Hyderabad, March 16: Telugu luminaries were dragged into the ongoing Telangana turmoil when more than a dozen statues of Andhra icons were desecrated during a pro-Telangana march held at the Tank Bund here, sparking a massive public outcry on the issue.
During the ‘million march to Hyderabad’ organised on March 10 in support of the Telangana demand, 16 statues of Telugu personalities were either vandalised, uprooted or broken and thrown into the Hussain Sagar lake abutting the Tank Bund.
Some of the desecrated statues were of: King Sri Krishnadevaraya, whose reign is hailed as ‘golden era’ in the annals of Indian history, ancient poet Yerrapragada, who translated Mahabharat into Telugu, saint-composer Annamayya, who sang songs in praise of Lord Venkateswara, and social reformer Kandukuri Veeresalingam, who championed the cause of widow marriages in the early 20th century, and Gurram Jashua, a great Dalit poet.
The desecration of the statues raised a massive public outcry from prominent Telugu writers, poets, social activists, political leaders and people from other walks of life mainly from the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
Members of State Legislative Assembly as well as Legislative Council, cutting across political lines, condemned the vandalism and the Upper House passed a resolution urging the government to re-install the statues. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar promised to re-install the statues.
Expressing anguish over destruction of statues, people from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema organised a ‘padayatra’ on the Tank Bund Road, offered homage to the great personalities and sought apologies for the disrespect heaped on them.
“They (Telangana supporters) can secure statehood. We have nothing against it. But this desecration of statues is totally unjustified. These great personalities are not confined to any region,” Garikapati Narasimha Rao, a famous Telugu scholar and poet, said.
–Agencies