HYDERABAD (Telangana) : Telangana Chief Minister Revanath Reddy on Monday unveiled a statue of Telangana Thalli (mother of Telangana) at the state secretariat here on the birth anniversary of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
The event held at the secretariat premises was attended by various ministers and Congress leaders.
However, the statue inauguration by the CM has faced severe backlash from the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). BRS chief KT Rama Rao on Monday said that Congress was trying to insult Telangana by trying to ‘alter’ the Telangana Thalli statue. Appealing people to oppose the move, the BRS chief said that the statue unveiled at the secretariat was Congress’ Thalli (mother of Congress) and not the mother of Telangana.
“After many years of struggle and losing young people as martyrs…we got Telangana as a (separate) state. Today we are seeing those responsible for martyring thousands and those who had nothing to do with the Telangana movement, the same Congress party, trying to insult Telangana again. Telangana Thalli was installed on the basis of the aspirational values of the movement. There is an attempt to change the statue. This is a very sad day for us. We believe that the statue that was unveiled today is Congress Thalli (mother of Congress) and not Telangana’s mother. We want people to oppose this move. We will replace the statue when we come to power in the next four years,” Rao told ANI.
Meanwhile, BRS leader K Kavitha while talking to ANI also lashed out at Congress over installing the statue on the birth anniversary of Sonia Gandhi. She accused the Congress of playing with the sentiments of people in Telangana, saying that Chief Minister Reddy unveiled the statue because he wanted to score “brownie points.”
“Telangana Thalli has always been with us for the past 70 years and we would not like any government to play with our sentiments. Just because it is Sonia Gandhi’s birthday and just because CM Revanth Reddy wants to score some brownie points with her, I believe he is unveiling the statue today but I believe it is hurting the sentiments of Telangana people and we strongly reject it,” Kavitha said. (ANI)