Hyderabad: Reacting sharply to allegations that he was ‘insulted’ during a visit by Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy to the famous Yadadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple, the state’s deputy chief minister, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, told a media conference today (March 12) that he had himself chosen his seating place while accepting blessings from the priests.
He said that a deliberate attempt was made by vested interests to show him in poor light.
It was alleged earlier that Vikramarka had ‘lost out his seat’ next to Revanth Reddy during the temple rituals.
The deputy chief minister hit back saying that he was not the one to bow his head before anyone nor one to sit beside someone on one’s direction.
At the same time, he said, he was not the one to kill his self-respect for the sake of pleasing others.
Vikramarka recalled that he was at the top of the hierarchy in the state government as deputy chief minister. He said was proud of his place. Telling the public that the lapse, if any, was unintentional, he expressed solidarity with all those whose sentiments were hurt.
He attended the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Singareni guest house in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad today, where he spoke about the comments made against him.
On arrival at the hilltop cave shrine, which is 70 km away from Hyderabad, Revanth Reddy and his wife Geeta were given a warm welcome by temple priests and officials.
Reddy was offered traditional silk robes to be presented to the deity and escorted to the sanctum sanctorum, which was reopened after a gap of six years due to renovations.
Wearing a turban and clad in a silk dhoti, Reddy sat on a low-level bench flanked by Ministers N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.
In the melee, as priests chanted Vedic hymns, Vikramarka managed to get a seat but lower than the pedestal at the far end beside Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.
The visuals – showing Vikramarka almost sitting on the floor and away from the chief minister – that hit social media invoked instant reactions from rival political parties.
It was alleged that the deputy chief minister was given a raw deal because he belongs to a Scheduled Caste community.
Telangana president of the Bahujan Samaj Party R.S. Praveen Kumar demanded an apology from Revanth Reddy. He said the Congress had exposed its true colours by “insulting the Dalit community”.
Vikramarka’s elder brother and senior vice-president of Telangana Congress committee, Mallu Ravi, said the party knew well how to treat Dalits. It made a Dalit person chief minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in the past and now made a Dalit person a deputy chief minister, he said.
On the other hand, he recalled that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government withdrew the leader of opposition status from Vikramarka by weaning away a sizable section of Congress MLAs and claiming a merger of the Congress’s legislature party with that of the BRS in the state assembly’s previous term.
BRS leader and former chairman of the state’s SC/ST commission, Yerrolla Srinivas, said the incident was an insult to the deputy chief minister right in front of God.
He demanded a case be booked against those responsible under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
General secretary of the state’s BJP unit G. Premender Reddy said it exposed the Congress’s culture of ill treatment towards Dalits.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hugged and honoured prominent Dalit leader Manda Krishna in full public view at a public meeting of the party in Hyderabad last year, he said, adding that this showed how the BJP cared for the marginalised sections.
Former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and BRS MLC, K. Kavitha, said the incident exposed the social side of the chief minister as he unveiled his intolerance towards the weaker sections one after another.
She also took exception to forests minister Konda Surekha, who belongs to a backward class community, being given a shorter seat like Vikramarka at the other end of the row of VVIPs at the same ceremony.
Kavitha demanded an apology from Revanth Reddy.
State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Tammineni Veerabhadram also demanded an inquiry as well as legal action against those who indulged in caste discrimination.
He expressed anguish that the deputy chief minister and Konda Surekha – who also the holds endowments portfolio – were singled out for what he said was shabby treatment while the chief minister and added that two other ministers who sat next to him enjoyed the upper caste privileges bestowed on them.
Veerabhadram also said that at least the other two ministers could have followed protocol and that it would have been a dignified gesture on their part if they had offered seats to Vikramarka and Surekha first and taken their own seats later.
Overall, the incident in the presence of the chief minister was alarming, he continued to say.
The Communist Party of India’s state secretary K. Sambasiva Rao said the issue was being needlessly blown out of proportion.
Revanth Reddy had visited the temple to mark the inauguration of the eleven-day Brahmotsavams.
The temple was renovated by the BRS government at a cost of Rs 1,800 crore and inaugurated by K. Chandrasekhar Rao two years ago.
