Telangana BJP chief garners ire for picking up Amit Shah's shoes

Leaders of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Congress party branded Sanjay Bandi a 'slave' of Delhi and Gujarat leaders

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay was facing widespread flak for picking up Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s footwear and rushing to place them at the latter’s feet.

The incident occurred on Sunday after Shah and Bandi stepped out of the Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad. A video, which was gaining notoriety on social media, showed Sanjay pacing ahead of Shah, picking up the latter’s footwear from the stand and placing it at the home minister’s feet. Shah is shown wearing his shoes quietly and carrying on with the programme.

Shah was in Telangana to address the BJP rally in Munugodu, where a bye-election was awaited after the sitting Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy resigned to join the BJP.

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The video was widely shared by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) social media wing, as well as party supporters, in which Bandi, also the MP from Karimanagar, was seen accompanying Shah on his way out of the famous temple.

The TRS used the video to lambast Bandi for the “shameful act of subjugation.”

“The speed and focus in bringing slippers shows (sic) tomorrow BJP will keep our state at the feet of Amit Shah. Beware Telangana,” stated TRS social media convenor Manne Krishank on Twitter. In a series of tweets, with hashtags #GujaratGhulam, #TelanganaPride and tagging IT, industries minister KT Rama Rao, Krishank also asked whether “jetting to help Gujarat leaders wear their shoes” was a mark of “Telangana self-respect”?

KTR, too, responded saying: “Telangana people are observing the ghulams of Gujarat carrying Delhi shoes…Telangana society detests such acts and will instate our self-respect. Jai Telangana.”

Even the Congress criticised Bandi’s action. “...position of backward class leader in BJP, see the truth,” tweeted Manickam Tagore, the All India Congress Committee in-charge for Telangana.

However, despite the severe disapproval, Bandi defended his action. How can “respecting elders” be called “ghulam-giri”, he asked.

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He said: “To help our elders wear slippers is in my culture, my habit. Shah is the head of our family (party). How can handing slippers to the guru-like leader be considered as ghulam-giri?”

In a separate social media post, Bandi blasted his critics, saying that those who moved with Aurangzeb’s descendants would not understand the Rama-Bharata heritage and tradition of India.

“We are not ghulams to anyone. We are not the offspring of the Razakars (the Nizam’s private militia accused of atrocities in pre-Independence Hyderabad) who salute the AIMIM,” Bandi said.