Hyderabad : Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao followed the high court’s orders and ensured that the official Republic Day parade took place at Raj Bhavan on Thursday. But he did not turn up for the flag-hoisting nor send any of his cabinet colleagues for the event, further straining the relationship between him and governor Tamilisai Sounderarajan.
KCR sent only his newly appointed chief secretary, Santhi Kumari, for the event. He also skipped the “At Home” event at Raj Bhavan in the evening even as BJP politicians and a handful of bureaucrats turned up.
This is the third year in a row that the Telangana chief minister has skipped the official Republic Day event. In 2021 and 2022, the government had cited Covid-19 restrictions for not holding the traditional police parade and speech by the governor. A full-scale Republic Day parade was last held at Parade Grounds — the traditionalvenue — in 2019.
With the state government not giving her a speech for the occasion, the governor read out her own in which she attacked the state government on the one hand and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the other. She alleged that the constitutional spirit was being violated in the state.
Citing B R Ambdekar, she said, “Constructing buildings is not important, nation-building is important. Only a few should not have farmhouses, all the farmers in the state should have farms and houses. ” She was referring to KCR inviting a host of opposition leaders to inaugurate the new secretariat building in Hyderabad on February 17.
