The BRS wants Telangana Thalli statue to be located in front of the Secretariat, where the government has installed a statue of Rajiv Gandhi.
Published Dec 07, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 07, 2024 | 12:44 PM
New Telangana Thalli statue. (Supplied)
A fight between the Congress and BRS over the Telangana Thalli (Mother Telangana) statue has intensified as Sonia Gandhi’s birthday on Monday, 9 December, nears.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is set to unveil the statue on the Secretariat premises on 9 March, coinciding with the Union government’s announcement of the creation of a separate Telangana state in 2009.
The controversy erupted after the government unveiled the statue of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi opposite the Secretariat. The BRS wanted the statue of Telangana Thalli to be located there — since it was conceptualised and installed at Telangana Bhavan — instead of the statue of the late Congress leader.
The BRS had said that it would clear the thrash in front of the Secretariat once it returned to power.
On Friday, 6 December, BRS working president KTR said that the right place for the Telangana Thalli statue was in front of the Secretariat, the same way the BRS had installed it at the Telangana Bhavan.
The BRS contended that the Telangana Thalli represents a prosperous Telangana. “Is Revanth Reddy installing the Telangana Thalli statue or the Congress Thalli statue? Telangana Thalli as visualized by the BRS was the one that reflects the Telangana culture,” he said.
Another BRS leader Dasoju Sravan termed the changing the design of the Telangana Thalli an onslaught on Telangana history. “Telangana Thalli in its present form symbolises the Telangana movement,” he said.
But Revanth Reddy, after coming to power, wanted the Telangana Thalli statue to look like an ordinary Telangana woman who lives in a village. He wanted the statue to symbolise the fighting spirit of Telangana women against oppression.
The BRS is obviously in a fighting mood, as was evident from its party MLA P Kaushik Reddy’s behaviour at the Jubilee Hills police station. He demanded to know from the inspector whether the officer should leave the station when he arrived with a complaint. The MLA asked if it wasn’t the officer’s responsibility to receive him and take the complaint.
Videos of Kaushik Reddy’s outburst against the inspector, with his supporters joining him, became viral on social media.
Then the inevitable happened. The police department arrested the MLA for obstructing an officer from executing his duty. Soon, all hell broke loose. The BRS leaders tried their best to stop the police from arresting him. They tried to prevent the police but in vain. The police arrested all leaders, including former ministers T Harish Rao and G Jagadeeshwar Reddy.
It was yet another opportunity for the BRS leaders to let out a torrent of invectives against Revanth Reddy et al for arresting Kaushik Reddy. They denounced the arrests of Kaushik Reddy and others. They said the clamp down on the BRS made them wonder if there was a police raj in the state.
The Congress, not to be outdone, let out a flood of abusive words against the BRS leaders. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, as is his wont, took the BRS leaders to task. He taunted K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) to attend the Telangana Thalli Statue unveiling ceremony, apparently to make him burn with envy to watch him as he remains the cynosure of all eyes at the grand event that is planned to be organized with one lakh people and with a lot of fanfare.
But Revanth Reddy also knows fully well that KCR would not take the bait. He, nonetheless, extended the invitation to him so that he could target him later for not attending the event marking the unveiling of Telangana Thalli.
He could always say that his absence reflected the regard he had for what all Telangana Thalli stands for. He also asked KCR to discipline his children — implying KTR and Harish Rao (the latter is KCR’s nephew) since they were very childish in whatever they were saying and doing. He asked KCR to make them behave decently.
The BRS’s firepower has increased so much lately that it often makes one wonder whether the attack on the government is only to take it out on Revanth Reddy rather than to expose his failures in governance.
The frequent jousts between the two parties smack of hatred rather than a healthy contest in outwitting each other in gaining brownie points with the people.
The outburst of the BRS leaders against the Congress seems to be in reaction to the police registering a case of phone tapping against Harish Rao and the menacing moves of the ruling dispensation going after KTR in the case related to the occurrence of irregularities in Formula E Race when the BRS was in power.
Though the high court asked the police not to take any action against Harish Rao as the charges levelled against him seem to be lacking in substance, Congress continues to adopt a truculent posture.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau could not make much progress in the Formula E race since the governor has not yet given clearance to prosecute KTR. But the sword of Damocles is hanging precariously, keeping the BRS party leaders on the edge.
As the BRS has been attacking Congress ruthlessly without any let-up, the latter also has begun the game at which it is adept: Psychological manipulation of the Opposition to gain an upper hand.
The Congress seems to be trying to be ahead of the BRS. It resumed its efforts to unsettle the BRS. On Friday, PCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud said that about 10 BRS MLAS were planning to join the Congress, including those who are at the forefront in criticizing the Congress. He made this comment when former BJP MP Soyam Bapu Rao and former BRS MLA Atram Sakku joined the ranks of Congress, ostensibly to set the cat among the pigeons.
Lately, the BRS MLAs have stopped joining the BRS, afraid of the BRS leadership filing cases in the court seeking their disqualification. But as the process is slow, the MLAs may have decided to take the leap of faith. But so far there are no indications that the BRS MLAs are contemplating joining the Congress.
The state government went overboard in organising celebrations marking the Congress’ first anniversary and the next major event is the unveiling of the Telangana Thalli statue on 9 December. The entire exercise is a clear attempt to attain complete dominance over the BRS.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
