Telangana: Congress courts controversy with ‘competition’ of statues

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy facing criticism over his attempt to install statues one after the other, all the while discriminating against existing ones

Hyderabad:  Ever since the Congress government came to power in the State, it has been embroiled in different controversies. One of the strangest of these has been the fierce criticism Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is facing over his attempt to install statues one after the other, all the while discriminating against existing ones.

In the past, the BRS government established a towering 125-feet statue of Dr BR Ambedkar near the Secretariat. However, the Congress government drew criticism for failing to pay tributes at the statue during Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14 this year.

---

Instead, the Chief Minister paid tributes to the Ambedkar statue at Tank Bund. Former BRS MLA Balka Suman had even charged that the Congress government insulted Ambedkar and the Dalit community by not offering tributes to the statue.

After this came up the controversy over former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statue. Despite stiff opposition from different sections, the Congress government installed Rajiv Gandhi’s statue in front of the Secretariat. In the past, the place was identified for establishing the Telangana Thalli statue.

After triggering a political conflict, the Chief Minister unveiled the statue on September 16. The Chief Minister and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu invited AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders from New Delhi, but save for AICC Telangana incharge Deepadas Munshi, not many turned up from the national capital for the statue unveiling ceremony.

Even as the embarrassment from within the party was stinging, the Chief Minister announced that a new Telangana Thalli statue would be established within the Secretariat complex on December 9.

Though the State government assured to seek suggestions and recommendations from all parties and different sections of society in finalising the statue design, no such efforts were made, save for a couple of meetings held by the Cabinet sub-committee constituted to finalise the Telangana Thalli statue and Telangana State emblem designs.

After inspecting the Telangana Thalli statue works inside the Secretariat, the Chief Minister inspected a statue at a workshop in Ibrahimpatnam two days ago. It is unclear whether that is the statue to be installed inside the Secretariat.

Amidst all these controversies, the State government announced plans for the ‘world’s largest’ statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Bapu Ghat. However, even Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson Tushar Gandhi raised objection over the statue installation.

On November 3, Tushar Gandhi said on X: “I am very much against this competition of Statues. My sincere appeal to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy ji please use the funds to establish health care and education initiatives in the State instead of a tall statue of Bapu…”

But notwithstanding the snub from the Gandhi family during the installation of Rajiv Gandhi’s statue and Tushar Gandhi’s statement, Revanth Reddy appears to be still obsessed with installing statues on his own.