File photo of BRS Working President K T Rama Rao.
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: Taking exception to a reported proposal of the ruling Congress in Telangana to install a statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in front of the state Secretariat complex here, BRS working president K T Rama Rao on Monday said his party would remove the statue when it comes to power.
The previous BRS government had planned to instal a statue of 'Telangana Thalli' (mother) at the location, he said.
"... in four years, our government will be formed again in Telangana under the leadership of KCR (former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao). Soon after its formation, we will definitely remove the statue of Rajiv Gandhi ji from there with all due courtesy. We will instal it in a new location wherever Congressmen want. We will definitely instal 'Telangana Thalli' statue there," Rao told reporters.
In protest against the Congress government's "hasty" move, the BRS would change the name of Rajiv Gandhi international airport in Hyderabad and name it after a prominent personality of Telangana, he claimed.
Airports in different cities in the country are named after prominent persons belonging to the particular state, he said, citing the examples of Kempegowda airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj international airport in Mumbai.
Asked about an open letter written by him to Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on the Congress government's crop loan waiver, Rao claimed that Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge should know how the loan waiver amount got reduced from Rs 49,000 crore to Rs 17,900 crore.
"Rahul Gandhi is being made a complete fool by his own Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. The Congress government in Telangana is not just betraying the farmers of Telangana. They are perpetrating a loan fraud on the entire nation," he told PTI Videos.