How Revanth govt is undoing what KCR did to make Telangana 'his own'

The changes in India's youngest state, which is completing 10 this June, are quite apparent.

For starters, the statue of Mother Telangana will acquire new features. Jaya Jayahe Telangana, the song which reverberated throughout the state, will be the state’s anthem. And, the vehicle registration codeof Telangana will change from TS to TG.

These decisions, taken by the Telangana cabinet over the weekend, may seem routine but are widely seen as an attempt to erase the footprints of the Bharata Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader, K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), who was chief minister for 10 years since 2014, when Telangana state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana's identity

The state of Hyderabad, which existed even before the coining of the name Andhra Pradesh in 1956, had a distinct identity. The Telangana statehood movement, led by KCR, highlighted how this identity had been damaged by the dominant Andhra culture in united Andhra Pradesh.

After the formation of Telangana in 2014, the new government of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (now BRS) started removing the symbols of Andhra domination to make the Telangana elements visible.

As Chief Minister, KCR named many institutes after the state's icons like Prof Jayashankar, known as an ideologue of the Telangana movement, and PV Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister. He built a castle-like secretariat demolishing the one constructed by Andhra Pradesh rulers.

New structures

Instead of occupying the official residence of the Chief Minister, constructed by YS Rajasekhar Reddy, KCR got a palatial mansion ('Pragathi Bhavan') constructed for himself.

He replaced Mother Telugu ('Telugu Talli') with a separate Mother Telangana statue. He built a massive memorial costing ₹170 crore for Telangana martyrs on the banks of the Hussian Sagar lake, diminishing the importance of a modest memorial built in 1974.

KCR did not pen an anthem for the state, but turned down the demand that Jaya Jayahe Telangana, written by popular poet and singer Andheri, be made the state anthem. This was ostensibly on the pretext that the lyrics doesn't represent the new state with new districts.

Congress charge

The Congress thinks KCR's decisions projected him as the sole leader of the state movement and this was the message embedded in every structure he built after 2014.

“During the Telangana movement, people resorted to changing the vehicle registration code AP to TG in an act of defiance. People performed the Jaya Jayahe Telangana song during all events as the anthem of Telangana. We have also unveiled the statues of Mother Telangana wherever possible,” said a former Telangana movement activist.

“After Telangana was formed, KCR removed all those symbols generated spontaneously from the movement as they did not have his mark. The abbreviation TG was replaced with TS. The Telangana anthem Jaya Jayahe did not receive recognition. KCR ensured that nobody achieved greater recognition than himself,” the activist added.

Vendetta politics

Now, as the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government is trying to 'undo' these actions, , KCR fans are crying foul. They see vendetta politics in these dictums

“It was KCR who rekindled the Telangana spirit by launching a political party called TRS in 2001. He convinced the people that Andhra domination had been ruining the unique identity of Telangana. As a part of that, in the place of Mother Telugu, Mother Telangana was created to symbolise the traditional farming practices and associated culture,” said TRS leader Marepdalli Sudhir Kumar.

“We have incorporated various cultural aspects of Telangana to ensure that the ideology of the movement is embedded in the statue,” he said and wondered why the Congress government wanted to change the statue.

KCR criticised

Congress leaders, on the other hand, say KCR tried to appropriate the credit for the movement which was the outcome of attempts by all political parties.

Inagala Venkatrama Reddy, the north Telangana coordinator for Telangana PCC, recalled how the all-party platform Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) electrified the movement in the later phase. “What the Congress government is trying to do is recapture true Telangana that represents the people, not the political parties,” he said.

Reddy said: "The Mother Telangana designed by KCR looks like a lady from a noble family. What does the common people have to do with that idol?"

Professor Kodandaram, who was the chairman of TJAC, stated that the decisions made by the government currently have the backing of the people.

“They have been the desire of the people since the days of the movement. People used TG as a code rejecting AP. This was an act of defiance. How could one ignore this just because one was in power?" Kodandaram asked.

Educating people

“Governments should not shy away from consulting historians, poets and artists before deciding on matters of culture like emblems and statues. But the previous government did not do this,” he said.

But the ruling party needs to persuade the public that there is no personal vendetta involved in these steps, felt Ramesh Kundru, a teacher from Jangaon town.