Hyderabad: Chief minister A Revanth Reddy lashed out at the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president, K T Rama Rao (KTR) for threatening to remove the statue of former Prime Minister, late Rajiv Gandhi which is set to be unveiled in front of the state Secretariat.
“Do you want to remove Rajiv Gandhi’s statue from the secretariat and replace it with your father’s?” Reddy asked KTR. The chief minister said that statues of those who looted Telangana in the name of a movement shouldn’t be placed in front of the secretariat.
He dared the BRS leaders to touch the statue of Rajiv Gandhi and warned that if they continue to speak such language, Telangana would be forced to socially boycott them.
“Rajiv Gandhi was the person who introduced technology to the country in the 1980s. He brought many reforms for women to excel in politics. He strengthened the panchayat raj system with a constitutional amendment which was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi,” said the chief minister, after garlanding the statue of Rajiv Gandhi at Punjagutta in the city on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
CM Reddy said that BRS leaders had lost power but their arrogance had not gone and claimed that the BRS would never come back to power. He announced that in the next 15-20 days the statue would be unveiled at a grand event.
On Monday, KTR took objection and demanded to remove Rajiv Gandhi’s statue in front of the Secretariat since the place was dedicated to a statue of the Telangana Thalli. “After four years when BRS forms its government in Telangana, the Rajiv Gandhi statue will be removed and replaced by the statue of the Telangana Talli statue,” he remarked.
The chief minister, however, claimed that KTR wants to install his father KCR’s statue. “The place next to Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial is suitable for the statue of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi who sacrificed his life for the country,” he said.
In a bitter attack on KCR, Reddy remarked that there was no place in front of the secretariat for ‘drunkards’ and ‘thieves’. CM Reddy also questioned BRS leaders why they never thought of installing Telangana Talli’s statue for ten years.
Deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka slammed KTR over his criticism of the government for installing the statue of the late leader. He said that KTR was forgetting history and asserted that Hyderabad achieved tremendous progress in the information technology sector due to the initiative taken by Rajiv Gandhi.
He stated that it was on the suggestion of Rajiv Gandhi that then Congress chief minister Janardhan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh laid the foundation stone for HITEC City. The chief ministers who came after Janardhan Reddy continued the work to develop the sector.
Bhatti said Hyderabad and its surroundings have developed because of the foundation laid by the previous Congress governments.
(With inputs from IANS)
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