Congress brings funeral drums; Revanth brings terror comparisons
A protest outside KCR’s Erravelli farmhouse, arrests and a disputed Speaker-remarks case have turned Telangana politics into a competition in political excess.
Telangana’s political row has brought protests, arrests, an inquiry and competing claims of excess.
The Congress government in Telangana has turned a political row into a travelling theatre of funeral drums, arrests and terror-attack comparisons. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy told the Assembly on September 9 that the BRS’s conduct was comparable to those involved in the Parliament, Mumbai and Pulwama attacks, according to reports. The exact wording has not been independently confirmed from an Assembly transcript or video.
Revanth also announced a comprehensive inquiry into incidents since September 6, reportedly to be led by police officer Vijay Kumar. Police have registered cases against BRS MLCs Thatha Madhusudan and N. Naveen Kumar Reddy over alleged remarks about Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the SC/ST Act. Registration of a case is not a finding of guilt.
Meanwhile, a Congress protest near KCR’s Erravelli farmhouse used “Chavu Dappu”, a funeral-associated ritual, and ended with clashes and the detention of KTR and Harish Rao. Congress MLA Veerlapally Shankar was reported to have said the drums were for KCR, though the circulating video behind the report was not independently authenticated. The BRS has also alleged police misconduct against MLA Sunitha Lakshma Reddy; the Congress government has not bothered to answer that charge publicly in the material reviewed.
The inquiry may establish what happened. For now, the Congress government has established only that political restraint is missing from the syllabus.