Law soon to prevent changes in Telangana Thalli statue, says Bhatti

The State government decided to install a statue that reflects the spirit, culture and history of Telangana.

Hyderabad: Claiming that the new Telangana Thalli statue reflected Telangana’s cultural heritage and self-respect, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Monday said the government would bring a law that would not allow anyone to make changes in the design of the statue in future.

Making a statement in the State Legislative Council on the installation of the Telangana Thalli statue on the Secretariat premises, Bhatti said though there were various forms of Telangana Thalli statues in the State, non had been declared as the official statue. Hence the State government decided to install a statue that reflects the spirit, culture and history of Telangana.

---

“The new Telangana Thalli statue has been designed according to the culture and heritage of Telangana. The statue has been designed in such a way that any citizen of Telangana can relate himself with it. It represents four crore people of Telangana,” he claimed.

Speaking on the new statue, Congress member T Jeevan Reddy urged opposition parties not to politicise the statue issue as it would affect the belief of people of Telangana. Taking strong exception to opposition parties criticising the placing the “abhayahastham (Congress hand symbol)” on the statue, while replacing details related to the State, he said the hand was not the poll symbol of Congress party, but a blessing symbol.

“It’s a common practice in the country to construct statues with hands blessing people. Even the Buddha statue in the middle of the Hussain Sagar Lake has blessing hands. I request opposition party members not to politicise the issue,”he said.

Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy, while supporting the decision of the State government to change the design of the statue, said the new statue represented the true culture of Telangana.

Going against the party’s stand on the new statue, BJP member AVN Reddy supported the decision of the Congress government to change the design of Telangana Thalli statue. Independent member A Narsi Reddy too supported the government’s decision to change the design.