Declare Ande Sri’s song as State song: Congress

Warangal: Dalits are still subjected to discrimination, Bakka Judson, the Telangana PCC Secretary said, stating that casteism was not a social problem but a chronic genetic disorder.Addressing a meeting in Kazipet town on Monday, he said that no one was an exception when it comes to the issue of discriminating the dalits.

Referring to the Jaya Jayahe Telangana song penned by Ande Sri, he said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), who, time and again showered praise on the song, for reasons unknown, had not given the status of State Song.

It may be mentioned here that the Jaya Jayahe Telangana used to be sung in many schools across the Telangana region during the statehood movement and even after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. “There were instructions that it will not be sung during the week-long State Formation celebrations.

The song also did not figure in the textbooks of Telangana state,” Judson lamented and alleged that some elite people close to the Chief Minister were behind the omission. Alleging that some people were opposed to the giving of credit to Ande Sri for writing the State Song, he pointed out that it was only because of discrimination towards Dalits. Ande Sri was a dalit who belonged to Rebarthi village in Warangal district, he said.

Judson sought support of writers, poets, intellectuals and people associated with the Telangana movement to come under a common platform to exert pressure on the government to announce it as State Song. As a symbolic protest, the Congress leaders submitted a memorandum to the statue of BR Ambedkar. Leaders Kummari Sambaiah, Kummari Kotilingam, Sampath, Mohan, Srinivas and Lingamurthy were among others present.