Hyderabad: Chief minister Revanth Reddy came under fire for not honouring Father of the Indian Constitution Dr B R Ambedkar on his 133rd death anniversary, which falls on April 14.
In a letter to the chief minister, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Dr Dasoju Sravan Kumar questioned the former’s ‘inability’ to garland the statue of Ambedkar, considered the largest in the country. Alleging that the Congress government ‘deliberately’ violated the constitutional mandate, Kumar blamed Revanth for playing petty politics over fundamental civic duties prescribed in the Constitution.
“How could you (Revanth Reddy) and your government dishonour Dr BR Ambedkar, our national hero? If Dr BR Ambedkar was not a Dalit, would you have done the same disgraceful act of insulting him? Your atrocious act of neglecting and disrespecting Dr BR Ambedkar only shows your upper-class arrogance and feudal hegemony,” the letter read.
Situated near Hussain Sagar Lake, at the heart of the city, the 125-foot statue was unveiled by BRS supremo and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao a year ago on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary.
“Just because Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue was built and unveiled by KCR, you have chosen to disregard and dishonour the same to settle political scores. However, your government’s deliberate action of neglecting, not decorating, and not even garlanding the world’s largest statue is not an insult only to Dr BR Ambedkar; it is also an insult to every citizen of Telangana and every Ambedkarite nationwide. Your shortsightedness and petty vengeance politics in this context have caused deep disgrace and belittled the position of the Chief Minister,” Kumar’s letter read.
Demanding an unconditional apology from Revanth Reddy and the Congress state government, Kumar recalled senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi talking highly about Ambedkar in his election rallies and yatras. “I heard many a time Rahul Gandhi talking about social justice and reiterating the ideals of Ambedkar in his discourses, while your words and actions always contradict those statements. Why are these ideological contradictions and glaring hypocrisy being tolerated?” the letter stated.
