Shoe row: Bandi charged with mortgaging Telangana pride at Amit Shah\'s feet

HYDERABAD: The BJP and its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Monday came under serious criticism for “mortgaging Telangana pride and honour” at the feet of Union home minister Amit Shah following wide circulation of a video clip that showed Sanjay pick up Shah’s footwear at the Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad on Sunday, and placing them before him to wear.

Sanjay mounted a stout defence declaring that there was nothing wrong with what he did and that Shah was an elder, and his guru along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that handing Shah his footwear was nothing more than an act of respect. But his words failed to cut any slack with other parties which slammed the state BJP chief for his actions.

The TRS was quick to latch on to the issue of ‘Telangana pride and honour being pawned off’ by Sanjay, with TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao taking to Twitter to slam Sanjay. Rama Rao tweeted saying Telangana was watching leaders, “the slaves of Gujarat, who carry Delhi’s chappals.” “Telangana is ready to stand up for its pride and its people are ready to teach a lesson to those who insult Telangana’s pride,” Rama Rao tweeted.

Sanjay’s actions brought back memories for many of the incident that first stoked the issue of Telugu pride nearly three decades ago when the then Congress general secretary Rajiv Gandhi rebuked then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, T. Anjaiah, for organising a grand show at the Hyderabad airport tarmac. Anjaiah’s subsequent pleading to be forgiven became the tool for actor N.T. Rama Rao who pushed to the fore how the Congress had mortgaged Telugu pride. His movement eventually turned into the TD that rode to power on the issue of Telugu pride.

For the TRS, whose other leaders too criticized Sanjay, it was the party that perfected the pitch for Telangana’s pride being at stake in undivided Andhra Pradesh during the statehood movement that led to creation of Telangana state.

Though Sanjay and his party leaders sought to dismiss the issue as a ‘diversionary tactic’ to keep focus off the involvement of members of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s family in the liquor scam that saw light in Delhi, this issue is expected to be driven to its fullest possible potential by the ruling party which has been under increasingly strong attacks from the BJP.