AP government sacks Brahmin panel chief
TDP leaders complained against Krishna Rao.
Vijayawada / Hyderabad: The AP government on Tuesday sacked AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation chairman I.Y.R. Krishna Rao for posting controversial comments against it.
TD followers, mostly non-resident Telugus, played a key role in highlighting the issue of Mr Krishna Rao’s FB posts. The government has nominated Mr Vemuri Anand Surya as Mr Krishna Rao’s replacement.
The manner of his dismissal has drawn the attention of Brahmin associations who questioned why the TD leadership why rebel leaders of other castes were not taken to task and only the Brahmin community was targeted.
Speaking in Hydera-bad, Mr Krishna Rao strongly condemned the allegations made against him by TD leaders as “baseless and unworthy”, following his ouster.
Mr Rao said the allegation that he was not accountable to AP Chief Minister N. Chandr-ababu Naidu was not correct. He said he was trying to meet Mr Naidu for six months but did not get an appointment. He said he had twice waited for four hours each time at the Chief Minister’s Office but could not meet Mr Naidu.
He said he had learnt of his sacking from the media, and that he had not been informed either by his office or the Chief Minister’s office. “If the CM or the CMO had asked, I would have been resigned”.
To questions on his posts on social media, Mr Krishna Rao said the government had never asked him for an explanation. He said one person from the US and another from the UK had called him and objected for his posts and had asked him to resign.
He said that TD leaders were alleging that he had been given Cabinet rank and a '2-lakh salary per month, which was false.
Mr Krishna Rao said he felt very bad when the government arrested social media activist Inturi Ravi Kiran. “Are we in a democracy or under fascist rule,” he said.
He said that he had posted his comments on the abusive behaviour of TD MP J.C. Diwakar Reddy at the Vizag airport, Mr Ravi Kiran’s arrest, the row over the as TTD executive officer and tax exemption to the Balakrishna film Goutami Putra Satakarni.