Hyderabad: Tense situation prevailed in Bollikunta village of Warangal district, due to a dispute between Dalit organisations and Hindu organisations with regard to installation of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s statue at the centre of the village.
On Thursday midnight, July 16, the villagers tried to install the statue on the village’s chowrastha (crossroads). However, because of an ongoing dispute with regard to Dalit organisations in the village opposing the installation, police personnel from Mamnoor police station tried to shift the statue out of the village in a DCM vehicle on Friday morning, July 17.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Warangal District President G Ravi Kumar and others, who came to know about it, reached the village and tried to obstruct the police from shifting the statue away.
There were heated arguments between the Hindutva and Dalit organisations, and at people from the two groups pushed each other. The police detained several persons and took them to Mamnoor police station.
The dispute between the two groups with diametrically opposite ideologies in the village has been brewing for a while.
There used to be Babasaheb Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue at the chowrastha of the village before. But during road widening works, Ambedkar’s statue was shifted from there.
In the recent times, Hindus from the village had performed Bhumi Puja to install Shivaji’s statue at the very location where there used to be Ambedkar’s statue, which was vehemently opposed by Dalit groups in the village.
The Dalit groups had also approached Mamnoor police station, to complain against installation of Shivaji’s statue at that location.
However, the Hindus went ahead and installed Shivaji’s statue there on Thursday night, which sparked the tensions.
As of Friday afternoon, the situation was brought under control by the police and the statue was shifted out of the village.
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