languages, Mr Naidu urged intellectuals, educationists and journalists to strive towards promoting progressive thinking and bringing about an attitudinal change among the people to eliminate social evils.</span>