Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

A frantic search for Gandhi statue

By A. Saye Sekhar

GUNTUR Oct. 2. Anguished `Telugu thammullu' in Guntur were in for more pain today when they had to launch a frantic search for a Gandhi statue in the city.

Lo and behold! Guntur, which boasts of having a memorial for Mohammed Ali Jinnah, doesn't have a striking statue of the Father of the Nation at any important junction. For, many others who were "deified'' in the recent past occupied the vantage places before anybody could think of the Mahatma.

While Ambedkar statue was installed at Lodge centre, Potti Sriramulu's statue was put up at Hindu College junction. Gurram Joshua and Kasu Vengala Reddy have statues on the main road that leads to the district Collectorate. The police memorial is located on a major intersection on the same road. Another important junction on the Nagarampalem road has a set of three statues -- Vangaveeti Ranga flanked by Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. The statue of the late civic chief, Tellakula Jalaiah, stands elegant on the old bus stand road. A statue of the former Union Minister, Kotha Raghuramaiah, was installed opposite the Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) office. And, NTR's statue opposite the APSRTC bus station is the biggest in the city by any standard.

TDP leaders, who proposed a peace rally to mark their protest against the dastardly attack on the Chief Minister, found it extremely difficult to discover a Gandhi statue of their liking. Usually, the small statue located to a corner at Koritepadu is used for all official functions. But, `Madya Vyathireka Aikya Vedika' activists occupied the place around that statue and organised a public meeting. Even as the meeting was going on, the district Collector, K. Ramakrishna Rao, and the Superintendent of Police, Ravishankar Ayyanar, went there and garlanded the Gandhi statue marking his birth anniversary.

TDP leaders originally planned to take out the peace march from NTR statue to Gandhi statue in Koritepadu. But the leaders did not want a "clash'' with the protagonists of anti-liquor agitation. So, they asked their `boys' in the party to search for another statue. The `boys', with great difficulty, scoured the whole city and found a couple of statuettes at remote corners. Their search finally came to an end when they located another small statue (in a standing position) at Pattabhipuram. Heaving a sigh of relief, the TDP leaders and activists marched towards the place. The peace rally culminated in a public meeting, where leaders and workers condemned the barbaric act of naxalites. The "anti-climax'' to the peace rally was, however, provided by the former Rajya Sabha member, Yalamanchili Sivaji. He fumed at the Intelligence Department for "failing'' to pre-empt the attack. He wondered what security could the police guarantee to the people, when the Chief Minister himself was attacked.

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