HYDERABAD: Former MP V Hanumanth Rao of the Congress has taken up an indefinite hunger strike at his residence from Monday demanding re-installation of Dr BR Ambedkar's statue at Punjagutta area in Hyderabad ahead of his 130th birth anniversary.
It was on April 13 in 2019 that the enforcement wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had removed the statue from Punjagutta area stating that permission was not granted to install the statue at that spot.
Later, V Hanumanth Rao had got another statue of Ambedkar but before he could install it, even this statue was taken away by the police with the same contention that there was no permission to install at that site.
The Ambedkar Jayanti is on April 14.
Speaking to reporters, Hanumanth Rao said he was willing to sacrifice his life for re-installation of the statue at the same spot in Punjagutta.
“I spent Rs 5 lakh for a new statue to be sculpted. But the police took it away and kept it in Goshamahal stadium. Can the statue of the architect of the Indian Constitution be kept in a police station? Is it not an insult to the great personality,” he asked?
None of the ministers and leaders of the ruling TRS belonging to BC, SC and ST community have the courage to question chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over the Ambedkar statue not being allowed to be installed at Punjagutta, he said.
Taking a dig at YS Sharmila’s proposed political party, Rao said she talks about Rajanna Rajyam. “It was not Rajanna rajyam. It was Congress Rajyam and Y S Rajasekhar Reddy was a Congressman all his life,” he said.