From Delhi to Hyderabad to Tamil Nadu, the 216-foot-tall statue of Vedic philosopher and social reformer Ramanujacharya has caused many to sit up and take notice. Located on the outskirts of Hyderabad, it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 5. If there was a message in the name of the structure, 'Statue of Equality', and in the BJP's latest act of homage to the philosopher-reformer; there was another in Modi's use of Tamil at the event; and also in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's decision to skip it. Had the honour of inaugurating the Statue of Equality in Hyderabad. pic.twitter.com/IuyEjwhRE8 — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 5, 2022 Once considered among the fence-sitters in a Parliament bitterly divided between pro-BJP and anti-BJP sides, Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has been increasingly tilting towards the latter. Its anti-Centre stand has become ever more strident as the BJP makes inroads in Telangana. In the washed out Winter Session, the TRS had frequently held up proceedings and staged a walkout to shift the heat from it to the Centre over the failure to procure bumper paddy. The change in cadre rules giving the Centre more powers over postings of officials had also drawn the flak of Rao, among other CMs. His call for “changes” in the Constitution to protect states from the Centre’s overreach had been made into an attack on the statute by the BJP. Leading up to the statue-unveiling, the TRS and BJP clashed over the Union Budget. Rao called it a “golmaal (fraud) budget” and accused the Modi government of ignoring Telangana, and not meeting any of its demands, from funds for irrigation to infrastructure projects. The function to unveil the statue itself – which Rao skipped citing ill-health - had BJP leaders in full strength, though technically it was a government event. Even as the PM made his way to it, the TRS social media campaign directly targeted him. “Icon of partiality unveiled Statue of Equality,” tweeted IT Minister and Rao's son K T Rama Rao. Drawing on the name of the statue, other TRS leaders asked why there was “inequality'' towards Telangana. TRS and BJP leaders also sparred on social media over funds to the state. Following the latest scrap, TRS leaders said battlelines were drawn and there was no question of the party backing down from its aggressive position against the BJP. Apart from the threat the BJP poses in the state, Rao also seems to have his eye on the larger Opposition leadership space that several regional leaders, including his counterparts M K Stalin in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, are jostling for. Party sources said Rao, who has off and on toyed with the idea of a non-UPA, non-NDA alliance of regional parties, might be meeting up with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray soon in this regard, followed by leaders of other parties. Modi too seemed to have his eye on the bigger picture, through the Ramanujacharya statue. At the function, seer Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swami, speaking in chaste Hindi, heaped praise on the PM for “strictly practising and following Hindu traditions”, and projected him as the protector of “Dharma'' as well as the idea of an inclusive India, with all its people as one big family. Closer home, the BJP would be hoping the message went out to Tamil Nadu. The state is heading for urban local body elections, and the BJP is contesting on its own after failing to reach a seat-sharing arrangement with the AIADMK. In a state deeply influenced by Dravidian politics, Vaishnavism and Periyar, Ramanujacharya is revered not only by Brahmins but other castes as well. Modi quoted Ramanujacharya in Tamil during his speech after unveiling the statue. Earlier, on May 1, 2017, the Modi government had released a stamp to mark the saint's 1,000th birth anniversary, and BJP leaders frequently invoke his name in speeches. Days to go for the function, coincidentally, Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin gave a glimpse of his own national ambitions, with the suggestion of an all-India social justice front. Among the paeans raised for Stalin at the event was the declaration that he was “definitely PM material”.
