Statues may face axe in Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh govt had projected only a section of Telugu pride

A bund built by the Nizams across the Musi River to provide drinking water from Hussainsagar to residents of Hyderabad and save the city from flash floods had become a bone of contention between Seemandhra and Telangana intellectuals during the decade-long agitation for separate state and continues to be so.

The famous Tank Bund across the Hussainsagar links the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

“We used to come here to participate in protest marches. This is the first time I came here when there are no protests,” said an excited K Kavitha of Telangana Jagruthi, Nizamabad MP and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, after entering the state Secretariat on the banks of Hussainsagar.

Her comment as the head of the organisation that spearheaded the revival of Telangana culture and pride indicates a sea change in the way the cultural affairs in Telangana will be managed here afterwards.

During the rule of the late NT Rama Rao (1983-1989), several steps were taken to change the Hussainsagar catchment area as a tourist attraction and huge amounts were spent to instal statues of icons of Telugu culture.

“NTR was keen on installing a huge monolithic 58-foot-high Buddha statue on the Rock of Gibraltar in the middle of the lake. He actually got that idea when he visited New York and saw the Statue of Liberty on the Stratton Island there,” G Kishan Rao, former Director, Culture, Government of Andrha Pradesh recalls.

NTR summoned the services of famous sculptor SM Ganapathi Stapathi to give shape to his dream project.

NTR also chose to instal statues of Telugu icons selected by a committee on the Tank Bund in an effort to spruce up the stretch from Hyderabad to Secunderabad.

The committee, comprising leaders from all the three regions of the then combined state, shortlisted 33 personalities and the statues were installed and replicas of Kakatiya arches of Warangal in Telangana were erected at both the entrances.

Except the statue of Komaram Bheem, a Telanga­na tribal hero who fought the British, others like Krishnadevaraya, Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Chau­dary, Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu, Mutnuri Krishna Rao, Raghupathi Venkataratnam Naidu, Bellary Raghava, Gurajada Apparao, Annamaya, Sir Arthur Cotton, Erra Pragada, Brahma Nayudu, Siddhendra Yogi, Dr C R Reddy, Pingali Venkayya, Gurram Jashua, Alluri Seetharama Raju and Sri Sri are from Seemandhra region.

In March 2011, the “Million March” organised by the pro-Telangana organisations turned violent and the anger turned into a rage when the agitators saw the statues of Seemandhra icons. They threw 11 statues into Hussainsagar lake.

Police could not identify the people as they were wearing masks of Mahatma Gandhi.

“My husband’s soul might have churned by the incident. He was very fond of these statues. By destro­ying the statues, the agitators unmindfully destroyed the Telugu pride,” NTR’s wife Lakshmi Parvathi had said.

Even as the department of culture under the Kira­nkumar Reddy’s government received several proposals to instal statues of Telangana icons in the place of the vandalised statues, the government decided to ignore them.

Instead, it commissioned famous sculptor Aruna Prasad Vudayar to sculpt the nine-foot high statues at a cost of Rs 49 lakh.

The demand from Telangana region was for installation of statues of Chakali Aillamma, Doddi Komaraiah, Shaik Bandagi Saheb Rahmatullah and slain journalist Shoebullah Khan, Konda Laxman Bapuji, Kaloji Narayana Rao, Prof Jayashankar, student leader Srikantha Chary on the Tank Bund.

Arguing in favour of statue of Telangana icons in the state capital and not particularly on the Tank Bund, Central Information Commissioner, a native of Warangal, Prof Madabhushi Sridhar says: “Even if you look into the ratio, it should have been 52:48, for Seemandhra and Telangana, but the then government ignored the Telangana culture and projected only a section of Telugu pride.

“Do you still want a British Viceroy’s (Sir Arthur Cotton) statue in our midst, this is also similar to that kind of feeling.

Because the common man in Telangana has no clue on these statues erected in their home land,” Prof Sridhar reasons out.

He wants statues of some of the prominent Nizam rulers to be erected on the Tank Bund.

Desapathi Srinivas, a poet and singer known for his emotional songs and speeches in favour of Telangana, opines that the new government will initiate all steps to highlight the culture of Telangana in the years to come.

“It doesn’t have to be demolition of what is already there, but undoing the injustice meted out to Telangana,” Desapathi says.

The plan, according to the cultural wings of TRS and other Telangana groups, is to instal statues of leaders in their native district headquarters and other major junctions of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

“There is enough space on the Tank Bund itself where we can accommodate more,” a GHMC official observed.

The statues on the Tank Bund were dragged into politics when the TPCC chief Ponnala Laxmaiah demanded installation of statues of Telangana icons immediately after KCR took over as the Chief Minister.

In a show of one-upmanship Ponnala dared KCR, “If you can’t do it then we will take care of that work,” and announced his own list of eminent persons of Telangana.

Either way, the poor man’s marine drive will not be the same in the coming years.

The change of guard and the revitalised Telangana forces will see that more familiar faces are brought to the fore.

More money will be spent to reclaim the lost glory and the centuries-old Hussainsagar Lake will be a witness to the changing times.