Ahead of unveiling, new T’gana statue design triggers slugfest
The upcoming inauguration will be done by chief minister A Revanth Reddy and has kicked up a political slugfest in the state.
Former member of the state backward classes commission during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government Juluri Gowrishankar filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition in the state high court on Saturday challenging the redesigning of the“Telangana Thalli” (Mother Telangana) as proposed by the ruling Congress party in the state.
The Telangana activist filed the petition ahead of the opening of the new statue in the state secretariat on Monday.
The upcoming inauguration will be done by chief minister A Revanth Reddy and has kicked up a political slugfest with the opposition BRS criticising the statue’s design saying that it does not represent Telangana’s identity.
“The existing design of the statue was widely approved and appreciated by all sections of the people. Any changes in the design will deeply hurt the sentiment of the Telangana people,” Gowrishankar in the petition, which is expected to come up for hearing on Monday.
The existing statue of Telangana Thalli, designed during the BRS regime in 2014, has the image of a goddess sporting a pink silk saree and wearing glittering gold ornaments like long necklace, bangles and waistband, besides a crown on the head. She has Bathukamma (a floral arrangement symbolising Telangana folk festival) in the left hand and cobs of maize and jowar in the right hand.
“It is a symbol of our identity, created through consensus among Telanganites from all sections during the Telangana movement. It includes all elements that are truly Telangana,” the BRS said in a post on X.
However, the redesigned statue of Telangana Thalli, the image of which was released to the media by the government on Friday, depicts her as a simple woman without any divine appearance. Draped in a green coloured cotton saree, the Telangana Thalli has simple-looking ornaments and ordinary bangles. She has cobs of maize and pearl millet in the left hand, while her right hand has a gesture of ensuring protection to the people.
BRS working president K T Rama Rao told reporters that the redesigned statue deviates from traditional representations. He pointed out that the new statue lacks a crown, which undermines the divine and symbolic essence of Telangana Thalli.
“It excludes Bathukamma, a symbol deeply intertwined with Telangana’s cultural identity. The statue’s hand gesture resembles the Congress party’s emblem, suggesting an attempt to politicize a cultural symbol,” he said.
He accused the Congress leader Revanth Reddy of attacking Telangana’s history and identity out of political vendetta against BRS chief KCR.
The Congress leaders defended the redesign of the statue. The state Congress committee president Mahesh Kumar Goud said the new Telangana Thalli statue reflects the rural ethos of Telangana, while the one projected by the BRS represented the feudal culture.
“The statue reflects a humble Telangana woman, symbolising the state’s agrarian roots, dressed in a green saree with millet and paddy in hand,” he said.
Another senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be quoted, said it was ridiculous on the part of KTR to say that the hand gesture symbolises the Congress party. “It is a gesture of reassuring the people. If the gesture reflects the Congress, does it mean Lord Venkateshwara of Tirumala or Lord Lakshmi Narasimha of Yadagirigutta, who also have similar hand gestures, are the Congress leaders?” he asked.
He said Telangana’s identity transcends specific iconography like a crown or Bathukamma and instead focuses on representing the resilience and simplicity of its people.
Meanwhile, the Telangana government formally invited KCR and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president G Kishan Reddy for the function to unveil the redesigned statue of Telangana Thalli at Secretariat on Monday.
On behalf of the chief minister, his cabinet colleague Ponnam Prabhakar, along with advisor (protocol) Harkara Venugopal and senior officials of the protocol department, drove down to the farmhouse of KCR at Erravelli in Siddipet district and extended the invitation to formal chief minister.
Later, he also met Kishan Reddy at his residence in Hyderabad and requested him to attend the event. Similar invitation was extended to AIMIM president Asadduddin Owaisi, people familiar with the matter said.
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