Hyderabad, Sep 16 (PTI) Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Monday inaugurated a statue of Rajiv Gandhi in front of the state secretariat here and slammed the BRS for its opposition to the statue installation.
With the BRS announcing that it would shift Rajiv Gandhi’s statue “with due courtesies” to Congress party’s office if it came to power, Revanth Reddy launched a sharp attack on the BRS leadership and dared anyone to try to remove the statue from in front of the secretariat.
The Chief Minister inaugurated the statue in the presence of his cabinet colleagues, state Congress president and MLC B Mahesh Kumar Goud and other leaders.
Highlighting the major decisions, achievements and “sacrifices” of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Ministes, Revanth Reddy said Rajiv Gandhi took monumental decisions like lowering voting age from 21 to 18, transfer of funds to Gram Panchayats and introduction of computers.
It was Rajiv Gandhi who heralded a technology revolution in the country, he said.
Taking a veiled dig at K T Rama Rao, he said the BRS Working President could become the IT Minister during the previous BRS regime as Rajiv Gandhi had laid the foundations for the growth of IT in the country.
Referring to criticism of the Nehru-Gandhi family, he said Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did not accept any post though Congress came to power after the demise of Rajiv Gandhi.
Sonia and Rahul “sacrificed” the posts and made intellectuals like P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh as Prime Ministers, he recalled.
Did Sonia Gandhi not make Narasimha Rao, a son of Telangana soil, Prime Minister? he asked.
“Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi stand as examples of sacrificing posts. What about these people? Father (BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao) is Chief Minister, son is IT Minister, nephew is irrigation minister, daughter is MP, another relative is Rajya Sabha member,” Revanth Reddy said.
“You loot the state, share positions (within family), build farmhouses in hundreds of acres and you talk about the Gandhi family.” On BRS’ proposed plan to install a statue of ‘Telangana Thalli’ (mother) in front of the secretariat, Revanth Reddy wondered why it was not erected though the opposition party was in power for 10 years.
Did the Congress object to installing ‘Telangana Thalli’ statue’? he asked. “He reserved this space to instal his own statue,” he said.
His government is going to inaugurate ‘Telangana Thalli’ statue inside the secretariat on December 9 in a grand event, he said.
The then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had on December 9 announced initiation of the process of Telangana state’s formation in 2009 and it is also the birthday of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi who realized the decades-old demand of Telangana statehood, he said.
BRS Working President K T Rama Rao said in a statement that the entire Telangana society was ‘deeply hurt’ by the installation of Rajiv Gandhi’s statue in a place chosen for ‘Telangana Thalli’.
Rama Rao said his party has no objection to the Congress government installing Rajiv Gandhi’s statue, but oppose its location in a place designated for ‘Telangana Thalli’.
In protest against the Congress government, Rama Rao asked his party workers to perform milk ‘abhishekam’ to all ‘Telangana Thalli’ statues across the state on Tuesday. PTI SJR SJR ROH
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