While celebrations marking the first anniversary of the State;s formation drew to a close on Sunday, people of the district seem to have forgotten Telangana ideologue Prof. Kothapally Jayashankar and also the well-known Telugu poet and writer Dasarathi Krishnamacharya, who was imprisoned in the old jail atop Khilla Indur.
While the duo, both vital cogs in Telangana’s march towards statehood, may not have been wittingly ignored the organisers of the celebrations, their omission has drawn flak from certain sections.
The celebrations began last week after the unveiling of the newly-constructed obelisk of Telangana martyrs at Vinayaknagar and the placing of wreathes at its footstep. Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy led the galaxy of VIPs including the Nizamabad MP K. Kavitha, Zilla Parishad chairman Dafedar Raju, Mayor Akula Sujatha, MLCs, MLAs, other elected representatives and officials in paying tributes to martyrs.
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Surprisingly, they did not visit the statue of Prof. Jayashankar, which was unveiled by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in his capacity as TRS chief at Kanteswar on Armoor road in August 2013. However, some TRS leaders did garland his statue, but neither the Minister, the Collector nor any elected representative paid homage to late Telangana pioneer.
Official invites sent out also did not carry Prof. Jayashankar’s picture. Similarly, the idea of illuminating the Dasarathi cell and sprucing it up on the occasion did not cross their minds.
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The vanguards of the Telangana agitation remember Dasarathi and his oft-quoted line – Naa Telangana Koti Ratanala Veena – innumerable times. The renowned poet, along with another famous writer Vattikota Alwar Swami, was incarcerated in this prison by the Nizams during the Telangana Armed Struggle.
Senior BJP leader and current Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao had paid the cell a visit a few years ago and promised to declare it a national monument, but to no avail.
Noted writer A. Surya Prakash, who received the best writer award during these celebrations, lamented that Dasarathi was not been paid homage by calling on the cell. TRS district president E. Ganga Reddy admitted that while the party leaders garlanded the statue of Prof. Jayashankar, he was not officially remembered.
The names of the Telangana pioneers were absent from all official celebrations in Nizamabad