KCR to boycott State Formation Day fete

Hyderabad: Former chief minister and Telangana movement leader K Chandrashekar Rao will not attend the State Formation Day celebrations to be held on Sunday. In open letter addressed to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, KCR, the BRS chief, said he and his BRS party will not be participating in the celebrations organised by the State government on the occasion of the State’s Formation Day.

“We are protesting against the Congress tendencies that are insulting the existence of Telangana. The formation of the State is the result of a long people’s struggle and the sacrifices of the martyrs. I am protesting against the poverty of the sentiments of the Congress, which is being propagated at the mercy of the party,” he alleged. He suggested that the Congress leaders should change their attitude and work for welfare”.

KCR said the Gun Park Martyrs Memorial was a testimony to the Congress’ repression in which 369 people were killed in the first phase of the separate Telangana movement. He said the Congress’s brutality in preventing even the unveiling of the Martyrs Memorial had remained in the pages of Telangana’s history. He alleged that the Congress party was definitely responsible for taking the lives of hundreds of young people in the final phase of the separate Telangana movement.

He said the formation of the TRS party was a historic attempt to correct the injustice done by the Congress to Telangana.

He also said the formation of TRS with the aim of achieving Telangana in a parliamentary and peaceful manner was a turning point in the Telangana movement. KCR also criticised CM Revanth Reddy for not raising the slogan ‘Jai Telangana’ so far. “People are objecting to your mental disability of not being able to utter the ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan, which is the lifeline of the people of Telangana,” he said.

He also said the Telangana society would want the CM to come out of the anti-Telangana mentality and chant ‘Jai Telangana’.

“Even after six months of becoming the Chief Minister, Revanth Reddy has so far hurt the sentiments of Telangana by not visiting the Martyrs’ Memorial and paying homage to them. The CM has still not changed his behaviour and his party’s behaviour. It won’t change anymore. It is clear there is no possibility of any change in the future,” he said.

He said his participation in the celebrations organised by the government was not justified in the wake of allegations that the Congress government is taking the State in a retrograde direction. KCR said the Telangana activists, including the BRS party, were of the same opinion. “We are sorry to inform you that the BRS is not participating in the centenary celebrations that you are organizing. We hope that in the future, the CM will shun such an attitude and strive for true progress and welfare, fulfil all the election promises at the earliest and win the respect of the people,” KCR said in his letter.