BRS's Kavitha urges Telangana govt to erect statue of Telangana Talli, not Rajiv Gandhi in front of Secretariat

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], February 15 : BRS leader K Kavitha on Thursday urged the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana to reverse its decision to erect a statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in front of the State Secretariat as the land was initially earmarked for installing a statue of Telangana 'Talli' (mother).
"This whole campus (the Telangana Secretariat) carries the spirit of the movement for a separate Telangana state. Now the current Congress government suddenly picks up this space and says, instead of this Telangana Talli statue, we will install the statue of Rajiv Gandhi," Kavitha told ANI.
She, however, said that BRS has nothing against Rajiv Gandhi.
"We have our international airport named after him (Rajiv Gandhi) but unfortunately, he has nothing to do with Telangana's separate statehood. If this government has even an iota of respect for the movement they should immediately reverse the decision," Kavitha said.
Earlier, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had laid the foundation stone for installing a statue of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in front of the State Secretariat. However, the act triggered a row with the main Opposition BRS opposing the decision saying that the former Prime Minister has no specific relevance to Telangana while the statue of Telangana Talli symbolises the state's cultural identity.
In a letter to Telangana Legislative Council Chairman, Kavitha who is a BRS MLC, said that as an elected representative, she is deeply committed to preserving the cultural identity of Telangana.
She said that the previous government had planned to install a Telangana Talli statue at the Secretariat.