Telangana chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao is planning to hoist country’s tallest national flag in Hyderabad. It will be hoisted on the banks of Hussain Sagar on Secunderabad side.
It will be taller than the Ranchi’s flag which is now the tallest flag with a height of 293 ft. Ranchi’s flag was hoisted by defense minister Manohar Parrikar on January 24, 2016 at Pahari Mandir in the capital of Jharkhand. Ranchi dwarfed the previous flag in Faridabad with a height of 250 ft. The Hyderabad flag will fly at a height of 301 ft. This was one of the two decisions taken by chief minister. the other being the development of a smruti vanam for Telangana martyrs with a tallest stupam.
What raises one’s curiosity is the chief minister’s sudden decision to hoist the national flag in Hyderabad. There is no dearth of nationalism in the Telugu states. Even after Police Action on Nizam in September 1948, the then home minister Sardar Patel did not think of hoisting a tallest national flag in Hyderabad as triumph of India over fissiparous Nizam. The parties, which are harping on celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day as the state festival also did not think of a tallest national flag. Now, the chief minister KCR wants to do this and break the earlier record set by a BJP ruled state- Jharkhand.
Though it is difficult to understand the original intention of the chief minister, the idea of having a tallest flag in Hyderabad, which is one of the Muslim cities in India and where MIM , a party disliked by BJP, is a strong force, will definitely be music to the ears of BJP top brass. Chances are that BJP will take this as a clear message to Prime Minister Modi that KCR is not deficient in Nationalism, despite his hobnobbing with MIM and craving Muslim support in Telangana.
KCR has sent this message at a time, when he conquered the whole state electorally and the opposition parties are non-entities. He ensured that there are no islands where opposition parties are stronger and TRS is weaker. So, through this nationalist gesture, KCR might be sending across a message that he was ready to join hands with Prime Minister Modi for building Bangaru Telangana and Swachh Bharat.
